Victoria Mansion, erected between 1858 and 1860 in Portland, Maine, is a brownstone monument to antebellum opulence in the Italian villa style. The mansion stands as the earliest known Herter commission and the only one to survive intact. Gustave Herter, founder of New York City’s illustrious Herter Brothers decorating firm, designed the sumptuous interiors. The interiors were of the most fashionable French Second Empire eclectic styles — Gothic, Turkish, Renaissance and Pompeian. The home was also supplied with the latest conveniences, hot and cold water taps, gas lighting, central heating and even a bell system to summon servants.

Victoria Mansion contains more than ninety percent of the original furnishings, including more than a hundred objects from the Herter workshop, from cabinets and chairs to picture frames. Colorful trompe l’oeil wall and ceiling paintings by Italian-trained Giuseppe Guidicini exemplify the classical Italian tradition with a theatrical flair that reflects Guidicini’s experience as a scenic artist and decorator of opera houses. Brilliant stained glass and extraordinary gas lighting fixtures intensify the richness of the interiors. Several original carpets and hundreds of original porcelain, glass and silver items further enliven the rooms.

The imposing mansion was a summer retreat for Ruggles Sylvester Morse and his wife Olive. The Morses were Maine natives who moved to New Orleans where Ruggles amassed a fortune in the luxury hotel business. After Morse’s death in 1893, his widow sold the mansion, with most of its contents, to J.R. Libby, a local merchant. The Libby family maintained it as their primary residence into the 1920s, but the future of the property was in jeopardy by the late 1930s. A retired educator, recognizing the home’s importance as an expression of mid-19th century design and craftsmanship, saved the house in 1940. He turned the house into a museum in 1941, and named it after the British queen.

Arlene Palmer Schwind graduated from Goucher College with a major in history. She earned a master’s degree from Winterthur’s program in early American culture. She remained at Winterthur for many years as curator of the museum’s glass and ceramics collections.

June’s speaker has been involved with Victoria Mansion since 1984 in a wide variety of capacities, as trustee, senior research fellow, as well as volunteer curator and historian. She has been on staff, part-time, as curator since 2007. Arlene Schwind has unearthed the histories of the home’s occupants through sleuthing in Maine and Louisiana. For 30 years, she has worked to identify, track down, secure, study and catalogue the mansion’s missing original furnishings. As curator, she has supervised major interior restoration projects, including the Pompeian bathroom suite and the Turkish smoking room. Ms Schwind last spoke to the Forum in 2010 about “Early Americans in Their Cups: A Survey of Drinking Glasses — and Habits.”