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The Village Broadside

The Blog of Historic Deerfield

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Chic Cuts: The Abercrombie Fabric Swatchbook

Clothing can often be a vessel for some of our most vivid memories. Garments can recall specific moments and important life events. Like the memories we cherish, saved clothing or its emblems preserves memory through tactile and visual senses. Martha Anna Abercrombie (1839-1923) of Lunenburg, Massachusetts, certainly tapped into this aspect of human nature when she assembled a swatch book of fabrics worn by her and her mother during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

Buyer Beware! English Earthenware Figures and Reproductions

Earthenware figures made by the Leeds Pottery in the 18th century are extremely rare today. Collectors of English earthenware figures would be naturally drawn to these scarce objects.  But buyer beware! Reproductions of these figures (along with a wide variety of tablewares) were made in creamware in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the Senior family. 

Benedict Arnold Arrives in Deerfield (Again)

Benedict Arnold, the infamous traitor of the Revolutionary War, came to Deerfield twice. The first time Arnold made an entrance, not as a traitor, but as an ambitious Connecticut patriot on his way to war. The second time Arnold arrived quietly, with his reputation preceding him.