Virtual Glenview Holiday Tour: A Gilded Age Christmas

Get a glimpse into how Gilded Age families like the Trevors, the first residents of Glenview, celebrated the holiday season. Over one-hundred and fifty years ago, Americans eagerly emulated the British royal family and embraced a mixture of lively customs and European traditions. Some of these date back as far as ancient Rome; others were entirely modern, facilitated by advances in color printing and mass production of consumer goods. The Victorian celebration of Christmas is still alive and well in many of our own contemporary holiday celebrations, from decorations and gift giving, to worry over the effects of consumer culture.

Laura Vookles, Chair of the Curatorial Department, and Victoria McKenna-Ratjen, Curatorial Assistant, will discuss nineteenth-century Christmas traditions and how this research dovetails with our current decoration of Glenview for the holidays. We will look at images ranging from Queen Victoria’s own tabletop tree to the elaborate table setting created for Glenview this year by interior designer Debra Blair.