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The Blog of Historic Deerfield
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.
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!
Have you experienced the gut-punch when learning something surprising about a good friend? This is sometimes how it feels to study history. We learn the stories and voices of people from the past. Their world becomes less foreign but nevertheless remains impossible to reach. Every so often we find something unexpected.
Generations of cooks have known the daily chore of putting food on the table for anxious mouths. Today, we have little trouble readying and preparing food—even if the result might not be perfect. Few modern American spend time butchering hogs, plucking feathers off chickens, grinding corn, or milking cows to make a meal.
At Historic Deerfield, our spring tasks aren’t the same as those recommended to the rural New Englanders of over 150 years go. We don’t get our potatoes in the ground early, set up our asparagus beds, nor plow. But the same spirit of renewal and preparation holds sway for us as we prepare to receive our own favorite crop: visitors!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Despite its popularity in the 17th and 18th centuries as a sweetener in beverages such as tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and punch, sugar in New England (and globally, for that matter) has a very bitter history. As the popularity of sugar increased, the amount of enslaved labor required to harvest sugar also increased to meet the ever higher demand. However, beginning in the 18th century in places such as England, critics of slavery and the slave trade grew louder, and took to expressing their condemnation of slavery on a variety of media, including ceramics. Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) was one such critic, producing in 1787 a ceramic medallion that effectively advocated the abolitionist cause.
Historic Deerfield is honoring our volunteers this year with a series of interviews we are calling “Celebrating our Ambassadors” that introduces a few of our volunteers to our friends and followers. Our Ambassadors give their time with a variety of special talents. In this blog interview, William (Bill, to us) Fennessey shares his thoughts and memories of his volunteer time.