Rachel Lambert Mellon

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Rachel Lowe Lambert Lloyd Mellon (born circa 1912) is an American horticulturalist, gardener, philanthropist, and fine arts collector.

Known as Bunny, she is the eldest daughter of Gerard Barnes Lambert, a president of Gillette Safety Razor Co. and a founder of the Warner-Lambert fortune (Warner-Lambert is now part of Pfizer, following a 2000 merger). Her mother was the former Rachel Lowe (later Mrs Malvern Clopton).

In 1932, Rachel Lowe Lambert married Stacy Barcroft Lloyd Jr. Divorced in 1948, they had two children: Stacy Barcroft Lloyd III and Eliza Lambert Lloyd (married and divorced Viscount Moore).

In 1948 she married, as her second husband, the banking heir and art collector Paul Mellon (11 June 1907 – 1 February 1999). By this marriage, she had two stepchildren, Catherine and Timothy Mellon. Together the couple collected and donated more than 100 works of art, mostly eighteenth and nineteenth century European paintings to the National Gallery of Art[1]. The couple bred and raced thoroughbred horses, including a winner of the Kentucky Derby.

Mellon was a longtime friend of John Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy advising Mrs. Kennedy first on fine arts and antiques during the Kennedy White House restoration, and then contributing to the design of the grounds of the president's house. In 1961 on Mrs. Kennedy's request Mellon redesigned the White House Rose Garden creating a more open space for public ceremony and introducing American species of plants including Magnolia soulangeana. She next began work on the White House's East Garden, but was unable to complete it before the assassination of President Kennedy. First Lady Lady Bird Johnson asked Mellon to complete work on the East Garden and in 1965 it was dedicated as the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden.

[edit] References

  • Abbott James A., and Elaine M. Rice. Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration. Van Nostrand Reinhold: 1998. ISBN 0-442-02532-7.
  • Garrett, Wendell. Our Changing White House. Northeastern University Press: 1995. ISBN 1-55553-222-5.
  • McEwan, Barbara. White House Landscapes. Walker and Company: 1992. ISBN 0-8027-1192-8.
  • Mellon, Rachel Lambert. The White House Gardens Concepts and Design of the Rose Garden. Great American Editions Ltd.: 1973.
  • Seale, William. The White House Garden. White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 1996. ISBN 0-912308-69-9.
  1. ^ Yale Center for British Art

[edit] External links