Colonel Robert J. Milligan House Parlor

1854-1856

This parlor and library are from the house still standing in Saratoga Springs, New York, built by Robert J. Milligan in 1854–56 and illustrate two of the diverse revival styles popular in interior decoration at the mid-nineteenth century in the United States. At this time, certain revival styles became associated with specific room use. The Louis XV Revival style, first developed in mid-eighteenth-century France, which emphasized curvilinear silhouettes and the realistic depiction of nature, was preferred for the parlor. The Gothic Revival style, with its allusions to the monastic life of the medieval monk-scholar, was often employed for libraries. Nearly all the objects and furniture in these two rooms are original to the house. Astonishingly, the Milligan descendants preserved many of the bills of sale for the furnishing of their house. These bills were given to the Museum in 1940, when these rooms entered the collection, and provide unique and important documentation about the makers of the contents of the rooms.