This inspiring display features more than 150 authentic eighteenth-century Neapolitan angel and Nativity figurines in an opulent Italian crèche setting. In addition to the traditional figures of Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and the Three Magi, the collection includes a host of angels and more than 75 townspeople.

The practice of re-creating the Nativity has long been a tradition in Italy. St. Francis of Assisi is credited with reenacting the first Nativity in 1223 near the Italian town of Greccio, where claims of miracles followed his Christmas Eve Mass. These Nativity scenes are known as crèches or presepi. Créche (pronounced “kresh”) is derived from the French word for manger, and the Italian, “il presepe,” from the Latin praesaepe, with prae meaning “in front” and saepire “to enclose,” together translated as manger.

The collection was inspired by a 1985 trip to New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art by Mrs. Jewell Younger Graeber of Marks, Mississippi. There she viewed the world-renowned Angel Tree exhibition and was so moved that she began her own collection of handcrafted Italian figurines. The collection is curated by Mrs. Graeber’s daughter, Gay Graeber Stubbs of Oxford. “This display was specifically collected and displayed for the children of Mississippi,” says Stubbs. “When my mother and daddy viewed the breathtaking Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Angel Tree, Mother watched the faces of small children light up with wonder at the scene. Her comment was, ‘The children of New York are so fortunate to see this. The children of Mississippi would never have this experience.’” She bought her first four figures in 1987, and like those on display at the Metropolitan, the figures in the Younger Collection are made of metal wrapped in hemp, heads and shoulders are painted terracotta, the eyes are glass, and feet and hands are made of wood.