An exhibition at the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach aims to rescue Polly Jessup from obscurity.
If you’ve never heard of Polly Jessup, it’s because she and her blue-chip clients didn’t want
you to. Known as the Grande Dame of Palm Beach decorators, Jessup enjoyed a fruitful
career spanning six decades. She didn’t advertise or publish photographs of her rooms, a counterintuitive business strategy that attracted publicity-shy blue-chippers like Fords, Mellons, and du Ponts. When Jessup died in 1988, age 89, she commanded a staff of 52 but managed to stay under the public radar to the end.