The founders
Dr Dallas Pratt and John Judkyn, an American and Englishman, founded the American Museum & Gardens in 1961. Dallas was born in Long Island and came from a wealthy family – his mother was a granddaughter of the Standard Oil magnate Henry Huttleston Rogers. John was born in Northamptonshire to an upper-middle-class family that owned a business involved in quarrying and road building.
Dallas and John met in 1937 in England and a year later began their life together, dividing their time between New York, France, and Britain. They had several shared interests, among them an enthusiasm for decorative arts.
Dallas & John - a transatlantic partnership who realised their dream to build a museum together. (© American Museum & Gardens)
Their dream
Dallas and John wanted to open a museum to showcase the arts and crafts of early Europeans in America. John also wanted to show a British audience that there was more to America than stereotypical depictions commonly shown in Western films popular in the 1950s and 60s.
Cotton Gin, c.1960. We have some beautiful folk art paintings by self-taught artist Clementine Hunter who was born and lived in rural Louisiana. She began painting in later life and produced over 4,000 paintings. 'Cotton Gin' is probably the earliest of her paintings in our collection. (© Cane River Art Corporation)
John owned a business supplying antiques to American dealers through a New York show room. He worked closely with London’s finest furniture restorer, Nick Bell-Knight. Together with Dallas they had the perfect mix of ingredients to create a museum in Britain – a passion for history and engaging others with the past, contacts with the best antique dealers, restoration skills, and money. They had the plan and the people to make it happen and now they needed a home for their project.
The Museum – finding the perfect place
John and Dallas already had a home at Freshford Manor near Bath, which John had made as a base for his antique exporting business. (The best sources of antiques at the time came from the southwest and the proximity to Bristol’s port made shipping them to New York easier.) It made sense to set up their museum in the Bath area.
The plan was to locate the museum in the middle of Bath, but they couldn’t find a suitable city-centre premise. In 1958 Claverton Manor was put up for sale. The estate, which included 60 acres of garden, parkland, and woodland, provided the perfect opportunity to combine a museum experience with a country house visit. In addition to a fine exterior and magnificent setting, Claverton Manor had room for a far larger collection than they had originally planned.
Moving the collection (carefully!) in to the Museum. (© American Museum & Gardens)
The Collection – treasure hunting!
John and Dallas spent 2 years travelling around the United States sourcing objects to fill it. Through their contacts with American antique dealers and directors of large American museums, they had access to outstanding examples of furniture and furnishings, ensuring that the American Museum’s collection was the finest possible.
This whirlwind collecting spree happened at just the right moment. Many historic houses in America were demolished during the 1950s. As a result, Dallas and John were able to buy not only the furnishings for their historic rooms, but also the actual rooms as well. They shipped panelling, floorboards, window and door frames across the Atlantic. Giving Nick the task of rebuilding them within the large bare rooms of Claverton Manor. They wanted the rooms to look as if their original occupants had ‘just stepped out’. For each room, they sought what was needed to re-create a time, a place, the essence of lives lived.
Deer Park Parlor displays some fine examples of the Federalist furniture style, c.1800. The panelling and fireplace in this room come from a house in Baltimore County, Maryland. (© Shadow Work Photography)
The Opening – inspiring others
The Museum opened on 1 July 1961 and the public took to it from the start. It was well timed, with car ownership increasing through the 1960s, visiting country houses was becoming a major leisure activity.
The museum contains period rooms and galleries with items such as furniture, clocks, and textiles that were made by skilled crafts men and women. Showcasing these different types of styles and materials helped to bring about a revival of quilting and patchwork through Great Britain, and it generated an enthusiasm for the unadorned woodwork of the Shakers. Young artists and designers, such as Kaffe Fassett and Laura Ashley, found it a source of inspiration.
Some favourites
- Deer Park Parlour is a favourite room. It has a range of objects on display from a gorgeous period dress to wallpaper with a quirky cornstalk motif, made in France to appeal to the American market. There is also an important painting by Joshua Johnson – considered to be the first significant African American artist. Among the first pieces that Pratt and Judkyn acquired it is a rare portrait by Johnson of an African American subject, believed to be Episcopalian minister Daniel Coker.
-
These Shaker boxes have such beautiful colours and the design is something that feels so familiar to me and immediately recognisable.
What will inspire you?
Find out more
- American Museum & Gardens website
- American Museum & Gardens on social media: @americanmuseumandgardens
