Living in the past.

• Author: Couch, Robin L.
• Position: Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Inc.'s 3,500-piece art collection - Corporate Gallery: The Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Collection of Americana

When the receptionist says, "Please have a seat in the lobby" and motions you to an 1810 mahogany-framed sofa created by master designer Duncan Phyfe, you smooth your trousers before you sit. Shouldn't such an antique be roped off, or at least moved into an executive office, where the traffic is lighter?

The New York-based investment banking firm of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette doesn't think so. "Almost all of the items are out and in use," Senior Vice President Catherine Conroy assures. "The chairs are used. The secretaries are used. The clocks all chime and keep time."

After all, who wants to hide 3,500 pieces of history-steeped artwork? DLJ's collection of Americana includes some 75 oil paintings 1,200 prints, 200 decorative arts objects, and 2,000 pieces of printed material that focus primarily on early nineteenth-century art from or about the city of New York.

The oils include portraits of such important figures as Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the U.S. Treasury (far right), painted by John Trumbull; George Washington (the same image you see on the dollar bill today), by Gilbert Stuart; and New York businessman Robert Ainslie by Rembrandt Peale. Most of the subcollection of prints show New York City architecture and lifestyle in the nineteenth century. The decorative arts objects--desks, tables, sofas, and other pieces of furniture, many designed by celebrated craftsmen of New York--are in the Federal and Empire styles of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. And the printed materials ranges from letters, books, and manuscripts to paper currency with many items authored or signed by such notables as Hamilton and John Hancock.

The unofficial mascot of the collection is the oil painting Whaler's Flag (pictured at right). It was company founder Dan Lufkin's first purchase in 1967. Since then, DLJ has accumulated much of its "collection of collections," as Curator Margize Howell calls it, in small bunches.

For instance, as America's bicentennial approached, one DLJ officer began accumulating memorabilia dealing with the financing of the American Revolution, including samples of coins and paper currency from 13 original colonies. He intended to sell the pieces when they reached a peak value. But, by 1976, Howell explains, company executives were "so emotionally attached" to the collection, they decided to keep it.

Then, in 1977, DLJ acquired two Wall Street firms that each owned a collection of nineteenth-century...