LIU WRH - Collection Highlights

Collection Highlights

Exhibition: A Pictorial Review - Greater New York's Silver Jubilee - May 26 - June 23, 1923: B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library, February 14-March 20, 2011.
This collection features the background of the Jubilee, financial and political aspects of its planning and development, civic parades, Grand Central Palace, the forum for the Municipal Educational Exposition, the philanthropic roles of the women in Hearst's circle, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, Millicent Willson Hearst and Marion Davies. Read more...

Exhibition: The William Randolph Hearst Archive: Preservation, Digitization and Access: B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library, January 19-March 12, 2010.
The exhibit featured original research and supporting primary materials from the collection ie: sales catalogs, sales records, floor plans, original drawings, photographs and photo reproductions. Publications about the collection were also displayed. Read more...

Hearst's Castle, San Simeon, California: William Randolph Hearst spent his early years camping with his family at the site where his Castle was eventually erected. In 1919, the year of his mother's death, Hearst cabled famed architect, Julia Morgan, “Miss Morgan, we are tired of camping out in the open at the ranch in San Simeon and I would like to build a little something. ” The estate included a main house, “Casa Grande, ” three bungalows, with a total of 165 rooms, as well as 127 acres of gardens, pathways and a private zoo. The estate took on a Spanish-Revival and Mediterranean flair. Read more...

Monastery of Santa María Real: Hearst's most astounding purchases were unquestionably of two medieval Cistercian monasteries from Spain dating from the twelfth century. Still his plans for both structures proved to be excessively grandiose even for Hearst, and they never materialized. The archive's photographs and accompanying informational content are evidence of the existence of a long-lost architectural structure, a twelfth-century monastery dedicated to Santa María Real from Sacramenia in Segovia, Spain. Read more...

Monastery of Santa María de Ovila: Byne, as negotiator for Hearst, purchased yet another monastery in 1931 for $85,000 and arranged for direct shipping to San Francisco. The Cistercian monastery of Santa María de Ovila was originally located in the province of Guadalajara in Spain. Hearst intended for parts of the structure to be incorporated into his new Wyntoon Castle in northern California, after the original family summer residence was destroyed by fire in 1930. Read more...

St. Donat's Castle, Wales: St. Donat's Castle dates “mostly from the sixteenth century, but considerable vestiges of the earlier Norman structure (from the time of the Norman Conquest (c. 1200)) were preserved too, along with sections from the early 14th and late 15th centuries. Read more...

Joan's Castle, Sands Point, New York: In 1927 William Randolph Hearst purchased “the grandest estate on Long Island,” which consisted of a mansion, an adjacent lighthouse and keeper's house. The estate served as the inspiration for Jay Gatsby's mansion in F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novella, The Great Gatsby. Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, former wife of William K. Vanderbilt, Sr., and widow of O.H. Perry Belmont, constructed the house in 1915. Read more...

Long Island University Second Life Project: In the summer of 2009 Digital Initiatives began a collaborative project with Professor Steven Heim from the Computer Science Department that highlights the William Randolph Hearst Archive in the virtual reality environment known as Second Life. The Hearst Archive exhibition space is located in the Research, Education and Cultural Arts Center on Long Island University's virtual island. Read more...