Diane Viall Collection

This collection contains materials documenting the relationship of Diane Hull Viall and Marjorie Merriweather Post as well as holds some materials related to Hillwood when it became a museum in 1977. The collection is divided into four series: Correspondence; Clippings & Periodicals; Ephemera; and Visual Materials. Materials date from 1946 to 2005; with the bulk dating to the 1950s and 1960s.

The Correspondence series is the largest and dates from 1946 to 2005 with the marjority dating to the 1950s and 1960s. Most of the correspondence is between Viall and Post but there is correspondence from other individuals. There are some pieces of correspondence between Viall and Hillwood Museum staff. The Clippings & Periodicals collection contains newspaper and magazines articles pertaining to Marjorie Merriweather Post, her family, or her home such as Hillwood. There are a few articles that are about Viall such as her debutante in 1964. Articles about Hillwood as a museum may also be found. This series dates from 1959 to 1990. The Ephemera series contains items such as the Hillwood Gardens Booklet from 1965, Post's "A Few Notes on Hillwood," stationary from Post's private airplane and postcards from Mar-A-Lago. The majority of the items from this series dates to the 1960s. The Visual Materials series contains two photograph albums, a scrapbook and a photograph. The albums document Viall's debutante in 1964. Post was a guest at this event. The Marjorie Merriweather Post scrapbook was created by Viall and mostly contains clippings of stories pertaining to Post. There are also clippings related to her family, her homes and her decorative arts collection. Finally, there is a photograph of Viall's baptism in 1947. Her godparents were Post and Dwight D. Eisenhower.