An Archive of Desire by artist Jennifer Johnson explores the longing that a Gilded Age estate provokes, communicating  relationships between architecture and social stature. Mirrors replace books to refract viewpoints of the mansion’s opulent interior, and a collection of architectural maquettes are displayed in historic vitrines.

The vitrines, originally used at the World’s Fair in 1893, are relics from the launch of financial power for the family who owned the mansion from the 1890s through the 1970s. The success of their leather company at this historic trade show afforded the Foerderer family the ability to purchase and renovate the opulent Delaware River estate.

Included in Johnson’s selection of maquettes are miniatures of stately and under-recognized features of the house, drawing attention to the labour of domestic workers alongside the prominence of the owning class. They collectively tell a story of various stages in Glen Foerd’s history, from the 1850s through the present.