page_title: Robert Woods Bliss
section_title: Art collecting and Dumbarton Oaks
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Woods Bliss / Art collecting and Dumbarton Oaks
caption_attribution_description: English: The facade of Dumbarton Oaks, a historic estate and home to the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, located at 3101 R Street NW in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The central portion of the home was built in 1801 by William Hammond Dorsey. Later in the 1800s, owner Edward Magruder Linthicum greatly expanded the residence and named it The Oaks. The home's most notable past resident is Senator and Vice President John C. Calhoun, who lived at The Oaks from 1822-1829. In 1920, Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss purchased the property and began a multiyear renovation and expansion. The finished project, renamed Dumbarton Oaks, was designed by architect Frederick H. Brooke in the Colonial Revival style. The enlarged gardens were designed by landscape architect Beatrix Farrand. In 1940, the house and a portion of the gardens were given to Harvard University, Robert Bliss’ alma mater. The estate was added to the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites in 1964. The building is also designated a contributing property to the Georgetown Historic District, a National Historic Landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1967.
context_page_description: Robert Woods Bliss was an American diplomat, art collector, philanthropist, and one of the cofounders of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C.
context_section_description: While living in Paris (1912–1919), the Blisses had become reacquainted with Mildred Bliss's childhood friend, the American historian and art connoisseur Royall Tyler. Tyler introduced the Blisses to important Parisian art dealers and nurtured their growing interest as art collectors, especially of Byzantine and pre-Columbian artworks. Robert Bliss was particularly enamored of pre-Columbian art, stating that when Tyler introduced him to it in a Parisian shop in 1912, "the collector's microbe took root in ... very fertile soil."
  In 1920 the Blisses purchased their home, Dumbarton Oaks. They set about renovating and enlarging the house, adding to the grounds, and building a series of terraced gardens on the 54-acre estate. The Blisses lived abroad (1923–1933) for many of the years in which this work was carried out, though they continued to supervise it closely. They also continued to build their art collection, and upon retiring in 1933 to Dumbarton Oaks they began to lay the groundwork for a museum and research institute. In 1935, Robert Bliss traveled through the highlands and tropics of Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras to see Maya ruins with Frederic C. Walcott (1869–1949), a trustee of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. In 1940, the Blisses cofounded the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, which they endowed and gave to Harvard University. After giving Dumbarton Oaks to Harvard, the Blisses resided at 1537 28th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. Robert Bliss's collection of pre-Columbian art, which had been exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. between 1947 and 1962, was installed in 1963 at Dumbarton Oaks in a new wing designed by Philip Johnson.
caption: Bliss' former home, Dumbarton Oaks, in Washington, D.C.
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