Barbara Babcock Millhouse has dedicated much of her life to untangling the mysterious ways in which art functions. Since the dedication of Reynolda House in , she has guided the development of one of the great national collections of American visual art. In fact, art scholar John Wilmerding of Princeton University once described the collection at Reynolda as “the finest concentration of American art in a public collection south of Washington (D.C.).”
With a sterling inaugural collection of American paintings and a succession of major gifts to follow, Millhouse&#;s contributions collectively represent what may be the greatest gift of fine art in the history of North Carolina. When acquiring works for Reynolda House, she planned for perpetuity, selecting paintings she believed would come to be accepted as iconic works by future generations of Americans. Over these six decades, she has also built a significant private art collection, and Founder’s Vision assembles highlights from the late 19th and 20th centuries.
For her private collection, she was moved by personal inspiration and a marked adventurousness. Founder’s Vision celebrates her dedication to American
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Elizabeth Holmes Benton cuts the ribbon to open Reynolda House to the public in as Barbara Babcock Millhouse, left, looks on.
Barbara Babcock Millhouse, granddaughter of R.J. Reynolds, is pictured in the sunporch of Reynolda House with two pieces in the museum’s art collection.
Barbara Babcock Millhouse’s name is inextricably linked to the history of Reynolda House. She spent part of her youth living in the home, played a central role in its transition to an art museum, started its renowned art collection, and more recently has written extensively about the home’s history.
Her father, Charlie Babcock — who married R.J. Reynolds daughter Mary — incorporated the nonprofit that we now know as Reynolda House Museum of American Art. It’s been an art museum now for more than half a century.
Millhouse has built a legacy of art scholarship and historic preservation, which last year earned her the North Carolina Award, the state’s highest civilian honor.
Her time living in Reynolda was limited — while the family was living there she was often away, at boarding school or attending Smith College.
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In fact,
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (February 19, )—Reynolda House Museum of American Art Founding President Barbara Babcock Millhouse has received the Medallion of Merit from Wake Forest University. The award, given to the university’s most distinguished leaders since , is Wake Forest’s highest honor.
Wake Forest President Nathan O. Hatch presented the award during the university’s Feb. 18 Founders’ Day Convocation. In recognizing Millhouse’s contributions to the university and community, Hatch honored her “scholarship in the field of American art, spirit of generosity, and dedicated leadership of Reynolda House Museum of American Art.”
Millhouse is granddaughter of Katharine Smith Reynolds and Richard Joshua Reynolds, founder of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, and daughter of Mary Reynolds and Charles H. Babcock. She was the driving force behind the establishment of the Reynolda House art collection, and under her guidance the nationally recognized collection has grown to include masterpieces of American painting, sculpture, and photography by such artists as Mary Cassatt, Frederic Church, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O’Keeffe and Gilbert Stuart.
Millhouse served as president of the Reynolda Hou
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Inside the house, music floats into every room. A breeze washes in through open windows. It is the early s, and milk arrives daily, fresh from the dairy. In the distance, at the end of a path through the woods, children play in the lake.
Reynolda House stands at the edge of a meadow, a white stucco bungalow with green shutters — modest in spite of its 64 rooms.
Katharine Reynolds manages the estate from an office on the first floor. She imagined much of this creation as a young college girl from small-town North Carolina. In , she wrote to her college roommate: “When I marry, I shall go to Europe on my wedding trip, and I shall bring home a wonderful work of art. And then I shall buy a great estate, and I shall have a thousand cattle on a hill and flowers all around.”
Six years later, Katharine married a tobacco tycoon, a distant cousin 30 years her senior named R.J. Reynolds. She was a dark-haired beauty; he was a lifelong bachelor enthralled with his spirited young wife. As she predicted, their honeymoon took them to Europe, and when they returned, they moved into R.J.’s home in downtown Winston-Salem, not far from his growing tobacco empire. Katharine could
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