Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, wife of Colonial Williamsburg founder John D Rockefeller, Jr., bought her first piece of American folk art in 1929 when few others understood the appeal of such material. Her collection quickly grew in size and significance and in 1935 she placed a portion of it on loan to Colonial Williamsburg. Mrs Rockefeller's collection was displayed in the Ludwell-Paradise House on Duke of Gloucester Street for more than twenty years. In time some 424 of her pieces were presented to Colonial Williamsburg through the generosity of her son David Rockefeller. Following her death in 1948, John D Rockefeller, Jr,. agreed that a new specifically designed museum building situated near the Historic area would better serve the folk art collection. It also would be a fitting tribute to his beloved late wife. Mr. Rockefeller funded the new structure and the conservation of the collection and endowed it's operation. TheAbby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum Folk Art Museum opened to the public on March 15, 1957. Soon after the museum debuted, curators began adding to the fork art collection through gifts and purchases. Today the collection encompasses several thousand works dating from the 1720's to the present. In 2007 the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum moved to more conveniently located quarters in a new structure adjacent to the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. Today the Fork Art Museum presents regularly changing exhibitions in a variety of media,including painting, quilts, ceramics, weathervanes, sculptures and more. It was exciting to go through and see things that were once collected and owned by someone who is one of my ancestors. I bought some postcards prints of some of those items. I also got a small print in a frame entitled "Baby inRed Chair" The original was pictured in Abby's home in 1931.
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