I know I don’t have to tell Mr. Lord ... how glad I am to get the news that the model is to be put in good repair again. Its story is so interesting it would seem a pity not to have the work done...
—Memo from Mary Curley, North End Branch Librarian to Mr. Davis, March 26, 1940.
In the North End Branch of the Boston Public Library, behind the bust of Italian poet Dante Alighieri, a diorama is on permanent exhibition. This diorama is a model of the 16th century Ducal Palace — also known as the Palazzo Ducale or the Doge's Palace — in Venice. The stories of the model and of its creator, Henrietta Macy (1853-1927), the beloved teacher who established a kindergarten in the North End and lived in the neighborhood for years before moving to Venice, are well-documented in the book The Nun of Ca’Frollo (1931), on several websites, and in BPL newsletters and press releases. For context, though, this summary, written by the library’s Director Milton Lord to Edward W. Forbes of the Fogg Museum on December 4, 1941 is helpful:
The model apparently is a serious piece of work . . . it should be said that . . . as originally conceived [it] was on commission for the Metropolitan Museum. It was destroyed in a warehouse fire en route from Venice to New York, and eventually Miss Macy started . . . a second model. She died before it could be completed, and eventually in pretty nearly completed form . . . finally found a resting place . . . in our North End Branch Library.
Helpful, yes, and so is everything else written about it, but nothing tells the the entire story of the diorama. In fact, there are three other parts of the story: one is about the woman whose mission, no matter how difficult, was to make sure that the “dear model” was placed in the North End. The second is about the North End Branch Librarians who advocated for its home in the neighborhood and who cared for it until it was finally in the hands of the conservator who, at the same time, was doing restoration work at “Mrs. Gardner’s palace.” And the third one is about the woman who painstakingly created the vibrant lifelike scene that takes place in front of the Palace. These stories are filed in a more than one-inch-thick folder in Box 259 of the library’s institutional records at the City of Boston Archival Center (COBAC).
The friendship between Nina Cornelia Mitchell (1854-1958) and Henrietta Macy began during Macy’s early days in Venice. Mitchell, the donor of the model, was an activist and relief worker in Europe during and after World War I and was well-connected to other prominent figures of the time. On July 25, 1936, she contacted Ellery Sedgwick, a trustee of the library and the editor of The Atlantic, about the model. Sedgwick wrote to Lord about it two days later saying he thought “it would come as a free gift.” On the July 28, Lord, who had seen the model in Venice, responded “I suspect that [it] is pretty large to be of much use . . . ” Then in August, Lord wrote to Sedgwick informing him that he received notice from the Brooklyn Museum stating that they were holding seven crates that were sent by express collect from Venice.
On September 1, Lord received a letter from Mitchell declaring, “It is a joy to me to be able to make it a permanent and absolute gift to the Library.” From coordinating the work that was necessary for the completion of the model — which was done in plaster — to the years she spent arranging for the original wood carvings that were so essential to its renovation to be shipped to Boston, Mitchell corresponded with Lord, as well as the Italian authorities, regarding every aspect of the model’s permanent installation.
In late August 1936, a meeting that included Edith Guerrier, Supervisor of Branch Libraries, and Mary Curley, Branch Librarian, was held at the North End Branch about installing the model in the Children’s Room. In early September, Lord wrote to Mitchell informing her that the library would begin opening the crates when everyone was back from summer vacations. Curley wrote a year later to Mr. Kennedy saying she “had been wondering if it isn’t time to be thinking of the placing of the Ducal Palace at the North End . . . Mr. Lord’s promise to have it done by September first and I would be glad to hear it was going to be made possible.” Thus began the librarians’ role in caring for the model before and after it was constructed.
The model was unpacked and installed in the branch in 1938. Between July 1939 until October 1940, Mary Curley wrote several more memos about the model’s deteriorating condition and the steps she was taking in trying to prevent further damage to it. While some delays were caused by regular maintenance work and the lack of funding, the most significant delay in renovating the model was that the carvings were stored somewhere in Venice and needed to be found. On September 26, 1940, Lord sent Curley an update assuring her that Nina Mitchell had the wood carvings safe in her possession but that shipping them had become problematic. The last time Curley wrote to Lord was to ask him if the model would ready before the American Library Association meeting in September 1941.
From 1939 to 1947, the diorama was kept covered and mostly out of the way of the public. Mary Nichols, the new Branch Librarian, wrote in 1943 about her concerns and “wishing that something could be done to stop the gradual but very definite decay . . .” as well as asking for “more definite protection against the air and the dirt.” Nichols wrote again in 1945, “If the palace is not going to be put into condition for exhibition purposes, I would much rather have the space for book cases.”
In 1947, Nina Mitchell was able to ship the wood carvings from Venice to Boston and the restoration of the model began. Once it was back to its original and remarkable condition, Louise Stimson, the artist who created the Alice in Wonderland and Printmakers at Work dioramas that were formerly on public display at the Central Library, created a vibrant scene of Venice during its Golden Age complete with gondolas, animals, dignitaries, poets, and figures of women and men wearing the current fashions. The Ducal Palace diorama has been on permanent exhibit since April 1950.
The most recent story of the diorama took place in 2013 when it was professionally restored with funds donated by Eugene and Corinne Reppucci in memory of their mother Anna Reppucci. Anna was born in the North End and was a lifelong friend of the North End Branch Library.
Gift of Nina C. Mitchell, 1936
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