Rosamond Fulmer Window Display & Exhibition Design Collection

Hammer Galleries was founded in 1928 by businessmen and brothers Victor J. Hammer and Armand Hammer. Initially, the gallery focused on Russian art and artworks from the Imperial era including decorative art such as tea sets, dishware, and vases; religious icons; paintings; and jewelry. The gallery was known for presenting the first exhibition of Fabergé eggs in the West in 1937 and the sale of the William Randolph Hearst Collection in 1941. Starting in the 1950s, the gallery shifted its focus towards the work of European and American artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Rosamond Fulmer (1906-1956) was an interior designer and artist who worked in New York City, Reno, and San Francisco. Born Bessie Rosamond Fulmer on January 23, 1906 in San Francisco, California, she was the youngest daughter to parents W.W. Fulmer and Julie Wintermantel Fulmer. The Fulmer family moved to Reno, Nevada, where W.W. Fulmer worked as a General Purchasing Agent for Wells Fargo. By 1915, the Fulmer family had moved to New York City, living in Washington Heights.

Fulmer took courses at the Art Students League of New York, where she received a fellowship. As a student, Fulmer primarily went by her middle name, Rosamond, and later shifted to using the name Rosamond Hardy Fulmer. Fulmer lived with her eldest sister, Elva, in New York City for most of her life, primarily on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Fulmer took on assorted jobs within the arts, working as a commercial illustrator and designing theater studios. She also painted murals, including for her brother-in-law’s jewelry store.

Fulmer lived in Reno from 1936 to 1938, where her sister Dorothy had moved in 1928 with her husband Frederick Otto Herz. While in Reno, Fulmer intertwined herself in the local social scene, frequently appearing in the society pages of the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Fulmer contributed to Hammer Galleries’ 1937 exhibition of the Fabergé imperial eggs, which was the first exhibition of said items in the United States. She began working full-time for Hammer Galleries in 1938, where she primarily created window displays of Russian religious icons, Imperial-era housewares, paintings, and jewelry. Fulmer received awards for her window displays, including the Silver Cup from the Fifth Avenue Association for her 1940 Christmas display for Hammer Galleries. Fulmer’s other responsibilities included interior design of the galleries and exhibitions, and the creation of advertisements for Hammer Galleries in print magazines. She also wrote on Hammer Galleries’ artworks in art and society magazines including the Park Avenue Social Review and the Social Spectator and contributed to the design of the 1941 sale of William Randolph Hearst’s collection at Gimbels Department Store. Fulmer stopped working for Hammer Galleries in the late 1940s.

In the 1950s, Fulmer moved back to her birthplace of San Francisco, where she continued to work as an interior designer and artist. Fulmer died of thymus cancer on April 8, 1956, in San Francisco.

Sources consulted:

Lillian Borghi, “Arts and Artists.” Reno Gazette-Journal (Reno, NV), Sep. 3, 1938.

New York. New York. 1920 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com : 2025

“Frequent Visitor to Reno Passes.” Reno Gazette-Journal (Reno, NV), Apr. 10, 1956.