Natalie (Knowlton) Blair (1883-1951)

She grew up between New York City and her mother's childhood home, Echo Lawn, at Newburgh, New York. In 1912, she married J. Insley Blair and the following year they built Blairhame at Tuxedo Park. Whereas as her husband's brother, C. Ledyard Blair, had pursued a career in finance, Insley enjoyed a privileged lifestyle of leisure. However, Natalie was more than just a lady of leisure. She is recognized today as, "the earliest woman collector of Americana of the first rank" (Wendy Moonan), "unsurpassed in connoisseurship by any of the better-known collectors of her generation" and "the foremost collector of American antiques in the first half of the Twentieth Century... (she) had no library of published references to consult and trained her eye by comparing potential acquisitions with similar items in museums. In many ways, she was ahead of her time and, in her questioning of authenticity, demand for good condition and pursuit of research, her concerns and priorities are more akin to those of today’s collectors..." (Christies). Inspired by fellow collector Eugene Bolles and the period rooms at the Met’s new American Wing, she displayed her valuable collection in a series of her own "museum rooms" at Blairhame, eg., the XVII Century, Queen Anne & Chippendale rooms.

From 1945, she began to make annual gifts from the pieces of furniture (as well as pewter, iron and opaque glass) that she'd given on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, 55 of which are now key components of the museum's America Wing. "Her gifts to the Met are still priceless" (Albert Sack). She also donated substantial pieces to the Museum of the City of New York; the New-York Historical Society; and, the Cooper Union. In 2006, a sale of more than 100-lots from her Americana collection that had passed to her granddaughter were auctioned off at Christies fetching $32,291,320, eclipsing all previous records for Americana at auction. The most valuable item sold was Charles Willson Peale’s 1779 oil on canvas portrait “George Washington at Princeton” that went for $21,296,000, the third highest price at auction for an American painting (2006).

Natalie was also a noted sportswoman and both competed and excelled in tennis and golf. She also enjoyed salmon-fishing on the Restigouche River in Canada; canoeing on the Adirondack lakes; and, skiing and ice-skating at St. Moritz in Switzerland. After her husband died, she closed up Blairhame and moved to her apartment at 960 Fifth Avenue where she died. She and Insley were the parents of two daughters: (1) Natica, Mrs Screven Lorillard, and (2) Joan, who married first Henry Osborne Havemeyer and after he died she became Mrs J. Woodhull Overton.