VENTURA : $100,000 Donated to County Museum

Marie Antoinette, Thomas Jefferson and other historical figures at the Ventura County Museum of History & Art will get a little extra care because of a new $100,000 endowment to the museum.

The endowment, made by members of the Smith-Hobson family, is dedicated to protecting and conserving the museum’s permanent collection of 197 miniature likenesses by internationally acclaimed artist George Stuart.

The statues, which are all one-quarter of life size, depict historical figures such as British, French and Russian monarchs and America’s Founding Fathers. They are adorned in elaborate period costumes and are made of fabrics, metals and other materials.

Ed Roblings, the museum’s executive director, calls the pieces “three-dimensional portraits.”

Stuart, who lives in Ojai, serves as curator for the collection, which the museum has owned since 1979.

“It’s very gratifying to know that there is such regard for this collection on the part of this prominent family in Ventura County,” Stuart said, referring to the Smith-Hobsons.

“This is going to make it much easier for us to save the collection. Part of it is in a badly deteriorated state.”

Some of the endowment money will be used to restore those figures whose clothes and hair have been eaten through by insects, mainly carpet beetles, he said.

The funds will also go toward building wood-and-aluminum boxes for storing figures when they are not on display. The boxes will protect the statues from further insect damage, he said.

The endowment came from Ventura County natives Barbara Barnard Smith, 72, of Hawaii, and her sister, Helen M. Smith, 70, of Claremont.

A spokesman for the family, which still has oil, real estate and farming interests in the county, said the sisters donated the money out of respect for Stuart’s work and to honor the memory of their parents, Fred W. and Grace Hobson Smith.

The Stuart collection, which is on continual display, is housed in the museum’s Fred W. and Grace Hobson Smith Gallery.

The gallery has been funded almost entirely by the Smith-Hobson family. This endowment is the largest single donation they have made to the museum.