A corner of England that is for ever America

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Veronica Davies visits the American Museum in Britain

The American Museum in Britain, which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year, is located on the outskirts of Bath, looking across the quintessentially English countryside from its premises in the lovely Georgian setting of Claverton Manor. This may seem an odd location for an American Museum, until one discovers a little more about the founding of the museum in 1961 by collectors Dallas Pratt, an American psychiatrist, and his British-born partner, antiques dealer John Judkyn.  The pair sought to introduce British audiences to a subtler, more wide-ranging view of American cultural heritage than that available in the Hollywood movies of the post-war period. 

In order to achieve this, Pratt and Judkyn acquired a high-quality, representative collection of historical American furniture; room fittings, including in some cases wall panels, ceilings and floors; and household objects ranging from plain Shaker boxes to a fine early 19^th-century mahogany-cased piano. (See the picture of the Greek Revival room above.) These are now installed in the main house as a series of room settings, ranging chronologically from rooms epitomizing the settlements of the earliest colonizers to the period of the Civil War, and across many of the different cultures that make up American society, from the almost timeless simplicity of the Shaker room to an evocative recreation of Conkey’s Tavern from 18^th-century Massachusetts.  Heritage Lottery funding has enabled a number of enhancements to the informative displays in this part of the museum, and it is hoped that future fundraising will enable more room settings from later periods to be installed.

The museum has always been a magnet and source of inspiration for those interested in textile arts; only a fraction of its superb collection of some 200 American quilts can be shown at any one time, but they are displayed in a way that enables close examination of their design and workmanship.  A Baltimore Album Quilt from around 1847, rich in colour and detail, and the much more restrained Chalice Quilt, made by slaves on a plantation in Texas around 1860, serve to demonstrate how these quilts are not only of interest as textile art, but also help the viewer to trace and reflect on the sometimes turbulent historical events of the country from which they came.  Both quilts feature in the current anniversary gallery trail, Fab@50!, which highlights 50 key works around the museum.  Details of all these, with short, accessible articles written by people associated with the museum, including the American Ambassador and an 11-year-old schoolgirl, can be found in a special edition of the museum’s annual academic journal, America in Britain.

As well as celebrating being Fab@50!, this anniversary year has seen some significant enhancements to the museum’s displays.  As Curator Laura Beresford explained as she showed me round, the opportunity has been taken to bring the collection of folk art into the main house from its previous location in one of the buildings in the grounds of the museum. It now occupies a well-lit and well-proportioned room that has been, in its time, both a picture gallery for the original family and a billiard room for one of its sons, and where the choice of Pompeian red for the walls sets off the collection most effectively.  Great thought has been given to the visual interest of the collection in the way it is now displayed, as well as to the intrinsic interest of the objects themselves, which range from weathervanes to cigar-store Indians, a carousel giraffe to wildfowl decoys, carved eagles to scrimshaw work. Our pictures above show some of these items. Also on show in this gallery is a splendid collection of portraits, often produced by ‘itinerant painters who could rapidly produce a likeness by blocking composition in silhouettes of flat colour’, as Beresford explains in her new publication, Folk Art from the American Museum in Britain:

Folk art portraits have often been dismissed as ‘bad art’ because they are ‘honest’ rather than ‘legitimate’ likenesses in the academic tradition…In folk portraits, physical resemblance often bows before an expressive sense of the sitter’s personality.

Beresford’s book starts with a short introduction to the American Museum, going on to outline the history of the folk art collection and addressing possible questions about the nature and definition of folk art (‘an imprecise label that is perhaps better understood by what it is not’), both in the USA and Britain.  This is followed by a detailed catalogue of highlights of the collection, complemented by excellent illustrations: the entry on the carved wood Cigar Store Indian Princess, for instance, includes photographs from three angles, as well as a detail of the figure’s hand.

An interesting aspect of this new display of the folk art collection is the addition of a number of especially commissioned contemporary works of art and craft, including a video made by a local artist inspired by the paintings in the gallery, and a special anniversary commission of an eight-foot hammered copper weathervane depicting Lady Liberty to complement the traditional weathervanes already in the collection.

This celebratory year also includes a temporary exhibition, ‘Marilyn – Hollywood Icon’, devoted to Marilyn Monroe and drawing on the David Gainsborough Roberts Collection for some of the costumes worn by Monroe in her films. Other items of memorabilia include rhinestone jewellery, a ring given to Monroe by her mother, film posters and the order of service from her funeral.  The costumes, from films including There’s No Business Like Show Business, Niagara, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Some Like it Hot, are complemented by stills and film clips showing Monroe in action wearing them.  What is especially fascinating is to see how the gowns are constructed; the cocktail dress in which she sang ‘I’m Through With Love’ in Some Like it Hot, seated on top of a grand piano, was so tight that she had to be lifted into position.  The brochure that accompanies the exhibition, which runs until the end of October 2011, has been produced in the form of a large-format, glossy souvenir programme, on the cover the iconic picture of Marilyn in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in the red sequined dress with plunging neckline and a built-in leotard for underwear and skirt slashed to the thigh that is a highlight of the exhibition. Although better acting performances followed, the films of 1953 marked a high point in Marilyn’s career because they established her ‘dumb blonde’ persona.  

Altogether, the American Museum in Britain has a lot to offer every visitor.  As well as the permanent collection and temporary exhibition, there are extensive grounds to explore, with  many American plants and trees.  The museum runs a variety of events for both young people and adults, ranging this year from quilting bees to a Harley Davidson rally, and school groups are able to visit in the mornings before the museum opens to the public at noon.  To echo the words of the US Ambassador, writing the Foreword to Aspects of America: ‘This is the finest collection of its kind outside the United States.  I invite you to enjoy it.’

Folk Art from the American Museum in Britain by Laura Beresford  is published by Scala Publishers Ltd. 2011. 128 pp., fully illustrated in colour. ISBN 978 1 85759676 2

Aspects of America: The American Museum in Britain by Sandra Barghini  is published by Scala Publishers Ltd. 2007. 64 pp., fully illustrated in colour. ISBN 1 85759 438 X