From Portland to Portland. (Current and Coming).

Clement E. Conger, for several decades the curator of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the United States Department of State in Washington, D. C., can be largely credited for gathering an important group of objects made or used in this country between about 1740 and 1825. His objective was to transform the nondescript, motel-like interiors of the main State Department building (completed in 1961), into a resplendent setting for some of the finest antiques available so that visiting dignitaries would be surrounded by historically important and beautiful objects. A traveling exhibition of more than 130 objects from this distinguished collection entitled Becoming a Nation: Americana from the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, us Department of State, opens at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon on April11, where it may be seen until June 8. The next seven showings are appropriately in institutions located all over the country, with the last stop being the Portland Museum of Art in Maine at the end of 2004. The catalogue to the exhibition is published in Conger's honor.

By his own admission, Conger would gently coerece, cajole, beg, "hard sell" (in his own words), or whatever else it took to convince collectors from all over the country that their fine and decorative arts would be more widely appreciated in Washington, D.C., than in their own living rooms. And he was remarkably successful with whatever approach he used. Conger was particularly taken with objects that had historical connections to the founding fathers, ambassadors, and other diplomats of the colonial and Federal eras, and today the collection has some impressive pieces with august provenances leading back to our early statesmen. Another passion was furniture and other decorative arts decorated with the American eagle, which also form a large category within the collection.

Among the objects on view in the exhibition are paintings, furniture, silver, ceramics and maps and other works on paper. Many of these pieces are normally found on the eighth floor of the State Department building, the location of the public rooms, most of which are named for early American presidents. Others are on the seventh floor, which houses the offices of the secretary of state and other members of the diplomatic corps. In total, there are forty-two rooms appointed with approximately five thousand objects. Annually, one hundred ...