| Natalie Hays Hammond | |
|---|---|
Natalie Hayes Hammond |
|
| Born | January 6, 1904 Lakewood, New Jersey |
| Died | June 30, 1985 North Salem, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Painter, miniaturist, Broadway set and costume designer, author |
| Parents | John Hays Hammond Natalie (Harris) Hammond |
Natalie Hays Hammond (1904-1985) was the daughter and heiress of millionaire adventurer and philanthropist John Hays Hammond and was, in her own right, a painter, Broadway set and costume designer, author, and patron of the arts.
Her former home in North Salem, New York is now part of the Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden which she founded during her lifetime. Deciding she needed a place to put the things she collected and inherited (about 100,000 antiques and a 70,000-volume library), she and her cousin and life companion Elizabeth Hammond Taylor built the museum and garden. When Natalie Hays Hammond died in 1985, she bequeathed to her cousin the right to live in the estate’s mansion for the duration of her life. Taylor chose to move and the house went unoccupied. In November 2005, the museum negotiated the rights to own it, so that now it is what Natalie Hays Hammond had originally planned – a center for the performing arts as well as the visual arts.
Her brother, John Hays Hammond, Jr., a famous inventor known as "The Father of Radio Control", founded the Hammond Museum and Castle in Gloucester, Massachusetts.