\section{Maryhill’s Collections Reflect Four Founders}

Over the years, you’ve probably heard reference to Maryhill’s “four founders.” But do you know how each of them contributed to the establishment of Maryhill’s diverse collections? Art donations from Sam Hill, Loïe Fuller, Queen Marie of Romania and Alma de Bretteville Spreckels remain central to Maryhill’s collection and give it its unique personality.

Hill’s bequest included almost 90 American Indian baskets, more than 70 sculptures and watercolors by Auguste Rodin, and many personal items. Modern dancer Loïe Fuller donated plaster casts of the hands of more than a dozen early-20th-century celebrities and a collection of carved ivory crucifix figures. Queen Marie gave over 100 objects, including personal items, Romanian folk objects and Russian icons. Her oldest daughter, Elisabeta, the former Queen Consort of Greece, gifted a collection of terra cotta Tanagra figures and a number of ancient Greek amphorae. Her second daughter, Marie, Queen Consort of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, provided the museum with its very first donation—three silver filigree objects.

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\caption{La Rue de la Paix en la Place Vendôme (detail), originally created by Louis Touchagues, re-created by Anne Surgers.}
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Following the deaths of Hill, Fuller and Queen Marie, Alma Spreckels worked tirelessly to turn Hill’s unfinished mansion into an art museum. Over the years, she acquired many objects from Queen Marie that were intended for a “Romanian Room” in San Francisco’s California Palace of the Legion of Honor. This material was instead donated to Maryhill Museum in 1938. Spreckels also gave the museum a collection of art glass by Émile Gallé and René Lalique, a group of ceramics by Seraphine Soudbine, European paintings, and ecclesiastical textiles from the Caucasus region. She also helped bring the Théâtre de la Mode to Maryhill.

It was Maryhill’s first director, Clifford Dolph, who began collecting chess sets in 1957; today we have 300 sets from around the world. Dolph was an astute admirer of realist painting and many of the museum’s most important works of art were acquired during his tenure. He also exhibited, purchased and promoted the work of artists associated with the American Classical Realism School. The museum’s subsequent relationship with R.H. Ives Gammell and the artists in his circle eventually resulted in works by these painters finding a permanent home here.

Today Maryhill is home to nearly 20,000 objects and archival items. As we look to the future, additions to the collection will generally focus on strengthening existing holdings, including paintings, prints, drawings and sculpture; European art glass; Romanian folk art and textiles; American Indian art; Eastern Orthodox icons; and chess sets.

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\caption{Ellen Curley (Nuu-chah-nulth, active late 19th–early 20th centuries), \textit{Whaler’s Hat}, c. 1905, spruce root, cedar bark and surf grasses, 13" tall x 14" diameter; Gift of Samuel Hill.}
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Dr. Steven L. Grafe, Curator of Art