New DeMenil pieces added to our collection

Bessie DeMenil

The Foundation would like to thank Mr. Andrew Paulsen for his very generous donation of several items that his grandmother purchased at an estate sale held at the DeMenil Mansion in the 1940′s.

Among the donated items is a CDV image of a young Bessie DeMenil, a vase, and a tea-cup with a matching saucer. He has also donated several period items that are not directly related to the family but are a great addition to our collection.

Mr. Paulsen is a descendant of the Lemp family, who lived in homes next door and across the street from the Mansion.

You can see these original DeMenil items on display in the collection Tuesday through Friday 10:00 am-2:00 pm or Saturday 10:00 am-3:00 pm.

107th Anniversary of the St Louis World’s Fair

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition opened on April 30, 1904. Over the course of 8 months 19, 694, 855 people visited the fair grounds which were located in present-day Forest Park and the campus of Washington University. 63 nations and 43 U.S. States had exhibits at the fair and the amusement area called “The Pike” held 50 more educational, scientific and historical displays. Click here for an interactive map of the fair.

The purpose of World’s Fairs was to showcase manufactures, art, technology, and architecture from around the world. The first fair of this kind, known as “The Great Exposition”, was held in London in 1851.

The Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion features the largest public collection of 1904 World’s Fair Memorabilia in the country at over 1200 pieces.

Here are some other great ways to celebrate and learn more about the 1904 World’s Fair inSt. Louis:

The 1904 World’s Fair: Looking Back at Looking Forward at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park

The St Louis Art Museum in Forest Park is one of the few remaining structures from the 1904 World’s Fair. It originally served as the Palace of Fine Arts.

The Flight Cage at the St. Louis Zoo was originally commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution to hold the U.S. Bird Exhibit at the 1904 World’s Fair.

Composer Scott Joplin was a performer at the Fair. You can visit and tour his home: The Scott Joplin House

Banana Boat

Andrew Paulsen of Chicago IL is the great great grandson of William and Julia Feickert Lemp. On Friday Jan.7 2010, hecame to DeMenil to return to us a gift given from the DeMenil House to the Lemp House back in the 1890s. His grandmother had inherited a beautiful cut glass banana boat that had now passed to Andrew, and the story he had always been told about it was that Julia Lemp visited “Mrs.DeMenil” one day in the 1890s, and had admired this lovely cut glass banana boat on the sideboard of her dining room. The very next day, the same banana boat filled with bananas was delivered to the Lemp Mansion as a gift to Julia from Mrs.DeMenil. Andrew now graciously decided to return the banana boat to its original home, and he asked which Mrs. DeMenil would have given the piece to Julia Lemp. When told it would at that time have been Bessie Bacon DeMenil, he said there was a picture of a woman in a box of photos he inherited from Jakob and Elizabeth Feickert, the parents of Julia, that had “Bessie” written on the back of it, which had puzzled him because he could find no trace of a Bessie in that line of the family. Might this photo be of Bessie DeMenil? The banana boat is now displayed in the DeMenil dining room, from where it is said to have come as a gift 120 years ago.