Main Gallery Exhibits
Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge
Fortune and Philanthropy in New Jersey
Though not a native to New Jersey, Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge devoted a great portion of her life to philanthropy in her adopted home state. Born into one of the wealthiest families in the US, she married into yet another influential industrialist family and in 1916 she and husband Marcellus Hartley Dodge purchased Onunda, a 240 acre estate of the late Daniel Willis James. It was here she secured her place in history using her great personal fortune to support her many philanthropic endeavors.
Mrs. Dodge’s legacy since her death in 1973 include the many institutions she endowed including: St. Hubert’s Giralda, which she established on 16 acres of her estate; the Hartley Dodge Foundation which monitors the art collection a well as the architectural and historic integrity of the Hartley Dodge Memorial; and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, which, over almost 50 years has distributed more than $500 million in grants to nonprofits in New Jersey and beyond.
Immerse yourself in the philanthropic life and lasting legacy of Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge through artifacts, archives, and displays.
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This exhibit was co-curated by Claudette Stecher Lopez, METC’s Curator of Collections and Mallory Mortillaro, Curator for the Hartley Dodge Foundation. We wish to thank the Borough of Madison, the Hartley Dodge Foundation, St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center, Madison Historical Society, Madison Fire Department, Tyler Merson, Jeffrey Eger Auction Catalogues, and Nicolas Platt for loaning METC these extraordinary archival images and objects.
