By Marilyn Bauer and Jim Knippenberg
The Cincinnati Enquirer

On Nov. 29, 1932 at 9 p.m. a gala hailed as "a milestone in the cultural life of Cincinnati" took place at the Taft Museum of Art. Dressed in their best gowns and tuxedos, the board of trustees of the Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts and their affiliate boards were the first to view the Tafts' world famous collection of Old Masters, porcelains and decorative arts. Thursday night, the Taft went back to the future with another high society gala celebrating its 21/2-year renovation.

In 1932, the public had to wait nearly two weeks after the formal event to see the inside of the museum, which the Cincinnati Times-Star said featured rooms with a "distinction of color and art," enthusing over the "splendid dignity" of the home as a backdrop for showing "the superb collection."

"The rooms and hallways ... in green with pale yellow silk hangings ... are illuminated by inverted lightings which gave a marvelous effect ... when the guests arrived for this brilliant opening." The celebration was the talk of the town. The board and the family of Tafts pulled out all the stops.

"A massive silver bowl of white chrysanthemums, white roses and calla lilies and heavy silver candelabra decorated the supper table, which was arranged in the lecture room," reported the Times-Star. "Large vases and baskets of these same flowers were artistically placed throughout the museum. Particularly handsome was a vase of the rare African daisies in the little room adjoining the dining hall."

Mr. and Mrs. William Cooper Proctor - he was president of the board - hosted a pre-opening buffet dinner in the basement of the Queen City Club. The couple were unable to attend the ball because of Mr. Proctor's poor health, so George H. Warrington, the board's vice president, presided over the celebration.

The Times-Star made an appropriate fuss over the gowns Cincinnati's grand dames wore for the event. The paper reported that Mrs. Warrington was in turquoise crepe and Mrs. Frank Dinsmore wore beige lace with "a smart little jacket of the same material." Mrs. Arthur Espy wore "regal jewels" with her black velvet gown and the museum's curator, Mary Thayer, was the sole fashionista in white crepe "with one of the new fashionable slit backs caught at the top with a clasp."

Walter Siple, director of the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Taft Museum of Art, escorted his wife, a vision in "black crepe relieved by clusters of white gardenias and jet black earrings."

It was Siple who had worked with Mrs. Anna Sinton Taft to transform her home into a museum. Mrs. B. H. Kroger wore sequins and Mrs. Rupert Warburton of London, England (an Ingalls/ Taft) "was handsome in a yellow gold crepe gown which matched her golden hair." Mrs. Thomas Hogan, Jr. wore major jewelry - "sparkling buckles and earrings and bracelets of brilliants."

William Sloane Coffin, president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was the keynote speaker and the entertainment committee settled on a "string orchestra of six or seven symphony players [who] furnished music appropriate to the spirit of the 19th century."