HISTORY

Detroit industrialist Charles Lang Freer prospered primarily as a rail-road car manufacturer. This house, considered Michigan's finest example of the Shingle Style, was designed by Wilson Eyre Jr. of Philadelphia and built in 1890. Here Freer (1854-1919) assembled one of the most extensive Asian art collections in the world. He also collected Pewabic Pottery and the work of contemporary American artists such as Whistler, Dewing, and Tryon. A 1905 addition incorporated the “Peacock Room,” decorated by James Whistler, which was removed from a house in England and transplanted here as part of Freer's art collection. In 1906 he donated his collection and the Peacock Room to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

The Freer House became the home of the Merrill-Palmer Institute after Lizzie Pitts Merrill Palmer left a bequest of 3 million dollars in 1916 to found a school centering on home and family development. Since its founding in 1920, Merrill-Palmer has expanded its research and study beyond motherhood to many aspects of human development.

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THE PEACOCK ROOM

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Freer Gallery of Art

The Peacock Room was once the dining room in the London home of Frederick R. Leyland, a wealthy shipowner from Liverpool, England. Leyland commissioned the American-born artist James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) to paint the dining room. Between 1876 and 1877, Whistler brightened the room with golden peacocks, painting every inch of the ceiling and walls to create an elegant setting in which Leyland could display his blue-and-white porcelain as well as Whistler's painting, The Princess from the Land of Porcelain. Purchased by Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919) in 1904 and installed in the Freer Gallery of Art after his death, the Peacock Room is on permanent display.

Charles Lang Freer Built the Carriage House (below) to house the Famous Peacock Room.

The Freer Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.
The gallery houses a world-renowned collection of art from China, Japan, Korea, South and Southeast Asia, and the Near East. Visitor favorites include Chinese paintings, Japanese folding screens, Korean ceramics, Indian and Persian manuscripts, and Buddhist sculpture. A highlight of the Whistler holdings is the Peacock Room, a dining room that was once part of a London townhouse. In 1876, Whistler lavishly decorated the room with a blue and gold peacock design. After the owner's death, the room was brought to the United States and permanently installed in the Freer Gallery.

The gallery was founded by Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919), a railroad-car manufacturer from Detroit who gave to the United States his collections and funds for a building to house them. The Italian-Renaissance-style gallery, constructed in granite and marble, was designed by American architect Charles Platt. When the gallery opened to the public in 1923, it was the first Smithsonian museum for fine arts. In subsequent years, the collections have grown through gifts and purchases to nearly triple the size of Freer's bequest.

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BECOME A FRIEND OF FREER!

HELP US TO RESTORE AND PRESERVE
THE FREER HOUSE

Yearly membership is $10.00 for students and $35.00 for individuals.

Please fill out the registration below and mail a check payable to:

The Merrill-Palmer Institute
Wayne State University
Friends of Freer
71 East Ferry, Detroit, MI 48202.

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