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WATCH "THE PEACOCK ROOM IN DETROIT, 1904-1919" LECTURE RECORDING HERE!
On December 8, 2022, Dr. Diana Greenwold, Lunder Curator of American Art, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art, presented a riveting Freer House lecture on the Peacock Room's storied period in Detroit. We received a great response to the event, with around 150 viewers and a lively Q&A session, graciously assisted by guest host, Dr. Kenneth Myers, Curator of American Art, Detroit Institute of Arts. We would like to thank Dr. Greenwold, Dr. Myers, the DIA's Associates of the American Wing, and our generous sponsors, the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute, Wayne State University, the Erb Family Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and The Peacock Room: Apparel, Accessories & Gifts for helping to share the legacy of Charles Lang Freer. We hope you will enjoy the recording of our program here!
The Peacock Room in Detroit, 1904 - 1919 Free Online Lecture to be held Dec 8, 2022
Award-winning Photographer Returns to Freer House!

Mad About Painting: Hokusai and Freer Free Online Lecture to be Held May 24, 2022
Japan Business Society of Detroit April 2022 Newsletter Highlights 1909 Japanese Businessmen Visiting Freer House
Reports
• Thomas Brunk's book on Pewabic published
• Garden Revitalization Project extends around FH
• Garden annual maintenance fund launched
• In Memory of Thomas W. Brunk, PhD (1949-2018)
• Interior walls and 35 exterior windows and doors repaired
• An Accidental Photographer in Korea:
• FH doorbell reproduction installed
• Original "Flapjacks" painting returns to FH
• FH welcomes Her Imperial Highness Princess Akiko of Mikasa
Freer House Garden Revitalization Project Video, Summer 2018
• Freer House courtyard garden has been completed
• Japanese garden lantern replica installation
• Freer House garden dedication party
• Artist in Resonance: Hiroko Lancour at the Charles Lang Freer House exhibition
• New book on Charles L. Freer published
• A Museum Rises: How Charles Lang Freer's Collection of American
• HVAC Project begins
• FH featured in Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine
• FH interior finishes analysis in fourth year
Imprints - MPSI Newsletter, Spring 2016
• Freer's "Points of Contact" with Korea lecture
• Freer and Sackler Gallery makes first group visit to Detroit
The Freer House Garden Project Brochure, Winter 2016
Imprints - MPSI Newsletter, Fall 2015
• Thomas W. Brunk's Freer collection documented
Imprints - MPSI Newsletter, Spring 2015
• Hecker Mansion joins FH as WSU treasure
• Hecker Mansion restoration
• Visitors connect with FH past, present and future
Freer House Report: Summer 2014
• WSU President M. Roy Wilson visits FH
• New Tryon reproduction painting installed
• Alex Vertikoff photographs FH
• Freer and Japan lecture draws a large crowd
• Author of a new biography on Whistler visits FH
• In Attendance to the Realm: the Kano School of Painters in 17th Century Japan lecture
• DIA Samurai: Beyond the Sword exhibition
• WSU President M. Roy Wilson, Consul General of Japan, DIA Director Graham Beal, and former
• "Early Spring: New England" painting reproduction dedicated
• PBS Whistler documentary preview
• NHK film FH for documentary
• Alex Vertikoff photographs FH
• Rose Foster named WSU's Building Coordinator of the Year
Imprints - MPSI Newsletter, Dec 2013
• A Thousand Graces: Freer's Pilgrimage to the Buddhist Cave Temples at Longmen
and his Collection of Chinese Art lecture
• FH welcomes the Consul General of Japan
Imprints - MPSI Newsletter, Spring 2013
• Fundraising for Garden Revitalization Plan
Freer House Annual Report: September 2012 - August 2013
• Freer Symposium
• Whistler Gallery Restoration Plan
• Garden Revitalization Plan
• Harmony in Design: Freer and Wilson Eyre, Jr. lecture
• Heels Over Head: Freer and Indian Art Lecture
• NHK visit to Freer House
Imprints - MPSI Newsletter, Spring 2012
• Painting with Pottery in the Peacock Room lecture
Imprints - MPSI Newsletter, Fall 2011
• Fundraising for restoration of the Whistler Gallery
• Americana Foundation helps fund interpretive plan
• Freer furniture inventory
Imprints - MPSI Newsletter, Spring 2011
• Whistler and Freer through Art, Music, and Letters multi-media event
Freer House Annual Report: October 2010 - September 2011
• Dedication of historically appropriate cedar shake roof
• Initiation of Interpretation Plan
• Freer and the Art of Japan lecture
• Freer furniture documentation project
Imprints - MPSI Newsletter, Fall 2010
• Roof maintenance project completed
• FH receives National Register of Historic Places designation
• A Discerning Taste for Japanese Art: The Formation of Charles L. Freer's Collection lecture
Imprints - MPSI Newsletter, Spring 2010
• Scarab Club Spring Quartet concert
• Charles Lang Freer and Detroit's Pewabic Pottery lecture
• Midwest Regional Conservation Guild visits FH
• Roof maintenance project announced
• First meeting held of the Friends of Freer House
• The Blue Room: Whistler's Peacock Room in Detroit lecture
Articles
"An American Collector in Egypt." Saenger, Peter. The Wall Street Journal, 23 Dec. 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-american-collector-in-egypt-11671822042.
"Why the U.S. Rejected—Then Embraced—a Detroit Industrialist's Rare Collection of Asian Art." Baskind, Samantha. Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Dec. 2022, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-us-rejected-then-embraced-detroit-industrialists-rare-collection-asian-art-180981254/.
"Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art Ready to Turn Page to its 2nd Century." Han-sol, Park. The Korea Times, 16 Nov. 2022, https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/culture/2023/01/135_339735.html#.
"Freer Gallery Gets an Early Start on Celebrating its 2023 Centennial." Jenkins, Mary. The Washington Post, 25 Oct. 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/10/25/freers-global-network-art-review/.
"Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art Announces Centennial Celebrations." Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art, 6 Oct. 2022, https://asia.si.edu/press-release/smithsonians-national-museum-of-asian-art-announces-centennial-celebrations/. Press Release.
"The Way It Was -- May Day, 1930." Bulanda, George. Hour Detroit Magazine, 28 Apr. 2022, https://www.hourdetroit.com/the-way-it-was-articles/the-way-it-was-may-day-1930/.
"One More Thing: Behold, the Glory of Detroit's Gilded Age Mansions." Abbey-Lambertz, Kate. Detour Detroit, March, 24, 2022.
"Charles Lang Freer and Japanese Ceramics." Cort, Louise Allison. Impressions: The Journal of the Japanese Art Society of America, vol. 39, Part One of Double Issue, 2018, pp. 131-163.
"Charles Lang Freer: An American Success Story." Forsyth, Douglas J. American Bungalow Magazine, no. 96, Summer 2018, pp. 68-79.
Creating a Harmonious Environment: An Art Collector's Garden. Michener, Dr. David C. (2018). University of Michigan Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum.
"Art Connection: Detroit and Freer." Kuchiki, Yuriko. The Japan Business Society of Detroit Monthly MagazineViews, no. 278, May 2017.
"Charles Lang Freer and the Collecting of Chinese Buddhist Art in Early-Twentieth-Century America." Wang, Daisy Yiyou. Journal of the HIstory of Collections, vol. 28, no. 3, 2016, pp. 401-416.
"Full Circle: Biography of James McNeill Whistler Connects the Dots Between the Artist, Detroit." McFarlin, Jim. Wayne State Magazine, Winter 2015, pp. 50-55.
"Restoration of Historic Freer House Garden at Wayne State Begins." Pinho, Kirk. Crain's Detroit Business, 14 Sept. 2015, https://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20150911/NEWS/150919955/restoration-of-historic-freer-house-garden-at-wayne-state-begins.
"Whistler, Freer, and Their Living Legacy." Trippi, Peter. Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine, vol. 12, no. 1, Jan/Feb 2015, pp. 48-53.
"The Legacy of Charles L. Freer." Bulanda, George. Hour Detroit Magazine, 7 Feb. 2008, https://www.hourdetroit.com/community/the-legacy-of-charles-l-freer/.
Books
FH recommends starting with…
West Meets East: Charles L. Freer, Trailblazing Asian Art Collector. Tomlinson, Helen Nebeker. Mascot Books, 2019.
Charles Lang Freer: A Cosmopolitan Life. Glazer, Lee, and Amelia Meyer. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 2017.
"The Charles L. Freer Residence: The Original Freer Gallery of Art." Brunk, Thomas W. Dichotomy Student Journal, vol. 12, University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture, Fall 1999. http://dichotomy.arch.udmercy.edu/dichotomy-12-the-original-freer-gallery-of-art/
Freer: A Legacy of Art. Lawton, Thomas, and Linda Merrill. Smithsonian Institution, 1993.
FH recommends continuing with…
Korean Art in the Freer and Sackler Galleries. The Smithsonian Institution Freer and Sackler Galleries. Smithsonian Institution/Freer Gallery of Art, 2013.
A Perfect Harmony: The American Collection in the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art. Glazer, Lee. Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2013.
The Peacock Room Comes to America. Glazer, Lee. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 2012.
A Collector's Journey. Gunter, Ann Clyburn, et al. Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2002.
The Peacock Room: A Cultural Biography. Merrill, Linda. Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 1998.
With Kindest Regards: The Correspondence of Charles Lang Freer and James McNeill Whistler, 1890-1903, edited by Merrill, Linda. Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995.
The Princess and the Peacocks Or, the Story of the Room. Merrill, Linda, and Sarah Ridley. Hyperion Books, 1993.
Leonard B. Willeke, Excellence in Architecture and Design. Brunk, Thomas W., Leonard Bernard Willeke, and University of Detroit. School of Architecture. Detroit, Mich.: U of Detroit, 1986.
The House That Freer Built. Brunk, Thomas W. Dichotomy Student Journal, vol. 3, no. 4, University of Detroit School of Architecture, 1981. http://dichotomy.arch.udmercy.edu/dichotomy-vol-3-no-3-2/
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