Room 1
“…I made friends with a group of women much older than myself, widows all, Philadelphia ladies of classic definition, most curious company for me. One of them was Mrs. Russell Davenport, a large, handsome woman with a peculiar hooting voice, very much a personality. She had wide-spaced eyes whose color was that real rarity, green.”
[Marcia Davenport describing Mona Davenport in her autobiographical book Too Strong for Fantasy, page 109.]
Looking East from 13th and Market Streets in Philadelphia PA where Venez Voir was located.
Background
Mrs. Russell Wheeler (Mona) broke the societal norms in more ways than one. After her husband died an untimely death, she was left with two sons (Russell and John) and no income. Characteristically, Mona was seemingly undaunted by this crippling circumstance- made many times worse by the societal norms of the day in which women were neither encouraged or supported for working let alone becoming entrepreneurs. She opened her own business, a high-end womens boutique specializing in European exports and beautiful, handcrafted objects. Not only did she go on regular buying trips to Europe, but she also obtained a commercial liscence to import perfumes from Europe and distribute them in America.
Experience the Room
An imagined portal to evoke the sensory journey of Venez Voir guided by the objects it contained (all selected personally by Mona) as well as some narrative imagery that gives a glimpse into moments in her life such as the epic cross-country drive she made unaccompanied except by her two young sons in a Model T Ford. California was an important part of her family’s life- it was where her husband spent his adolescence at the Thatcher School where Russell and John would also go- one of the final image in the video below is of the boys riding in Santa Barbara. The final image is the Montecito home of Mona’s lifelong friend who was essentially another member of the Davenport family- Amy Dupont.
