Rochester has held a variety of unique connections to White House residents over the past two centuries. One such tie informs the latest exhibit on display in the Local History & Genealogy Division, Decanting Presidential History.
Rochester’s 61st Mayor Frank T. Lamb was an avid collector of presidential memorabilia. In 1999, he donated several boxes worth of these materials to the Rochester Institute of Technology College of Arts and Sciences.
The resulting Frank T. Lamb Presidential Collection includes a range of artifacts from buttons and portraits to postcards and medallions. The bulk of the collection, currently on loan to the library, is comprised of a set of Wheaton Glass decanters.
Decanting Presidential History showcases these materials while exploring of a variety of topics, including assassination attempts, presidential visits to Rochester, spirits in the White House, and women in presidential politics.
Decanting Presidential History will be on display in the Local History & Genealogy Division hallway on the second floor of the Rundel Memorial Library until December 31, 2024. The exhibit was curated by Dan Cody, Emily Morry, Sheila Pietrowski, and Christine Ridarsky. Thank you to the RIT College of Liberal Arts for loaning the Frank T. Lamb Presidential Collection.
For more information: https://rochistory.wordpress.com/2024/10/10/decanting-presidential-history-a-new-exhibit-coming-soon-to-the-local-history-genealogy-division/
