Not long after the BMA moved to its present quarters, Ellen Howard Bayard (1863-1939) left a generous bequest of historic paintings, silver, porcelain and other objects, some of which are on view in adjacent galleries. She also donated this spectacular oval pier mirror, a delicate neoclassical form blown up to impressive mid-19th-century scale and corwned with a life-sized carved day lily. Recently restored, the mirror is making its very first appearance in the galleries after 75 years in storage. As the daughter of Ellen Gilmore Howard and Richard B. Bayard, the donor was connected to powerful colonial families--the Gilmors of Maryland and the Bayards of Delaware. It is likely that the mirror was made in nearby Philadelphia. Originally it would have hung between two windows, perhaps in the Bayard household.