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The Blog of Historic Deerfield
This is not a blog about pumpkin spice. While today we decorate our yards and front steps with pumpkins and gourds and drink coffee flavored with pumpkin pie spices, long ago the pumpkin and its relatives — winter squashes — were a staple and necessary food item that were stored and eaten over the long and cold New England winters.
In this installment of Maker Mondays we want to treat you to some recipes for holiday drinks that were popular in early New England.
Bored with your daily routine? Are you in a Netflix binging rut? Turn off your devices and dust off your chess set, play a game of checkers or mancala, crack open a dictionary and look for new words for a scrabble match, or teach yourself how to play a favorite old tavern game like table-top nine pins, shut the box, nine men’s morris, or fox and geese.This Monday we’re encouraging you play board games and to create your own.
This Monday, we are going to show you how to make dolls using corn husks. Popularly known as “Corn Husk Dolls,” we are presenting our own adaptation of a traditional Native American craft. Corn husk dolls have been, and are still, crafted world-wide by just about every culture that grows corn.
This Monday we’re encouraging you to create your own paper powder horn. We will show you some examples from The William H. Guthman Collection of American Powder Horns at Historic Deerfield, offer a brief description of how a powder horn is made, and then guide you in making your own paper powder horn.
Learn about the historic art form of quilling. See an example of quilled art from the collection, and learn how to make your own quilled shapes and pictures.
This week’s Maker Monday project comes from a suggestion made by Amanda Lange, Curatorial Department Chair. We have a small wooden box, beautifully decorated with paint and paper cut-outs in our collection. This box represents an art form called decoupage. We thought you would enjoy learning about it and trying to decorate your own special box at home.
This Monday we have adapted an activity from a garden program that we have offered at Historic Deerfield during previous Junes. At the History Workshop, we have a teaching garden. Every year we feature plants like flax, broom corn, herbs and vegetables that support our interpretive programs.
This Monday we have something a little different for you. It is an activity that comes from a popular program we have offered called “All About Tea,” where we like to offer visitors the opportunity to sit and enjoy teatime. So today, we want to offer you a virtual tea party!
Americans practiced the art of stenciling extensively during the early decades of the nineteenth century. Learn the history of stencil art, and how to make your own stencil and bookmark in this activity.
Last week we explained how to make a journal. We hope you were successful and had fun: maybe you have started writing, drawing or making notes in your journal. This Maker Monday we would like to introduce you to some ideas about journal keeping.
Today’s Maker Mondays offering will be part one of a two-week activity. Today, we will show you how to make a journal. Next Monday we will explain some methods of journal writing and share samples of journals from Historic Deerfield’s archives. While you are making your journal this week, you can think about what you would like to put in your journal.
This week’s Maker Monday is inspired by spring flowers.
We wanted to show you an easy way of capturing the ephemeral beauty of flowers. Follow step-by-step directions for making a flower print by pounding petals!
This week’s Maker Monday is inspired by food history and the love of butter and freshly baked buttermilk biscuits.
This week’s Maker Monday is inspired by curiosity and the love of collecting. The heart of every museum is its collection of objects.
Make your own berry ink and old paper at home, and write with a quill pen.