Living in the past.

When the receptionist says, "Please have a seat in the lobby" and motions you to an 1810 mahogany-framed sofa created by master designer Duncan Phyfe, you smooth your trousers before you sit. Shouldn't such an antique be roped off, or at least moved into an executive office, where the traffic is lighter?

The New York-based investment banking firm of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette doesn't think so. "Almost all of the items are out and in use," Senior Vice President Catherine Conroy assures. "The chairs are used. The secretaries are used. The clocks all chime and keep time."

After all, who wants to hide 3,500 pieces of history-steeped artwork? DLJ's collection of Americana includes some 75 oil paintings 1,200 prints, 200 decorative arts objects, and 2,000 pieces of printed material that focus primarily on early nineteenth-century art from or about the city of New York.

The oils include portraits of such important figures as Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the U.S. Treasury (far right), painted by John Trumbull; George Washington (the same image you see on the dollar bill today), by Gilbert Stuart; and New York businessman Robert Ainslie by Rembrandt Peale. Most of the subcollection of prints show New York City architecture and lifestyle in the nineteenth century. The decorative arts objects--desks, tables, sofas, and other pieces of furniture, many designed by celebrated craftsmen of New York--are in the Federal and Empire styles of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. And the printed materials ranges from letters, books, and manuscripts to paper currency with many items authored or signed by such notables as Hamilton and John Hancock.

The unofficial mascot of the collection is the oil painting Whaler's Flag (pictured at right). It was company founder Dan Lufkin's first purchase in 1967. Since then, DLJ has accumulated much of its "collection of collections," as Curator Margize Howell calls it, in small bunches.

For instance, as America's bicentennial approached, one DLJ officer began accumulating memorabilia dealing with the financing of the American Revolution, including samples of coins and paper currency from 13 original colonies. He intended to sell the pieces when they reached a peak value. But, by 1976, Howell explains, company executives were "so emotionally attached" to the collection, they decided to keep it.

Then, in 1977, DLJ acquired two Wall Street firms that each owned a collection of nineteenth-century American art. One had prints of New York in the early 1800s; the other had Currier & Ives prints of life in the late 1800s.

Finally, in 1983, when the New York City Chamber of Commerce moved to a smaller office, DLJ bought the Chamber's collection of some 50 portraits of prominent people in New York and American financial history.

Parts of the Americana Collection have made it into the national spotlight. Several years ago, the Chamber's portraits were loaned for a scene in the movie Trading Places. Then, in 1989, Secretary of Treasury Nicholas Brady asked to borrow the life-size portraits of Alexander Hamilton to display outside his office during the U.S. Treasury's bicentennial. And, in 1990, when President Bush wanted a portrait of an American hero to hang behind him as he spoke at an economic summit in Houston, Alexander Hamilton again got the job.

DLJ celebrates its Americana Collection in an elaborate brochure that describes some of the company's finest pieces. Each page shares anecdotes about the artwork and its creators. The company also uses art from the collection to decorate corporate literature, such as two recent annual reports.

How does the DLJ staff react to all the fanfare? "Whenever employees have relatives, friends, or clients visting, they'll tour them through the headquarters. The artwork is all there, and I think everyone appreciates it," says Conroy. "And Margize, our curator, tries to display an employee's favorite piece either in his or her office or near it."

Indeed, Seth Low, once mayor of Brooklyn and president of Columbia University and now the subject of one of DLJ's oil portraits, was the uncle of the grandfather of Josiah Low, who today works as director of corporate finance at DLJ. Abiel Abbot Low, Seth's brother and a descendant of the founder of A. A. Low & Sons, which sent clipper ships to China in the 1800s, also is represented in the DJL collection. "When Josiah arrived, we thought it only fitting that we flank the door to his office with the portraits of his ancestors," explains Conroy. "I mean, we just wouldn't do it any other way."