Here’s something to think about the next time you tour The Elms: The acquisition of The Elms on July 23, 1962, was a triumph for the Preservation Society, but also raised something of a dilemma. Donations from the summer colony had totaled slightly more than $100,000 to purchase the house and property, but most of the furnishings had been sold at auction. To open The Elms for tours that summer, appropriate furnishings were needed, and quickly. Preservation Society members and supporters mobilized. Gifts of furniture and art from benefactors and loans from museums in Boston and New York poured in. According to an interview with longtime Preservation Society President Katherine Warren in our archives, Mrs. John Nicholas Brown and Mrs. Sheldon Whitehouse “went off to the museums and into their own attics, and in three weeks that house was furnished and open.” On August 20, 1962, the public first went through the doors. Isn’t it amazing what can be accomplished by a small group of peopl...