The Flagler Museum in Palm Beach has set its holiday season and its next major exhibition. From Dec. 18 to 27, Whitehall, Henry Flagler's 1902 estate at One Whitehall Way, will host Fleurs de Villes THE GILDED AGE, an installation of 15 mannequins covered in thousands of fresh flowers, each inspired by characters and costumes from HBO's drama The Gilded Age. Then on Feb. 18, 2027, the museum opens Gilded Age Jewelry: The Making of Modern Luxury, with more than 150 objects borrowed from jewelry houses, museums and private collections in Europe, Asia and the United States.

Fleurs de Villes at Whitehall

Fleurs de Villes is presenting the installation in partnership with HBO Max. The museum says Whitehall is one of six historic estates and gardens chosen to host the national series. Local floral designers create the mannequins, working from the show's characters and period costumes. The installation will be on view throughout the house from Dec. 18 through Dec. 27 and the museum sells admission to see it through its ticketing site.

Holiday evening tours

The museum's after-dark holiday tours run Dec. 18 to 23, plus Dec. 26 and 27, with groups starting at 6, 6:20, 6:40 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $65 for adults and $35 for children.

Each tour is a docent-led walk through the first floor focused on Christmas traditions of the Gilded Age, with carolers and winter refreshments. This year each historic room will also carry floral designs inspired by The Gilded Age. Afterward, guests gather on the Front Portico for refreshments.

Earlier in the month, on Sunday, Dec. 6, from 3 to 5 p.m., museum members at the Family/Dual level and above are invited to the lighting of the 16-foot Christmas tree in the Grand Hall. Henry Flagler's youngest descendants light the tree, and the afternoon includes a choir, a selection from The Nutcracker performed by the Paris Ballet Company, and a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus.

The spring jewelry exhibition

Gilded Age Jewelry: The Making of Modern Luxury runs Feb. 18 through May 2, 2027. It is guest curated by jewelry historian and author Carol Woolton with the museum's chief curator, Campbell Mobley, and organized in collaboration with Boucheron. The museum calls it the most ambitious exhibition in its history.

The exhibition traces how the wealth of America's Gilded Age families and the work of the great jewelry houses changed what luxury looked like. It includes tiaras and other pieces lent by:

  • Jewelry houses: Boucheron, Cartier and Tiffany.
  • Museums: the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  • Estates and private lenders: the Duke of Rosebery, Blenheim Palace, the Al Thani Collection and Albion Art.

Among the pieces the museum has previewed is Boucheron's Marlborough Tiara, made in 1890 of pearls and diamonds and lent by the Blenheim Palace Heritage Foundation in Woodstock, England, and a Boucheron Belle Époque dog-collar necklace of diamonds and platinum from about 1910.

Visiting

Whitehall is a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public for self-guided tours, changing exhibitions and programs. The museum is at One Whitehall Way, Palm Beach, and can be reached at (561) 655-2833. Holiday tour tickets, admission and membership are sold on the museum's website.

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