Gary Brown| gary.brown.rep@gmail.com
Ida McKinley’s diamond tiara went from the hair of president’s wife to the bald head of the host of television’s “Pawn Stars.”
Now it may be coming back home to Canton.
Wm. McKinley Presidential Library & Museum has started a fund-raising campaign to purchase the diamond-crusted tiara from “Pawn Stars” celebrity Rick Harrison for the amount he purchased it — $43,000 — from a Canton family.
“We knew it existed. We borrowed it twice to display at special events,” said Kimberly Kenney, curator at the McKinley museum. “It came down through Ida’s sister’s family. When we borrowed it, it belonged to a woman who was a great-great-neice of Ida’s. She passed away and it was her family that sold it.”
TAKEN TO VEGAS
During an appraisal on the History Channel show about two weeks ago, the tiara was valued at $75,000, which also was the price asked by the individual who brought the tiara to the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop on the outskirts of Las Vegas, which Harrison owns with his father, Richard, and operates with his son, Corey Harrison.
Harrison brought in Greg Kwial, owner of Fred Leighton, which specializes in vintage and antique jewelry, to help assess the tiara — two diamond-covered wings are attached to a simple band — and put its value into historical context.
“Late in the 1800s, you saw a lot of jewelry in nature motifs, a lot of bird feathers, wings,” said Kwial on camera. “Pieces like this were quite popular.”
Kwial said that the diamonds were fine quality “for the period.” And he noted that the wings could be removed to be worn as brooches.
“The idea that this was convertible and has the fittings for both the brooch and also the tiara, I think that’s kind of neat.”
Since the provenance of the piece is substantiated by a White House photograph showing Ida McKinley wearing the tiara, as well as information obtained from the McKinley museum, Kwial said it could be appreciated “both as a piece of jewelry and also because of its history.”
“It does link, in a fairly official way, this piece to Ida McKinley,” explained Kwial. “How much value that adds is a little bit open to interpretation.”
Harrison asked Kwial what a price for the tiara would be in his store. Kwial said $75,000.
“OK, sort of what he’s wanting,” said Harrison, “so we’re going to have to talk a little bit.”
MUSEUM EFFORT
An on-air offer by Harrison originally was declined by the tiara’s owner. Parties settled on a price at some point after the taping of the show’s tiara segment.
“By the end of the show, you knew he (Harrison) bought it,” said Kenney. “He actually put it on his head and wore it.”
Following the tiara episode of “Pawn Stars” appearing on the History Channel, Kenney obtained authorization from the museum to call Pawn Stars to see if the museum could acquire it. She was told the tiara was not for sale.
“So, I sent Rick Harrison a letter, letting him know if he ever changed his mind, we would be interested in obtaining it.”
On March 24, Harrison called Kenney to talk about both his and the museum’s interest in the tiara.
“He talked about how he had epilepsy as a child and now is national spokesman for the Epilepsy Foundation,” recalled Kenney. “He said he knew Ida McKinley had epilepsy so he wanted to have it on the show to raise awareness.”
Harrison told Kenney that he would hold off selling the tiara or placing it in auction for three months. If the museum could raise $43,000 in three months, he would sell the tiara to them for only what he paid for it.
Kenney noted that the short timeline is “not necessarily a bad thing.”
“There’s a sense of urgency about it. We don’t have forever to raise the money. We have 90 days. We have until June 24,” she explained. “We’re hopeful we will have the support of the community, that the community will get behind this and we can bring the tiara home.”
In talking to Harrison, Kenney stressed the historical significance of a tiara that belonged to Ida McKinley — the significance of anything that once was owned by the first lady.
“There is so little that belonged to her out there, so each thing that exists that is connected to her is of increased importance,” Kenney said.
“These opportunities don’t come along very often for a president and first lady who have been gone for more than a century.”
To contribute, send checks to Ida McKinley Tiara Fund, McKinley Presidential Library & Museum, 800 McKinley Monument Dr. NW, Canton OH 44708. If you prefer to donate by credit card, call 330-455-7043.
Reach Gary at 330-580-8303 or gary.brown@cantonrep.com.
On Twitter: @gbrownREP
Wm. McKinley Presidential Library & Museum has gotten a $3,700 state History Fund grant to pay for conservation of two of Ida McKinley’s dresses in the museum’s permanent collection.
“We are thrilled to be a History Fund grant recipient said Curator Kimberly Kenney in a media release, noting that conservation of five of 20 gowns in the collection now is funded. “This project is a collections priority for us, with a goal of displaying all of the gowns together in the Keller Gallery after the conservation treatment is complete. We also plan to display one dress in the McKinley Gallery, which will rotate every six months.”
The History Fund, administered through Ohio Historical Society, is a matching grants program — one of four “tax check-off” funds on Ohio’s income tax forms — funded through taxpayer’s voluntary contributions. McKinley museum is one of 10 organizations to receive grants.
Kenney said that one of two dresses to undergo conservation is an aqua ensemble of silk faille, silk satin, and a silk with a looped pile outer layer and a cotton lining. She said the dress has a textured fabric that has deteriorated in two places where fabric will be reproduced digitally to look as close to the original appearance as possible.
The other dress is of silk moiré with a woven floral design. The bodice is covered in French knots, tiny crystal beads, and small sterling silver sequins. Treatment includes repairing splits in the skirt and stabilizing loose sequins. Tarnished sequins will not be cleaned.
“Anything you would do to clean metal would harm the fabric,” said Kenney. “What we would like to do is clean some of the sequins that have fallen off and display them in some way beside the dress, so people can see what the dress originally looked like.”
Also for Ida
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