Dumbarton Oaks
Dumbarton Oaks is a country house of the 19th century in the Federal Style, the American variant of classicism. The house is surrounded by a famous gardens and is located in Washington, DC in the Georgetown neighborhood.
Country house and gardens
The country house was built in 1800. In 1920 it was purchased by Robert Woods Bliss ( 1875-1962 ) and his wife Mildred Barnes Bliss ( 1875-1969 ). Robert Woods Bliss had worked a long time in the diplomatic service of the United States. His wife was a well-known art collector and daughter of Demas Barnes, a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, who had earned among other things, by investing in the laxative " Fletcher's Castoria " a fortune. Various architects led by structural changes to the house, including the famous Philip Johnson ( 1906-2005 ).
The gardens at Dumbarton Oaks have an area of about four acres. They were designed 1922-1947 by landscape architect Beatrix Farrand known in collaboration with Mildred Bliss. The gardens include a series of terraces that were built into a hill behind the house. The remaining garden areas are divided less clear. Individual sections of the park will as Star Garden, Green Garden, Beech Terrace, Urn Terrace, formal Rose Garden, Arbor Terrace, Fountain Terrace, Lover 's Lane Pool, Pebble Terrace, Camellia Circle ( camellia circle), Prunus Walk, Cherry Hill ( Cherry Hill ), Crabapple Hill, Forsythia Hill ( Forsythienhügel ) and Fairview Hill called. The entire garden is open to the public.
A major orchestral work of Igor Stravinsky is named Dumbarton Oaks: Robert Bliss commissioned Stravinsky occasion of his thirtieth wedding anniversary in 1938 with the composition of a concert. So the concert was in it for chamber orchestra, which is usually referred to as Dumbarton Oaks Concerto.
1944 Dumbarton Oaks was the venue of the Conference of Dumbarton Oaks. It was an international conference that prepared the foundation of the UN.
The Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
The villa houses the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, a study center, whose activities extend to the field of Byzantine Studies, the science of the pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas and the history of landscape architecture. The study center of Dumbarton Oaks publishes a scientific journal under the title Dumbarton Oaks Papers.
In the course of her life Robert and Mildred Bliss large collections of books and works of art were acquired, which they brought in Dumbarton Oaks. In 1940, she contributed their collections and the house together with its land into a foundation and so founded the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, which should be managed by the Trustees of Harvard University. Initially, the new study center should be exclusively the Byzantine available. Later, the activity range was extended to the pre-Columbian cultures and the history of landscape architecture. The libraries of Dumbarton Oaks include more than 100,000 volumes. A number of scientists are as ' resident scholars ' permanently in the house. In addition, about forty scholarships are awarded for a shorter research stay as a ' visiting scholar ' annually.
The Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection also houses the archives of the private Byzantine Institute of America, which was founded in 1930 by Thomas Whittemore and Paul Atkins Underwood and 1962 ceased its activities due to lack of funding.