From Silver Spoon to Silver Screen

Louis le Prince, regarded as the father of film, planned to premier his films at the Morris-Jumel Mansion. Ferdinand P. Earle, who installed a skylight in the Upper Parlor, once George Washington’s office, for his studio, was also a well-known figure in the movies and associated with stars like Ramon Novarro. Featuring cultural ephemera, images, clips, and artifacts from films, photoshoots, glamour and excitement of cinema and fashion photography will meet the elegance of the Morris-Jumel Mansion in this exhibition.

Divided into two sections, the exhibition illustrates the role the Mansion has played as a cultural muse. The first section speaks to the Mansion’s shift from a country home to a cultural commodity as the nineteenth century turned to the twentieth and the Mansion turned to a museum. The second section takes a look at how the media has embraced the Mansion, from major magazines featuring articles about the experience of a museum, to feature films about the Mansion’s historical past, or films that have used the Mansion as a location in different ways.