Lovena L. Holyland

People Buried Here

Description

Born in Rochester, New York, on March 20, 1897, Margaret Woodbury Strong grew up an only child in a wealthy family of collectors. Her father, John Charles Woodbury (1859–1937), collected coins and recorded life events in scrapbooks. Her mother, Alice Motley Woodbury (1859–1933), collected 19th-century Japanese objects d’art. And an admired aunt collected bookplates.In 1968 Margaret obtained a provisional charter from the New York State Board of Regents for the “Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum of Fascination,” a name she took from the way guests often described her collections. She planned to add another wing and a lecture hall to her home, but she never built them. On July 17, 1969, she died in her sleep at age 72.

As her accumulation grew, Margaret began to think of her collections as a museum. To house her accumulation, she added two gallery-like wings to her 30-room suburban Rochester residence. When people came to visit, she asked them to sign a guest book and record their impressions. In December 1957, the Rochester Times-Union reported on her dollhouses and noted, “These are only a few of the highlights of this stupendous collection which will soon be open to the children of Rochester and the general public.”