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The Blog of Historic Deerfield
In 1845, author Charles Hayter published the sixth edition of his popular artist’s manual An Introduction to Perspective, Practical Geometry, Drawing and Painting . Hayter, a noted portrait painter and drawing master to King George IV’s daughter Princess Charlotte, issued it several times beginning in 1813 until …
When did we become the United States? Most Americans who know something of our history would probably say 1776; others might mention the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention in September of that year. And what of the rest of the world? When did widespread recognition of our sovereignty occur?
Heather Harrington, Associate Librarian, explores 19th century Christmas celebrations by examining a December 27, 1860 letter from Edward Wells Colton of Northfield, MA to his fiancée Susan Heard in Boston.
Heather Harrington, Associate Librarian, explores 19th century dentistry practices by examining a passage in a September 16, 1860 letter from Edward Wells Colton of Northfield, MA to his fiancée Susan Heard, in Boston.
Claire C. Carlson, Director of Archaeology, provides an update on the fieldwork completed to-date in the Stebbins House Archaeology Program.
Guest blog contributors Tyler Rudd Putman and Henry Cooke examine a 1760 shipping invoice for ready-made clothing to Boston merchant-tailor William Waine. The authors explore the clothing trade in mid-18th-century Boston.
Most academies taught geography through an understanding of maps, perhaps influenced by Emma Willard’s teachings. Willard (1787-1870) declared maps “the written language of geography,” and persuasively argued for their use in the classroom.[3] This often took the form of students creating a graphic representation, whether with pen, ink, and watercolors, or needle and thread, or some combination of the two.
In 2001, Historic Deerfield acquired a rare woman’s riding hat. Dating to about 1815, its accompanying riding suit, or habit, no longer survives. Nevertheless, it is an important object in the museum’s fashion and dress collection, helping to inform visitors today about conventions of female fashion and sport at the turn of the 19th century.
On Wednesday, May 19, 2021, Historic Deerfield celebrated the career of its President and CEO, Philip Zea, who is retiring after 36 years working at the museum.
In April’s blog, Historic Deerfield President and CEO Philip Zea shares one of his favorite objects in the museum collection – and gives a primer on the nine points of connoisseurship in collecting that you can take with you in the quest for significant art and antiques.
March 17, 2021 marks the 245th anniversary of the end of the Siege of Boston, which lasted from April 1775 to March 1776 during the early years of the American Revolution. The siege followed on the heels of the infamous battles at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts in April 1775.
In 1876, the Centennial World’s Fair in Philadelphia equally commemorated our country’s past and envisioned its bright future. This fused energy swept into Deerfield with the arrival of artist James Wells (“Champ”) Champney and his writer wife Elizabeth Williams (“Lizzie”) Champney that summer.
Although cacao trees don’t grow in our climate, chocolate has a long history in New England, given our close economic connections to the West Indies. New England merchants supplied barrel staves, lumber, onions, salt fish, salt beef, and horses to the Caribbean in exchange for sugar, molasses, rum, and cacao.
In this installment of Maker Mondays we want to treat you to some recipes for holiday drinks that were popular in early New England.
Historic Deerfield is proud to welcome visitors from all over the world, but when it comes to the insects that also call western Massachusetts home, we would prefer that they observe our historic houses from the outside. However, since spiders and other insects are wont to set up house wherever they like best, the museum has put in place a program to keep track of these tiny intruders. This system is known as an integrated pest management program, or IPM.
As the days get shorter and the sun sets early in the Northern hemisphere, we look to the past for inspiration for lighting our homes and lives. Historic Deerfield’s collection of eighteenth and nineteenth-century lighting equipment includes fat lamps, candlesticks, sconces, oil lamps and lanterns.
A look into the life and death of one Deerfield resident, Mary Arms Harvey, whose unique gravestone in Deerfield’s Old Burying Ground depicts a heartbreaking story.
About twenty-five Deerfield women were paid to embroider vegetable-dyed linen yarns on hand-spun linen cloth. If their work was of sufficient quality, a flax wheel with a “D” was embroidered on the piece by one of the two founders as a “seal of approval.” This table scarf is an example of Pattern No. 7: Shepherd’s Thistle. This scarf is made of unbleached linen cloth with linen embroidery threads with traditional Blue and White Society stitches, in three shades of blue, plus white, detailing the large thistle at each end of the scarf.
In the final blog post about Abigail and John Adams, author David Bruce Smith explores the couple’s greatest triumph and greatest regret.
