Society of the Cincinnati, Anderson House Museum

This museum, the former residence of American diplomat Larz Anderson III and his wife Isabel, contains works acquired on the couple’s many trips to Asia and Europe. Anderson, a direct descendant of a founding member of the Society of the Cincinnati, bequeathed his house to that organisation, which was formed just after the American Revolution with the aim of sharing wealth among bereft army veterans who had fought for independence (the group included Founding Father George Washington). In 1902, the Andersons hired Boston architectural firm Arthur Little and Herbert Browne to construct the limestone Beaux Arts mansion, and imported Italian artisans to carve and inlay wood and gilt floors and ceilings. Downstairs, one room is devoted to an exhibition about the American Revolution; another is devoted to the history of the Cincinnati Society. Rooms on the first and second floors house the Anderson Collection, whose treasures include numerous bejeweled Chinese semi-precious stone and jade trees, and Flemish Renaissance tapestries dating from the late 16th and early 17th centuries.