Highlights of the Susan Higginson Nash Photograph Collection
Dublin Core
Title
Highlights of the Susan Higginson Nash Photograph Collection
Subject
Nash, Susan Higginson
Williamsburg (Va.)--History
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia
Documentary photography - Virginia
Architectural photographs - 1930-1940
Description
Susan Higginson Nash was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on August 8, 1893 and died in Boston on July 25, 1971. She served as a consultant on antiques and interior decoration in association with the Boston architectural firm of Perry, Shaw, & Hepburn, chosen to carry out the early work on Williamsburg's restoration. Later a member of the American Institute of Decorators, she was a friend of architect William G. Perry with whom she first visited Williamsburg in 1923. During field trips to Virginia sites, she met the popular Richmond novelist Ellen Glasgow, who advised her: "If you do any work at Williamsburg, make it perceptible." Mrs. Nash felt this was a wonderful phrase and quoted it often, evidently taking it to mean that the work should be subtly and sympathetically done.
Most of the photos in the Susan Higginson Nash Photograph Collection date to the early 1930s, when steps to be taken in the physical restoration of the colonial capital were still under study. Sites include many of the important extant eighteenth-century houses in the Tidewater region of Virginia, such as Shirley, Westover, Mt. Airy, Sabine Hall and Marmion. Excursions to such sites were made to help in determining proper precedents for the work to be carried out in Williamsburg's Historic Area.
Most of the photos in the Susan Higginson Nash Photograph Collection date to the early 1930s, when steps to be taken in the physical restoration of the colonial capital were still under study. Sites include many of the important extant eighteenth-century houses in the Tidewater region of Virginia, such as Shirley, Westover, Mt. Airy, Sabine Hall and Marmion. Excursions to such sites were made to help in determining proper precedents for the work to be carried out in Williamsburg's Historic Area.
Creator
Nash, Susan Higginson
Date
Early 1930s
Rights Holder
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation