Apr

Today in Smithsonian History: April 18, 1951

The photograph shows Dr. Remington Kellogg, Director of the United States National Museum, at the podium with Mr. Thomas Beggs, Smithsonian Secretary Alexander Wetmore, and others in the background. The Adams-Clement Collection includes paintings, jewelry, china, letters and other family material donated to the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art, and the United States National Museum, Department of History by Mary Louisa Adams Clement of Edge Hill, Warrenton, Virginia, descendent of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

April 18, 1951 The ceremonies commemorating the opening of the Adams-Clement Collection are held in the west hall of the Arts and Industries Building. The collection was donated by Mary Louisa Adams Clement, descendant of President John Adams and John Quincy Adams and includes paintings, jewelry, china, letters and other family material.

Speeches are given by Dr. Remington Kellogg, director of the United States National Museum; Dr. Alexander Wetmore, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; art historian Katharine McCook Knox; and General Ulysses S. Grant, III, president of the American Planning and Civic Association.

Portrait of Louisa Catherine Adams Clement ca. 1910 by Mary Louisa Adams Clement (Born: Newbury, Massachusetts 1882, died: Warrenton, Virginia 1950.) This is a portrait of the artist’s mother, Louisa Catherine Adams Clement, who was born in 1856. The elaborate tabernacle frame recalls the full-scale portraits by Abbott Thayer, which make the sitter appear to be on a stage or a throne. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Adams-Clement Collection, gift of Mary Louisa Adams Clement in memory of her mother, Louisa Catherine Adams Clement, 1950.