Welcome to the Nelson Winters Library. Nelson was one of the first museum curators and he was instrumental in developing this library for original photographs, years of newspaper clippings, directories, pamphlets, photographs, posters and anything that might be valuable to someone, someday.
Our technology runs the gamut from a card index to the Internet... scrapbooks to microfiche... typewriter to wifi.
If you step into the Research Library and look around, you will see a portrait of Adélaide de Flauhaut. 1761 - 1856. The portrait is by Elizabeth Gleason. The notation under the name says "Mistress of Gouverneur Morris." But Adélaide was much more than that.
Gouverneur Morris wrote the Preamble to the United States Constitution and was considered one of the authors. He was also the Ambassador to France from 1792 to 1794. His diaries during that time have become a narrative of the French Revolution, which captured much of the turbulence and violence of that era, as well as documenting his affairs with women there -- one of which was Adélaide de Flauhaut.
Adélaide was an aristocrat and had a Paris salon. One of her many husbands was guillotined during the French Revolution, which she escaped. She supported herself by writing novels and as a milliner. Her complete works were published between 1811 and 1822.
Research Library Docent: Shari Barnhart