Help us conserve our
Corinthian Hall artifacts
Learn about our Adopt-an-Artifact program.
Friends of Kansas City Museum invites you to take a look inside the Museum's collection of Corinthian Hall furnishings. This collection of exquisite furniture antiques in the Louis XVI style were commissioned and used by the Robert A. Long family in the salon of the Corinthian Hall mansion they called home in 1910.
During this centennial year of Corinthian Hall, we are delighted to present this stunning collection of Long family furnishings, and we welcome your input regarding which artifacts in the collection should be conserved. Many of the artifacts in the Kansas City Museum's collections may return to display at the Museum when Corinthian Hall is restored.
Three artifacts in the grand salon furniture collection have been selected by Museum staff as candidates for conservation, supported by the Friends organization. This is a rare opportunity to examine the artifacts and the story of their origin, as rich and colorful as these vintage treasures themselves.
- You may support the conservation of these artifacts with a tax-deductible contribution that will go directly toward the conservation work
Settee
(1963.159.1.a)
The sofa used by the Long family in the grand salon of Corinthian Hall was an exquisite settee adorned with an elaborate tapestry fabric. This was one of two cane-backed settees in the drawing room, where the Robert A. Long family would receive guests and have family portraits taken. The delicately woven tapestry on the upholstered seat and back of the settee is in serious disrepair and needs considerable work. Structural repair work is also needed on the legs and frame of the settee. Learn more about the settee.
Console Tables
(1963.244.1.a,b)
The two console tables are actual 18th century antiques. They date from 1765-1780 and are of European origin. These two pieces are very similar to the two tables which were in the room originally. The tables which we have been using in that room were purchased and donated by the American Institute of Decorators when they "renovated" the Salon into the "Gold Room" in the early 1960s. The console tables need marble repair, repair on both legs and tabletop, in gilding details and refinishing. Learn more about the console tables.
Floor Screen
(1963.159.10)
The floor screen is original to the Salon and was purchased new by the Longs in either 1909 or 1910. It was purchased specifically for use in the Salon, and was used to divide space in the room between the fireplace and the grand piano. The elaborate wooden screen is covered with an Aubusson tapestry. It was donated to the Museum in 1963 by Sallie America Ellis, daughter of Robert and Ella Long. Sallie gave several pieces to the museum over the years until her death. At the time of its donation, the screen was structurally unstable and partially broken. The instability of the piece has caused more failure, and the piece needs extensive structural and decorative repair. Learn more about the screen.
About the Collection
The Robert A. Long family home at Corinthian Hall was completed in 1910, and in its day, was the grandest mansion in Kansas City. Long, a lumber entrepreneur, civic leader and philanthropist, took his family on an extensive European excursion in search of furnishings and accessories for their Kansas City home, while it was under construction. Architect Henry Hoit designed the 70-room stone mansion in Beaux-Arts style with a classic Greco-Roman influence.
At Hoit’s suggestion, Long awarded the contract for all interior finishing of Corinthian Hall – including furnishings for the period-style rooms – to Baumgarten and Company of New York, which counted the Breakers and Shadow Lawn among its clients. The artisans at Baumgarten designed and built most of the period-style furniture for Corinthian Hall, because Long disliked real antiques. Martha Ellis Leland said that her grandfather thought it was ridiculous to buy something old and “full of worm holes” and what he considered “second hand,” when finely crafted copies of antiques in good, solid wood served the same purpose
Corinthian Hall Collection courtesy of the Kansas City Museum and Union Station Kansas City.
