Marjorie Merriweather Post Collection

Marjorie Merriweather Post was born March 15, 1887, to Charles W. Post and Ella Letitia Merriweather in Springfield, Illinois. The family moved several times, ending up in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1891. It was there that her father founded the Post Cereal Company, the basis upon which the family fortune would be built.

Young Marjorie was intensively tutored by her father in the ways and means by which he created and maintained his business empire, accompanying him to meetings. Marjorie Post's formal education included the Battle Creek public schools and Mount Vernon Seminary (now George Washington University’s Mount Vernon campus) in Washington, D.C.

In 1905, Marjorie Post married lawyer Edward Close in New York City. During their marriage they had two children, Adelaide (b. 1908) and Eleanor (b. 1909) and lived between The Boulders in Connecticut and residences in New York. Eventually, differences over their lifestyle caused them to grow apart. Additionally, C.W. Post’s death by his own hand in 1914 left Marjorie in control of the Post Cereal Company, valued at $20 million dollars.

Soon after her divorce, Post met financier Edward F. Hutton, and the two wed in 1920. Between 1921 and 1931 the couple built or renovated several properties, including Hillwood (Long Island), Camp Hutridge (later renamed Camp Topridge), a triplex, 54-room apartment in New York City and the mansions Hogarcito and Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. They also commissioned what was then the largest private yacht in the world, the Hussar V (later renamed Sea Cloud). Hutton and Post had one daughter, Nedenia, or “Deenie,” in 1923, who would later go on to become TV and film star Dina Merrill. Extraordinary wealth and a child would not be enough to keep the couple together, and they divorced in September 1935.

As for Post’s love of art and objects, few influences played a more critical role in the development of Post’s collecting tastes than Sir Joseph Duveen. A British art dealer whose clients included Henry Clay Frick, J. P. Morgan, Andrew Mellon, and John D. Rockefeller, Duveen introduced Post to the arts and culture of eighteenth-century France. Though she avoided his enticements to develop a taste for the Old Masters, it is through Duveen that Post carved a niche for herself among the discerning collectors of European works of art through her purchases of furniture and tapestries. She further refined her collecting tastes during the 1920s, turning her attention to the acquisition of fine Sèvres porcelain, outstanding examples of French furniture, and a collection of gold boxes that proclaimed her taste for the jeweled object and, later, Fabergé.

During the 1920s, Post and Hutton worked collaboratively to increase the holdings of the Post Cereal Company by acquiring outside companies, many of which are household names today. In 1922 the company went public with Marjorie as the majority stockholder. In 1923 E.F. Hutton became chairman of the board. Between 1925 and 1929 they spearheaded the acquisitions of well-known companies like Jell-O, Hellman’s Mayonnaise, Baker’s Chocolate, Birds-Eye Frozen Foods, Maxwell House, Sanka, Calumet Baking Powder, and others. In 1929 the company changed its name to General Foods.

During the 1920s and 1930s Post began a lifelong commitment to philanthropy, funding soup kitchens in New York during the Depression and funding the establishment of a field hospital during World War I, for which she would be awarded the French Legion of Honour. Post was particularly interested in supporting causes in the arts and causes aimed to better the lives of young people. Post provided substantial financial support to the Washington Ballet and the National Symphony Orchestra, including funding the creation of the Music for Young America program and support for the orchestra to perform overseas. In honor of her contributions to the NSO the Merriweather Post Pavilion concert venue was named for her. Post was also a notable benefactor for the Boy Scouts of America, purchasing land for BSA camps and helping to finance their Washington, D.C. headquarters.

Post married her third husband, lawyer Joseph Davies, in December 1935. In 1936 Davies was chosen by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to be the first U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union. They were stationed in Moscow until July of 1938, when Davies was appointed as ambassador to Belgium. During these years, the Soviet government was nearing the end of its efforts to sell treasures it seized from the church, the imperial family, and the aristocracy to finance the new government's industrialization plan. Exploring commission shops and state-run storerooms, Post discovered that the fine and decorative arts of imperial Russia appealed to her taste for exquisitely crafted objects and ignited a new collecting passion and pioneering effort in the field of Russian art. With war on the horizon, they returned to the United States and took up residence in Washington, D.C. with Davies accepting a position in the State Department. They purchased Tregaron as their home in northwest D.C. in 1941. During World War II Post was active in war relief efforts. Along with husband Davies she leased her yacht Sea Cloud to the U.S. Navy beginning in 1942 for the duration of the war.

The marriage of Post and Davies ended in 1955. Forced to leave Tregaron, Post secretly bought a property that backed up to Rock Creek Park called Arbremont through her lawyer David Palmer Close for $650,000. Between 1955 and 1957 Arbremont was extensively renovated and renamed Hillwood. In 1958 Post married Herbert May, her fourth and final husband. They would divorce in 1964.

Upon taking residence at Hillwood Post promptly became one of Washington’s top hostesses and her legendary parties were inseparable from the political, business, and social fabric of Washington, D.C. With her full-time live-in and local staff, she organized memorable spring garden teas for hundreds of Washington guests, and invitations to formal dinners at Hillwood were highly prized.

In addition to spending the spring and fall at Hillwood, Post maintained an estate in Palm Beach, Mar-A-Lago, where she spent the winter and a camp in the Adirondacks, Camp Topridge, where she entertained guests throughout the summer. Travel between these three diverse properties was facilitated by her well-trained staff and private airplane, the Merriweather.

Post’s original wishes were to donate Hillwood to the Smithsonian upon her death.In the 1960s, Post had given several valuable objects to the National Museum of Natural History, including the Post Emerald Necklace, the Marie Louise Diadem, the Marie Antoinette earrings, the Maximilian Emerald Ring, and the Napoleon Diamond Necklace. Her extensive collection of Native American artifacts which had primarily been kept at the Camp Topridge property were also donated to the Smithsonian’s eventual Museum of the American Indian. Due to the expenses involved in maintaining Hillwood’s estate and grounds, the property was eventually reverted to the Marjorie Merriweather Post Foundation. Donations of Mar-a-Lago and Camp Topridge to the public good failed for the same reasons, and each ultimately ended up in private hands.

Post died at Hillwood on September 12, 1973. Her ashes were placed atop a new obselisk constructed in the rose garden at Hillwood in 1974. The estate eventually became the Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, which opened to the public in July 1977 under the Marjorie Merriweather Post Foundation.