Invitation to Graycliff Volunteer Appreciation Dinner

Got a Mini DVD Camcorder or Converter Equipment?

Do you happen to have a mini DVD Camcorder, or Converter Equipment? Graycliff has a few mini tapes that we need to convert to a DVD....they contain the lectures that Graycliff has been organizing over the last several years.

We'd really like to post them to our website, for all to see, but have no way to convert them.

If you have this equipment, please let us know!  

Save the Date---Graycliff Volunteer Dinner!

Please save the date for this year's Graycliff Volunteer Dinner in an exciting new location!

Saturday, November 8th
4 pm to 7 pm
The Colored Musicians Club of Buffalo

145 Broadway between Elm and Michigan Streets, in Downtown Buffalo

Join us for a fun evening, which will include a tour
of this historic site's new museum!

The Buffalo Colored Musicians Club at 145 Broadway is as endearing a place as it is historically significant. Upon entering the club you are met by an overwhelming presence which resonates from the club’s rich history. The club is like a home away from home for many Buffalo residents who are long time members. For them, the club holds memories of times past when it was nothing for jazz greats such as Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Art Blakey, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald to be passing through. 

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Dizzy Gillespie on piano; Miles Davis in doorway at the Colored Musicians Club, late 1940s

FLW Graphic Artist and House Beautiful

This is the last in a short three series look at Frank Lloyd Wright"Graphic Artist",.and "The House Beautiful"

In the 1950's Wright now believed in products that would work to integrate and have an unified effect that was characteristic of his "Organic Architecture"

He contacted . F. Schumacher & Co,to develop fabrics and wallpaper under the"Taliesin Line." In her article "Designing an American Way of Living", Virginia Boyd states,   "Patterns are all non-perspective, non pictorial geometric designs consistent with Wright's visionary vocabulary" (1)

Alas, by 1972 Schumacher Taliesin designs were phased out

Rugs by Karastan were also introduced. The 1957 rug for the Max Hoffman House living room area is one of my favorite.

The Taliesin palette in Martin -Senour Paints paints was selected and named by Wright and his wife Olgivanna. The 36 colors are coordinated with colors in the Schumacher textiles and wallpaper. 

For more information on paints, fabrics and furniture history, more information is available here.  

References:

1. FLW Quarterly Vol 17 #1 

Diane Schrenk

Roundtable and Martin Family Home Movies

Martin Family Home Movies

During their visit together in Texas last week, Margaret Foster and Darwin Martin Foster discovered home movies from the 1930s, many of which feature the grandchildren themselves.  Other family members in these movies are Isabelle Martin, Darwin Martin, daughter Dorothy Martin Foster and her husband, James Foster, Isabelle's mother Katherine Reidpath and even Aunt Polly (not to mention the family dog Mookie!)

Special thanks to Betsy Mudra and her husband Rick, who not only sent the movies, but also provided the following notes:

*Wonder who took the pictures and videos? It was Darwin R. Martin. Thank goodness he did.

* Katherine was always in black with a black choker necklace

*Forgive me....but, aunt Marmy (Margaret) was the not so pretty one with the big nose. Marmy is Isabelle's sister  (We believe she often stayed in the sun room in Darwin's suite.)

*The young nurse with black hair is Peggy- Dary 's nanny

*Miss King often called "king" was older and heavier. She was Margaret's nanny

Martin Family Home Movies

(At the bottom of the page)

Martin Family Grandchildren

There weren't just bluebonnets in Texas this past week.  Darwin Martin Foster joined his sister Margaret Foster for several days of fun and reminiscences.  With our Historic Furnishings Report under way, our consultants had many, many questions....and Isabelle and Darwin's grandchildren spent considerable time remembering their wonderful times at Graycliff as children.   We're eagerly looking forward to the answers to these questions, but in the meantime, here's a photo of the two of them together in Texas.  Don't they look just like the photographs displayed at Graycliff, just a lot taller?