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Glens Falls, New York, is a small city in eastern New York State near Lake George and the Hudson River. It is also the unlikely site of a museum in the style of a Florentine Renaissance palazzo that houses an impressive art collection. The gold-ground Italian Renaissance paintings, European old master paintings, and American impressionist canvases were collected by Charlotte Pruyn and Louis Fiske Hyde, who commissioned Henry Forbes Bigelow to design their palazzo, which was completed in 1912. Louis Hyde managed the Pruyn family paper mill and amassed a substantial fortune, which enabled the couple to embark on a lifelong collecting odyssey in search of the European art and antiques with which they filled their house. In 1963, following Charlotte's death and in accordance with her wishes, the house was opened as a museum named the Hyde Collection.
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Four decades later, the museum's administrators determined that the interiors had to be refurbished and deteriorating stucco on the exterior restored. This complex undertaking involved the advice of many specialists, consultants, and fabric manufacturers. For the interiors, the museum evaluated the condition of the furniture, window curtains, carpets, and upholstery and undertook a study of the original paint colors in each room. Many of the textiles had nearly disintegrated over the decades, and all had faded badly.
The refurbishing plan was completed after four years of evaluation by the following experts: Elizabeth Lahikainen (978-741-7560), upholstery conservator in association with the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts; Alex Carlisle (413-458-2147), of A. M. Carlisle Art Conservation in Williamstown, Massachusetts; Gwen Spicer (518-765-2142), of Spicer Art Conservation LLC in Delmar, New York; Ronald Ducharme (518-399-1246), independent furniture conservator, Ballston Lake, New York; Nina Gray (212-496-1594), independent scholar and researcher, New York City; ...
Source: HighBeam Research, Refreshing a twentieth-century mansion.(Design notes)