The Yorktown Parlor Murals, pictured above, were commissioned by Wallace Nutting in 1916 when he purchased Webb House. They tell the story of the Battle of Yorktown, beginning with the meeting held here in 1781 and ending with Cornwallis's surrender.


THE YORKTOWN PARLOR

Almost nothing is known about the appearance of the Webb House southeast parlor before 1916.  Over the preceding 164 year the Webb and Welles families probably used it in a variety of ways, all unknown.  After photographer and Colonial Revival proponent Wallace Nutting purchased the house in 1916, he identified the room as the Yorktown Parlor, claiming that this had always been its name.  Nutting set out to make the room a shrine to George Washington and the great events leading up to the Yorktown Campaign which had been planned in the Webb House in 1781.

Sometime during the spring of 1916 Nutting commissioned three Hartford artists, Walter Korder, Lewis Donland, and Edwin Yungk (collectively known as Kordonyunk Studio) to paint murals for the Webb House.  Those in the northeast parlor depicted local scenery and other old houses, while in the Yorktown Parlor the scenes were to depict events associated with the Siege of Yorktown, including the Washington-Rochambeau conference taking place in the room itself.  Nutting of course specified that the room should look as he had ìrestoredî it, including an elaborate chimney-breast taken from another structure in Newport, Rhode Island.  Kordonyunk Studios executed the murals in oil on paper, in a style we now associate with early twentieth-century book or magazine illustrations.

Nutting was especially proud of these murals.  He claimed that every image was a portrait and that ì...great pains had been taken to preserve all the elements correctly.î  Not everyone agreed with his assessment.  In 1924 architectural historian J. Frederick Kelly, who was advising the Colonial Dames about the restoration of Webb House, proclaimed that, ìThe existing murals are modern and in bad taste, and should not be allowed to remain.  While suitable for a kindergarten, they are markedly out of place in this dignified and historically valuable house.î

Following Kellyís advice, the Colonial Dames has the murals covered with reproduction wallpaper and the Newport chimney-breast removed.  The current fireplace wall treatment was based on a now-lost photograph thought to predate Nuttingís changes.  The murals remained covered for seventy-two years except for a few weeks during the American Bicentennial when they were photographed and the wallpaper replaced.

In 1995, the Board of Managers acknowledged the growing public interest in Wallace Nutting and the Colonial Revival movement, and decided that this period of Webb Houseís history should be actively interpreted.  Shortly thereafter the Yorktown Parlor murals were uncovered to considerable public fanfare.  Museum  staff have used Nuttingís own photographs and Museum collections to furnish the room much as it had been from 1916 to 1919.  Today, visitors may see Wallace Nuttingís Yorktown Parlor and contrast for themselves the Colonial Revival aesthetic with the reality of upper-class life during the colonial period.
 

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