With the opening of the Wallace Center, for the first time, visitors will encounter exhibits explaining the numerous places of historical significance that await them in the world of the Roosevelts at Hyde Park. No longer will visitors to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum and the FDR Home confuse the two buildings or wonder what there is to see in historic Hyde Park. Interesting and informative displays designed by Chermayeff & Geismar, a world-renowned exhibit and design firm, will not only inform but also entertain.
The centerpiece of the Wallace Center lobby is a pictorial floormap in mosaic tile that depicts Hyde Park as FDR knew it and loved it. Adapted from the original drawn by Hudson Valley and WPA artist Olin Dows for his 1949 book, Franklin Roosevelt at Hyde Park, it shows all the places of interest that compelled FDR to return over and over again to his beloved Hudson Valley home—the Home, Presidential Library, Top Cottage, and Eleanor Roosevelt’s Val-Kill are only the beginning of an encounter with Hyde Park that includes the places, large and small, that still to this day bear the mark of FDR’s affection: the elementary and high schools built according to his taste in Dutch colonial fieldstone, the public library given to the town in his father’s memory, the post office built under his direction to recreate the home of Hyde Park’s colonial settler, Dr. John Bard, the Vanderbilt estate acquired by FDR for the National Park Service—all of these places of importance plus the original Roosevelt farm buildings, fields, orchards, and, boat houses will provide visitors an unparalleled opportunity to prepare themselves for an historic immersion in the people and places of historic Hyde Park.
Other exhibits feature larger than life images of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, a mural by WPA artist Alden Krider depicting the work of the National Youth Administration, a timeline on the life and work of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and will feature an outstanding exhibit on the building’s namesake and FDR’s second vice president, Henry A. Wallace. All of these have all been created to provide visitors with a comprehensive and engaging preparation for their visit.
Chermayeff & Geismar, Inc.
Exhibits in the Henry A. Wallace Center have been designed by Chermayeff & Geismar, a New York design firm founded in 1960. Many of the designs created by C & G have received worldwide acclaim and have become catalysts for industry-wide trends. Clients include multinational corporations, museums, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. The firm has created graphic identities for NBC, PBS, National Geographic, and the Smithsonian Institution, as well as designed exhibits for the John F. Kennedy and Harry S. Truman Presidential Libraries, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Park Service. Chermayeff & Geismar Inc. has received design awards for its clients from all the major professional organizations and the firm’s work is exhibited throughout the world.
Images:
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Designer's rendering
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of Wallace Center lobby. Photo credit: Chermayeff &
Geismar, Inc.
Olin Dows'
drawing of the Hudson Valley. Photo Credit: Chermayeff
& Geismar, Inc.