Hello, this is Carl Raymond, host of the Gilded Gentleman History Podcast, where every two weeks we journey into corners light and dark in America's

Gilded Age, France's ballet puck and England's late Victorian and Edwardian eras.

Since its opening to the public as a museum in 1935, the Frick collection has been one of New York City's undisputed

treasures. Housed on Fifth Avenue at 70th Street in the former Boz Arts mansion of

Gilded Age industrialist Henry Clay Frick, the collection, begun by Frick himself, includes

nearly 2,000 works of fine art, furniture,

and decorative art from the Renaissance through the 19th century.

Visiting the Frick Collection is a unique experience since one not only is able to see

this extraordinary collection of masterworks at close range, but also any visitor to the collection

has the feeling of visiting rooms and salons in a private home, which many of the museum's

galleries one sees today once were. Over the past five years, the mansion has undergone a

painstaking $220 million renovation and restoration, and

will open to the public once again in just a few days on April 17, 2025. Visitors will see

favorite rooms with well-known and beloved works of art, with few exceptions in their original

places, along with an exciting

treat. The second floor of the mansion, once the private quarters of the Frick family, never before

open to the public, will now be on view to visitors. With my guest today, managing educator

Caitlin Henningson, we'll delve into how Henry Clay Frick thought about blending the domestic spaces with the ultimate purpose of showcasing his art to the public, how the Frick's entertained in the dining room that we see today in a grand Gilded Age style, and most importantly, we'll be

taking a unique and insightful look at the domestic staff whose lives existed in parallel to

the Fricks, and without them, life in this grand style would have been impossible.

We'll look at what the staff was like, what they did, what we can see

of their presence today, and most importantly, and with some extraordinary new research, just exactly

...