LECTURE

Park Avenue Armory
Tiffany and Associated Artists Decorate Mark Twain's House
 

About a month ago we rented a car and drove to Saratoga, Lake Placid, Lennox, and Hartford.  Our goal was to drive through the Adirondacks and the Berkshires and "see the sights."

We included Hartford, CT because we wanted to visit the Mark Twain House.  The house is also notable for the major works written during his residency, including The Gilded Age, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Tramp Abroad, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.  He lived in the house for 17 years.

He moved to Hartford because it was the publishing center for the United States at that time.

Information about the house in Hartford...

"Mark Twain and his family moved into their new house in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1874 and lived there until 1891. The years between were filled with endless dinner parties, billiard games, the raising of three daughters, the meteoric rise of Twain’s literary success, and the ascendance of his social standing in the elite Nook Farm neighborhood. In 1881, the family hired Associated Artists, the decorating firm put together by Louis Comfort Tiffany, to redecorate the interior of the house just after the firm finished its work at the Park Avenue Armory. 

Tracy Brindle, the Mark Twain House’s new curator, will examine Twain’s connections with Tiffany and Associated Artists, including Candace Wheeler, Lockwood de Forest, and Samuel Colman, and the extensive decoration of the house, known by Twain as “the loveliest home that ever was.” The house went through many alterations through the decades, coming close to demolition at one time, and has undergone a series of meticulous restorations since 2003."