Village Broadside Archives - Historic Deerfield

What Really Happened at the 1676 Falls Fight?

On the dark and threatening night of May 18, 1676, Captains William Turner and Samuel Holyoke set out from Hatfield and Northampton with roughly 150 men, mostly young farmers from the Connecticut River Valley.

They headed north through the burned-down town of Pocumtuck, the village now known as Deerfield. They were headed for the falls at Peskeompskut, sometimes known as Deerfield Falls. Turner, at 63, was sickly and feeble after spending 5 years in a Puritan prison for being a Baptist. He had asked to be relieved of this command. Massachusetts Bay Colony refused. He didn’t know, but likely suspected, that he was to meet his destiny the following day.
They headed north through the burned-down town of Pocumtuck, the village now known as Deerfield. They were headed for the falls at Peskeompskut, sometimes known as Deerfield Falls.

Investigating An Embroidered Waistcoat

A waistcoat in Historic Deerfield’s collection is just one of over 8,000 items that comprise the museum’s collection of textiles and historic fabrics. The waistcoat is made of a cream silk, decorated with Chinese embroidery of plants and a variety of birds. The designs on these incredibly fine embroideries were often inspired by real plants and animals, such as the Ring-necked Pheasant and the Persian silk tree. However, on the whole these flora and fauna are decorative, not scientific, and like their European painted counterparts they tend towards being composites of various plants or several species of bird at once.

Deerfield Common Field Fence

One of the most remarkable historic features of Deerfield, Massachusetts is the survival of the common fields on the meadows surrounding the original English village. The Meadows’ fertility has served the needs of human occupants for thousands of years, although the strategies for planting and harvesting changed as English settlers occupied the raised terraces on the eastern and western sides of the Meadows.

Keeping Your Cool: The Impact of Clothing on the Body in Late 18th-Century Summers

When days get steamy, many of us in the modern era have a set routine. We may turn our air conditioning units to maximum cold, go swimming, or wear the lightest amount of clothing possible while still being acceptable. However, these techniques were either impossible or inappropriate in the late 1700s. Does this mean that people suffered through their farm work under many layers of fabric? For my summer project as an intern with the Historic Deerfield Museum Education department, I set out to investigate this issue.

CALL FOR PAPERS — Banned in Boston: Histories of Artistic Censorship in New England

We invite papers that explore the contours of artistic censorship in New England from the 17th to the 21st centuries. We are interested in a broad range of papers that address both the activities of censors — their philosophical and intellectual foundations, acquisition of power, strategies of implementation — and reactions to censorship by individuals or groups in the form of public protest, legal remedies, legislative change, or education/marketing campaigns.

American Presidential Politics and Deerfield Historian George Sheldon

In 1896, Deerfield historian George Sheldon (1818–1916), while reflecting on the hyper-partisanship noted in Deerfield resident David Hoyt, Jr.’s letters of an earlier time, wryly commented, “Before me lies a letter written in one of those periods, familiar to old men: ‘A crisis in the affairs of the country.’ We smile as we read the customary statement that, ‘on the result of this election, as on that of no other since the government was founded, does the life of the nation depend.’”

Go West Young Man, Go West

In 1805, after eight years as a Deerfield tavernkeeper, Erastus Barnard, his wife Sally, and their three small children moved to Canandaigua, New York. What prompted this long-distance move and how did he gain enough confidence to do this? The answers lie in the flow of information to and from the Connecticut River Valley via personal communions and letters and newspapers through the new United States Postal System.

Fragile Commodities: Dutch Delftware and Representations of Empire

The origins of blue and white delftware are linked to the Dutch trading empire, led by its financially and militarily powerful East India Trading Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC). In the 17th century, delftware began to be modeled after popular Chinese ceramics, which were brought to the Dutch Republic in large numbers once the VOC had established a strong presence in East and Southeast Asia.

GALLERY: Wooly Wonders 2024

Historic Deerfield welcomed visitors of all ages to “Wooly Wonders,” from May 18-19, 2024. The annual celebration invited guests to learn about rare heritage breed sheep, including the Lincoln Longwool, Shetland, Merino, and Romney Marsh sheep, as well as demonstrations of sheepdog herding, hand-shearing, spinning on historic wheels, and weaving.

Enduring Legacies of Puerto Rican Labor in the Connecticut River Valley

Visitors driving into Deerfield or through the Connecticut River Valley may notice throughout their journey long wooden barns once used for drying tobacco leaves. These architecturally simple monuments lent their inspiration to the design of the Flynt Center of Early New England Life at Historic Deerfield. Though now largely abandoned, tobacco barns recall the cultural legacy of Puerto Rican labor in New England, creating the Valley’s first Latino communities.

Lineages of Female Makers in the Connecticut River Valley

Image: (Detail) Sarah Leavitt, embroiderer, Pole Screen, 1810. Metallic silk thread, off-white plain weave silk, metallic sequins, watercolors. 2007.19

In the early decades of the 19th century, young white women at academies and seminaries across New England spent their days mastering foundational arithmetic, reading, and geography while also diligently learning the decorative arts to develop morals and artistic skills. One particularly important hub for the making and teaching of these ornamental arts was the Connecticut River Valley.

The Last Illness of Mary Everett Taft

In the March 25, 1899 issue of the Greenfield Gazette & Courier, the following notice appeared:
“The public are very much saddened by the death of Mrs. Mary E. Taft, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Everett. Mrs. Taft has been seriously ill at her father’s house for three weeks and everything that medical science could do has been done for her…

The Journals of Abby and Mattie Sanderson of Whately Glen

In the winter and early spring months of 1874 and 1876, Martha “Mattie” Ann Sanderson (1854-1933) and her mother, Abby H. Rice Sanderson (1829-1902), kept a journal of their work schedules, domestic cookery, farm production and inventories, sewing projects, daily weather reports, church and prayer meeting attendance and numerous other tasks…

Judging a Book by Its Covers: Bring on the Bling

A comparison of two bindings from a recent gift highlights changes in bookbinding technology over seven decades. My previous post showcased a rare colonial binding that featured gilt tooling in a very restrained, elegant design. By the 1840s, advances and changing tastes culminated in exuberant gold stamping in this title, telling a different story…

Call for Papers: The Arts and Crafts Movement in America’s Northeast

Historic Deerfield is thrilled to announce the acquisition of a masterpiece of Arts and Crafts furniture constructed by Madeline Yale Wynne (1847-1918), Deerfield’s leading proponent of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Known as Garden of Hearts, the chest, with finely crafted, forged, hammered, carved, and painted elements, was made in 1903 and is an important example of Arts and Crafts furniture by a groundbreaking female artist.

Judging a Book by its Covers: A Rare Colonial Binding

A recent library donation of rare books included the 22nd edition of “Hymns and Spiritual Songs” published in 1771. It joins six other hymnals written by Isaac Watts (1674-1748), an English Congregational minister and hymn writer (most notably “Joy to the World”), whose many hymnals were reprinted long after his death. Three in our collection boast a western Massachusetts provenance…

An Extraordinary Gift to the Library

The generosity of an anonymous donor has brought the extraordinary gift to the Henry N. Flynt Library of a large and varied group of important rare books. Among them is one of the masterpieces of early European printing: the Liber Chronicarum, or the Nuremberg Chronicle, published in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1493, less than 50 years after the printing of the landmark Gutenberg Bible.

Digging in the Dirt: Arad Munn’s Second Job

The death of a loved one can be sudden and shocking, or the inevitable result of a long decline. Either way, those that remain find themselves tasked with the immediate details of death, such as preparing the body for burial, procuring a coffin, arranging a viewing and/or funeral, finding a burial site, and digging a grave.

An Unusual Scaleboard Account Book

Over the past decade, scaleboard bindings have attracted the interest of the book history community. Named because the book covers were made of thin pieces of wood that had been shaved, planed or scaled down to just several millimeters in thickness, this binding style was popular almost exclusively in New England from the early 18th through the early 19th centuries.

On the Mend

In the spring of 2020, I was one of the many people who sought to learn a new skill as a way to pass the long hours at home. My pandemic hobby was darning. When I went online in search of tutorials and videos that would teach me to repair the worn out heels of my old wool socks, I discovered to my surprise that darning was actually in!

The Village Broadside