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Historic NEW ENGLAND
PRESENTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR T H E P R E S E RVAT I O N O F NEW ENGLAND ANTIQUITIES SUMMER 2006
AT HOME WITH THE BOWENS
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FROM THE PRESIDENT
Historic NEW ENGLAND
Aaron Usher
Summer 2006 Vol. 7, No.1
At Home with the Bowens 2
David Carmack
We are fulfilling our vision of being a more public organization by engaging more people with the extraordinary historic resources in our care. From education programs serving thousands of school children, to our strong internet presence, to our partnership with other organizations, Historic New England is now more accessible to the public. At the core of our efforts are our members. During June we celebrate Members’ Month as staff experts welcome you to properties not often open and lead behind-thescenes tours of the collections and facilities your membership helps support. Members’ Month launches a new initiative to dramatically increase our membership levels. With the aid of a Community Action Partners team of Harvard Business School alumni, we are sending the message that membership not only brings individual benefits but also makes a lasting contribution to the preservation of New England heritage. We’re proud to preserve and present our thirty-five historic sites and our vast collections. We believe that this outstanding work merits support by those who care about preserving the region’s historic past. Membership is the best way to express that support. During Members’ Month and the year ahead, please help us bring new members to the organization by giving gift memberships or simply suggesting to others that they join. Thank you.
William Morris in New England 16
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PA RT N E R S H I P
Animals at the Farm 8
P R E S E RVAT I O N
Repairing Loose and Broken Window Glass M A K I N G F U N O F H I S TO RY
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Photography Through the Centuries 13
MUSEUM SHOP
—Carl R. Nold
Members’ Special 14
COLLECTIONS
Little Women Historic New England 141 Cambridge Street Boston MA 02114-2702 (617) 227-3956 HISTORIC NEW ENGLAND magazine is a benefit of membership. To join Historic New England, please visit our website, HistoricNew England.org or call (617) 227-3957, ext.273. Comments? Please call Nancy Curtis, editor at (617) 227-3957, ext.235. Historic New England is funded in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Executive Editor Diane Viera
Editor Nancy Curtis
Design DeFrancis Carbone
S P OT L I G H T
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The Glorious Fourth LANDSCAPE
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Sarah Orne Jewett and the White Rose N E W S : N E W E N G L A N D & B E YO N D AC Q U I S I T I O N S
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Boston from Dorchester Heights Except where noted, all historic photographs and ephemera are from Historic New England’s Library and Archives.
COVER Dining room, Roseland Cottage,Woodstock, Connecticut.
Photograph by Aaron Usher. V I S I T U S O N L I N E AT
w w w. H i s t o r i c N ew E n g l a n d . o r g
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P A R T N E R S H I P
Animals
Photographs by David Carmack
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at the Farm or nearly three centuries, animals were a vital part of the landscape at Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm in Newbury, Massachusetts. The Little family ran a thriving business importing and selling Iowa draft horses in the nineteenth century, and there were sheep, cows, and poultry, not to mention family pets, as well. Until recently, Historic New England imported farm animals for the day during special events like the Draft Horse Plow Match and the Harvest Festival. Now the organization partners with the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA), ensuring the presence of animals at the farm year round. The partnership developed out of mutual needs—the MSPCA’s Nevins Farm shelter in Methuen, Massachusetts, had more animals than it could house, while Historic New England wanted animals not only for its special events but also for new family-friendly programs in development at the farm. Last spring, Historic New England built historically accurate fencing and timber-frame shelters at the farm, and at the end of April, just in time for the Draft Horse Plow Match, the first foster animals arrived: two Nubian goats named Sun and Shine and Tonya, the game hen. The goats were soon joined by two lambs, two ducks, two additional hens, a pair of elderly sheep, and Molly Brown, a retired thoroughbred horse. The response from the community is overwhelming. Dozens of people come every day to say hello to their favorite farm friend. Twice each week, a group of toddlers attends a morning program focused on one of the animals. Caroline the sheep makes good will visits to neighbors, and several animals visit local schools. The MSPCA is a wonderful partner in this endeavor, providing help with planning, transportation, and animal husbandry education. In exchange, Historic New England offers flexible, adaptable space and a loving and secure home for the animals saved by the MSPCA’s good work, while relieving the strain on Nevins Farm’s resources. The presence of animals at Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm enriches the experience for every visitor and keeps the farm’s historic tradition alive.
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Admiring farm animals is a favorite activity for family visitors. ABOVE TOP Two sheep, Erma and Earl, arrive at the farm. ABOVE Two of the Little sisters with one of the family’s cows, c. 1900. ABOVE RIGHT
Visit the farm this season, Thursdays through Sundays, from 11 am to 5 pm, through October 15.
— Bethany Groff Regional Site Manager
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“We are all settled
for the summer and how rapidly it will pass….”
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riting to a friend one June day, Lucy Bowen recounted her routine for the summer
at Historic New England’s Roseland Cottage, “After breakfast, sisters & myself read French for an hour & then in the afternoon, read History or something of that nature…. The remainder of the day is spent in riding, eating, sleeping, sewing & thinking.” The quiet country life attracted Lucy and her husband, Henry Chandler Bowen, a successful merchant, publisher, insurance company founder, and entrepreneur, because of its sharp contrast with the bustling New York City world where the family lived for the rest of the year. In 1846, the Bowens had built a Gothic Revival country “cottage” in the peaceful village of Woodstock, Connecticut, Henry’s hometown. For three generations, the town, and Roseland, would become the symbolic center of Bowen family life, a place where children and adults alike could relax in
the healthy country air and devote themselves to selfimprovement and outdoor activities. Henry Chandler Bowen, a self-made man, used the powers of the purse and press to achieve importance for himself and his family. The son of a storekeeper, he left Woodstock at the age of twenty to work as a clerk in the New York City dry goods store of Arthur and Lewis Tappan, successful silk merchants from New England known for their strong work ethic, sharp business acuity, religious fervor, and anti-slavery sentiments. In 1838, Henry, along with another former Tappan clerk, left to set up his own dry goods emporium specializing in silks. Bowen was a shrewd businessman; as one later commentator remarked, “driving a bargain narrowly FACING PAGE The Bowens’ newly refurbished bedchamber displays the original Gothic Revival furniture, including a mahogany crib recently donated by Henry E. Bowen’s descendants. ABOVE LEFT Roseland Cottage, designed by Joseph C.Wells, was built in 1846 for the rapidly expanding Bowen family. ABOVE RIGHT Lucy and Henry Bowen with their first child, Henry E. Bowen, 1845.
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The front parlor, as well as the dining room (cover) and hall (page 7), reflect both Roseland’s original Gothic Revival style in architectural details and furniture and Henry and Ellen Bowens’ taste for elaborate 1880s-style decoration. ABOVE RIGHT Joseph C. ABOVE LEFT
and sticking to it afterwards. No matter what a venture seems to promise in other hands, it is almost always a mine of wealth when Henry Bowen works it.” By the 1850s, his elegant marble store on Broadway did more business than any other silk wholesaler. In 1844, Henry, aged thirty, married Lewis Tappan’s nineteen-year-old daughter, Lucy Maria Tappan; they had both taught Sunday school at their Brooklyn church. Two years later, the couple built Roseland Cottage. During Lucy’s lifetime, Roseland was a quiet retreat for Lucy, Henry, their children, and close family friends and relations. Universally revered as a “naturally amiable and affectionate” woman, Lucy devoted her life to domestic concerns, her family, her church, and especially her children. Between 1845 and 1863, she gave birth to seven sons and three daughters, and spent most of her time, as her father recalled, “making all around her happy by her genial disposition.” In the 1850s, the profits from Bowen’s store fluctuated wildly along with the economy of a country fractured by sectionalism. Henry was opposed to the extension of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Law, but he saw himself as a “con4
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Wells also designed Bowen’s “marble store,” built on Broadway in New York City in 1850. BELOW Bowen used this box after Abraham Lincoln appointed him Tax Collector for his Brooklyn district.
science Whig” rather than an abolitionist. Ever the businessman, Bowen had strong trade relations with southerners and hoped to keep his business and his politics separate, but the store eventually closed when southern customers repudiated their debts to northern merchants on the eve of the Civil War. Fortunately, Henry had initiated another highly lucrative endeavor in 1853, when he gathered a group of investors to establish the Continental Insurance Company, which would provide a steady source of income for generations of Bowens. In 1848, Henry founded and became the publisher of a weekly newspaper, the Independent, designed to spread New England Congregationalist values. He hired a series of distinguished editors, and the paper published the writings of many of the leading literary figures of the day along with sermons and other religious tracts. The Independent avoided partisan politics until 1856, when Bowen became an early supporter of the Republican party. After Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860, Bowen, and his newspaper, became important players in regional and even national politics. In 1862, he was rewarded with a profitable patronage position—Tax Collector for the Third District of
Courtesy of Museum of the City of New York
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Three of Lucy and Henry Bowens’ younger sons, John, Herbert, and Franklin, photographed after Henry married Ellen Holt in 1865. ABOVE RIGHT Grace Bowen named her doll Lena Rivers after the heroine of a popular 1856 novel. Like Grace, ABOVE LEFT
the State of New York. Bowen worked hard for Republican candidates throughout his life, and he, and the Independent, gained influence in the party in return for his loyalty. In 1863, Lucy died at the age of thirty-eight, leaving Henry Bowen with ten children between the ages of one month and eighteen. Soon after her death, the bereaved and undoubtedly beleaguered widower sent four of his older children away to school, and two years later, he married his second cousin, Ellen Holt. They would have one son together. Henry and Ellen’s marriage was a turning point for the family and for Roseland, which became a site of entertainment and display rather than a quiet country retreat. Ellen, the thirty-one-year-old daughter of a Connecticut doctor, embraced the political and social ambitions of her well-established, middle-aged husband. For the next thirty years she would be an eager hostess, consumer, and partner in his schemes for promoting Woodstock, his family, and himself.
Lena had a large and fashionable wardrobe; they are depicted in matching outfits on page 14. BELOW Henry and Ellen Bowen, photographed during the heyday of Woodstock’s July Fourth celebrations (see illustrations on page 21).
After the Civil War, Henry determined to make Woodstock a showplace for New England values as well as an advertisement for his newspaper and its politics, and he and Ellen began to host hundreds of visitors at their “cottage.” Reviving an early nineteenth-century tradition of Independence Day celebrations, he made Woodstock the site of an ever-escalating series of yearly patriotic commemorations attended by thousands. Three presidents, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, and Rutherford B. Hayes, and a long list of senators, congressmen, governors, and other political, literary, and social luminaries trekked to Woodstock to participate in these July Fourth events. Like other self-made nineteenthcentury men, Bowen pursued wealth and fame repeatedly, even when exposure to the public eye might hurt his reputation. A complex man whose moralistic selfimage contrasted with his pugnacious style, Bowen was party to a number of lawsuits and a central figure in the infamous Beecher-Tilton scandal of the 1870s. In 1870 Theodore Summer 2006 Historic New England
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Tilton, an editor at the Independent, had accused fellow editor Henry Ward Beecher, who was both Bowen’s minister and a national celebrity, of seducing his wife. During a widely publicized trial, it became clear that Bowen, despite his belief in Beecher’s guilt, had brokered a cover-up to protect his financial interests. With the tumult of the Brooklyn scandal, Roseland Cottage became even more important to Bowen as a representation of his personal success and the values—education, hard work, thrift, clean living, and moral principles— he saw as key to the prosperity and fortunes of the nation. Henry Bowen had a deep impact on his children. While they idolized the “mamma” who had lavished affection on them and died so young, they also internalized their father’s need for acceptance and recognition. Henry was a proud, generous, and loyal father, and he, like Lucy, encouraged his children to study, become proficient at writing of all kinds (family Co ur te sy occasions were marked by of th e Am er ica n An tiq ua ria n So cie ty original poems and oratory), play musical instruments, and engage in healthy physical activities. But Henry could also be stern and moralistic, and the children found his prohibitions against drinking, smoking, card-playing, and theatre attendance old-fashioned and inappropriate for young people of their class. Like their father, the two older boys began as clerks, but their training prepared them to become brokers in the highpowered world of investing and banking. The five younger brothers followed a different path, attending elite colleges; all but one went to Yale. By 1869, when Clarence matriculated, a college education had come to represent class status as much as learning. College men learned appropriate class behaviors, made the contacts that would serve them throughout life, and achieved masculinity through competitive activities in and out of the classroom, including debate and sports. Henry may have been reluctant to send his sons to Yale, and he insisted that Clarence sign a pledge to “refrain” from behaviors he disliked. In fact, he may have allowed Clarence to go only because he had expressed interest in the ministry, a profession that required a college degree. Clarence broke his pledge to his father, guiltily noting in his journal in 1872 that “We had a little ‘Rum’…last evening;…We have these innocent ‘recreations’ once in two or three weeks but they are very quiet and orderly.” But he also taught Sunday school and otherwise behaved himself, and in the end his brothers, none of whom had religious aspirations, followed him to Yale. Most of the Bowen sons were ambitious; they engaged in various literary, journalistic, historical, and diplomatic endeavors that reflected the family criteria of self-improvement, self-advancement, and public service. 6
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The Bowen sons expended much of their considerable energy on sports, especially in Woodstock. All the Bowen children grew up bowling in Henry’s ten-pin alley as well as riding, playing croquet, and swimming, but as they matured, the sons increasingly exhibited their masculinity, sophistication, and class status through sports like polo, hunting, and, eventually, golf. One Saturday in 1879, for example, Clarence and his brother Frank went fishing in Woodstock at 5 am; afterwards “from 9 to 11 we played archery. Then a number of us went down to the Park…took a boat and with our guns and a lunch started down the lake…I shot with my new gun for practice several red winged black birds on the fly… Frank shot a huge heron. From 3 to 4 p.m. I attended the Prefaratory Lecture at the Church and from 4 to six played a most exciting game of Polo on the Common. Then I took tea at Ned’s home and in the evening saw fireworks at Roseland Cottage and also looked through a new telescope at the stars. I tell you, I slept soundly that night.” While the Bowen daughters engaged in lady-like sports like swimming, boating, bowling, badminton and croquet, they, like other genteel nineteenth-century women, spent most of their time reading, sewing, and helping to run the household. Like their mother, Mary and Alice married young; devoted to their families, they chose to bask in the reflected glory of their husbands’ and children’s many accomplishments. Grace, who remained single until she was forty-eight, helped her sisters with their children and her stepmother with household duties and social responsibilities, planning dinner parties and other entertainments, paying social calls, and creating beautiful fancy work for family Christmas gifts. In 1874, Mary noted that “George [her husband] and I are busy with the literature of the Elizabethan age. Our life is a very happy one. We live quietly and simply. Have our friends here to see us, see all the good plays there are to be seen and try to find what pleasure there is to be found.” Written during the trying period of the Beecher-Tilton scandal, when the family was embarrassed by all the negative publicity involving Henry, this remark poignantly reveals the deep impact of the scandal on the second generation of Bowens. The older Bowen children traveled frequently to Europe in the 1870s, perhaps in part to remove themselves from the American public eye. Like many wealthy Americans in this period, they became inveterate travelers. They frequented the theater and the opera in New York and Europe, and they continued to drink and smoke, despite their father’s disapproval. In what may have been a wry commentary on their upbringing, Grace sent her brother Harry a check for “cigars—or whiskey” for his seventieth birthday. Henry Bowen died in 1896, but his presence and influence continued to be felt in the family, and Woodstock, for many years. By the early twentieth century several second and third generation Bowens had purchased summer and retirement
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The Bowen’s sons, like other late nineteenth-century men of their class, spent much of their leisure time engaged in sporting activities like hunting, polo, and, later, golf. Hunters enjoyed presenting their catch to appreciative young ladies, who would ABOVE LEFT
homes in the town. Mary, Ned, and Frank had inherited Roseland, and, in the evenings, the family converged on the “cottage” for cousin parties and other entertainments where stories were told and family bonds reforged. In 1940, Mary’s children, Constance and Sylvia, became the family hostesses, carefully preserving the house, its contents, and the tales that they had heard and repeated. Many of these legends continue to be passed on to Roseland Cottage visitors today. Henry Chandler Bowen was a significant, fascinating, and fully human man of his time— a self-made businessman, activist, political organizer, and promoter of quintessentially American nineteenth-century cultural values, including loyalty to family and country. Roseland Cottage stands as a symbol of the principles he espoused—community, morality, self-sufficiency, thrift—as well as those he represented—upward mobility, individualism, ambition, and consumption—and tells a key American story of success. — Susan L. Porter Historian
cook the food and save bird wings, feathers, and animal fur for their decorative value. ABOVE RIGHT The rich colors of the recently refurbished Lincrusta-Walton wallcovering and the reproduction carpet bring new life to the entrance hall.
Roseland Cottage, one of only a handful of surviving Gothic Revival cottages in New England, is an outstanding example of the style, preserved with original furnishings, parterre garden, and full complement of outbuildings, along with the architect’s drawings, historic photographs, and ledgers recording purchases from trees to pigs to croquet sets. As a result of recent refurbishing, based on extensive scholarly research, the summer house now sparkles like a jewel in Historic New England’s crown. Historic New England considers Roseland Cottage to be one of its most important properties and remains committed to an ongoing process of conservation and capital improvements. Future projects include conserving the LincrustaWalton wallcovering and reproducing the Wilton carpet and border in the double parlor. Because the property has no endowment, having been purchased with assistance from the Connecticut Historical Commission in 1970, Roseland Cottage remains a priority for fundraising efforts. We urge you to visit the cottage this season during its new extended hours, Wednesday through Sunday, 11 am – 4 pm, through October 15. Come see the exciting renewal process for yourself and support the preservation effort with a contribution.
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P R E S E R V A T I O N
Repairing Loose and Broken Window Glass
indows are one of the most architecturally important visual aspects of a building, be it a private residence, storefront, apartment building, or factory. The very character of a structure is reflected not only in the windows’ design but in their materials; consequently it is important whenever possible to repair rather than replace sash that suffer from failed putty, or glazing, loose panes, and cracked or broken glass. Repairing damaged sash is not a complicated process as long as you have the proper tools, a love of adventure, and plenty of time. If you have the confidence and skill to remove the sash from the window opening, you can likely manage these glass repairs yourself. Begin by breaking the paint bond between the window trim and the interior window stop with a sharp utility knife. Gently pry off the stop with a
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stiff putty knife or thin, wide prying tool and lift the lower sash out of the opening, removing any sash cords from the frame and tying knots in the ends so they don’t fall into the weight pockets. Upper sash, held in place by either parting beads or window stops, may be pried off in the same manner. Place the sash on a level work surface, out of doors or in an area with good ventilation. Number the panes with a marking pen so that they can be replaced in their original openings. Your first step will be to remove the glazing holding in the glass. If you’re lucky and the glazing is already loose, draw a utility knife along the muntins to remove the remaining glazing and the glazing points. If the glazing is hard, you’ll have to resort to a more extreme measure—a heat gun. Heat guns can be dangerous—they pose the danger of fire and are also associated with health risks from fumes in leadbased paint. If your home was built
before 1975, you most likely have lead paint to contend with, which is why good ventilation in your work area is essential.
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1. When using a heat gun to soften hardened glazing, take care to protect the adjacent glass from the heat to keep it from breaking. A bent piece of tin with a straight edge that fits tight against the glazing will shield the glass from the heat. Once the glazing has softened, use a utility knife to loosen the glazing from the muntin and a putty knife or chisel to remove the glazing from the glass. Carefully pry out the glazing points.
failing paint, sand rough or weathered surfaces, and prime all exposed surfaces, including the rabbet, with an oilbased exterior primer. Let dry.
2. When you are sure that all the points have been removed, place one hand beneath the glass and gently push it up and away from the sash. If any glazing still clings to the glass, soak the pane overnight in linseed oil to make removal easier.
5. Next, gently press the pane of glass into the bed glazing. Press evenly all the way around to seal the pane to the glazing.
3. Manually remove any glazing remaining in the rabbet (the area where the glass sits) and sand it down to bare wood. Now is the time to remove any
4. Before reinstalling the glass, lay a bead of softened glazing, called bed glazing, around the rabbet to cushion and seal the glass. Kneading the glazing prior to use and keeping some in your hand will help keep it pliable and easy to use.
glazing. Use a glazing knife to push the glazing against the muntin and the glass. Pull the knife while at the same time feeding a rope of glazing as you go. It will take some practice, but in no time you’ll get the hang of it. The sash can be finish painted after the glazing has “skinned” over, usually in two or three days. Ensure a good seal by lapping the edge of the paint slightly over onto the glass. Once the paint has dried adequately, the sash are ready to reinstall, and you can then sit back on those cold winter nights knowing that most of your heat is staying indoors where it belongs. — Bruce Blanchard Carpentry Foreman
6. With a putty knife, install glazing points into the wood around the pane, taking care to push sideways and not down on the glass. 7. The final step in the glazing process is to apply a beveled bead of
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M A K I N G
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H I S T O R Y
Did you know that photography has been around for more than 150 years? Let's look at how it has changed since the 1800s and see what photographs can tell us about the lives of people who lived a long time ago.
Photography through the centuries 1727
1826
1834
1837
1860s
1889
Johann Schulze accidentally creates first photo-sensitive compound
NicĂŠphore NiĂŠpce makes the first successful permanent photograph
William Talbot introduces the paper photographic process
Louis Daguerre captures images on silver-plated copper
Cartes de visites, stereo views, and tintypes are popular
First camera to use a roll of film is invented
do you know
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Can you guess what these are?
They are flashcubes. Before cameras had built-in electronic flashes, photographers had to add flash by hand when they wanted to shoot indoors or at night. Originally, they used a single bulb that had to be replaced after each shot. The flashcube changed that. Containing four individual bulbs, each with its own reflector, the flashcube quickly snapped onto the top of a camera. After taking a picture, the photographer had only to turn the cube to be ready for another snapshot. Unfortunately, after the flashcube was used four times it, too, had to be thrown away.
The flashcub e helped home photographers take the great shots get away while they were busy changing b o t d e s u ulbs. that Historic New England Summer 2006
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picture this Although most photographs today are printed on paper, in the 1850s, photographic images were most often made on copper, tin, or glass.These early pictures were unique—they were not printed from a negative, but instead the image was formed on the surface of the metal or glass plate. People posing for these early photographs had to hold still for a long time. Sometimes the photographers used special supports to keep people from moving while their picture was being taken.
A picture is worth a thousand words. A dramatic photograph can immediately transport us to an entirely different time and place. Visit www.HistoricNewEngland.org/kids/ PhotoExhibit for an online exhibition of historic photographs, which was created by kids especially for kids.
1900
1947
1963
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Kodak’s Brownie camera ushers in the snapshot
Edwin Land of Polaroid demonstrates his instant image camera
Kodak introduces the easy-to-load Instamatic camera
First digital camera for home computers is marketed
Digital cameras outsell film cameras
Jumble puzzle
What is happening in this photo? If you can’t tell, try cutting it up and rearranging the pieces.
Unscramble each of the clue words. Copy the letters in the numbered boxes to the boxes with the same number below to find the secret phrase. CMEARA 2
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GINTEAVE 6
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CAFBUELHS 8
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Challenge
TARPOYHOHGP 3
PASTOSHN 1
Answers can be found on page 13.
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M A K I N G
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H I S T O R Y
Camera Obscura
When the inventors of photography first came up with a light sensitive compound that could permanently capture an image, they combined it with an optical device that had been known to scientists and artists for centuries—the camera obscura (which means “dark room” in Latin). As small as a box or as large as a room, the camera obscura is a darkened space with a pinhole in one of its walls. When the pinhole is placed facing a brightly lit scene, a reversed image of the scene will be reflected on the camera obscura’s opposite wall.
Materials: heavy black construction paper • a sturdy paper cup • wax paper or white tissue paper • duct tape or black electrical tape • scissors • thumb tack •
Using simple household materials, you can make your own camera obscura. A translucent back “wall” of the camera will allow you to see the image reflected inside.
Assembly Instructions: 1. Roll the construction paper into a cone and tape it together. Trim the wide end so that it is just big enough to fit snugly inside the opening of the cup. Make sure that the narrow end of the cone is large enough to look through comfortably with one eye.
Operating Instructions: 1. Take your camera obscura outside on a sunny day. Point it at something you would like to see reflected inside. Hold the end of the cone up to your eye, and use your hand to seal out any light. Close the other eye.
2. Cut a piece of wax or tissue paper that is slightly larger than the wide opening of the paper cone. Pull the wax or tissue paper taut over the opening of the cone and tape it all the way round.
2. Allow a moment for your eye to adjust. You should see an image of the scene in front of you, reflected upside down on the translucent wax or tissue paper inside your camera obscura.
3. Line the inside of the cup with black construction paper so that no light can shine through.
Troubleshooting Tips: • Pick a distinctive object to focus on, such as an unusually shaped tree or brightly colored building. Remember—the image will be upside down. • Make sure that the pinhole is the right size. A very small hole will not let in enough light, while too large a hole will blur the image. • The camera obscura works best in bright sunshine.
4. Carefully insert the wide end of the cone into the cup. With duct tape or black electrical tape, completely seal the joint where the cone and cup meet. Check to make sure that no light can get inside your camera obscura. 5. Use a thumb tack to make a small hole in the center of the bottom of the cup.
— Amy Peters School and Youth Program Coordinator 12
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S H O P
Members’ Special
t’s a great time at Historic New England. We hope you’re taking advantage of your improved member benefits, including an expanded slate of June Members’ Month activities, advance member registration to our most popular programs, additional members-only lectures, improved discounts on program fees, and our first members’ weekend trip to Boothbay Harbor, Maine, in August. But there’s more! We’re delighted to make this special summer offer. Now through August 31, you may purchase Windows on the Past: Four Centuries of New England Homes at the special member price of $25, a 44% discount, while supplies last. This
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beautiful book, featuring hundreds of color photographs, historic images, and lively text by Jane C. Nylander and Diane Viera, surveys four centuries of daily life in the region through the engaging stories of the people who lived at Historic New England’s house museums. Use the book as a guide to planning your summer excursions and also as a reference to New England’s rich social and architectural history. Windows on the Past belongs in the library of everyone who cares about the region’s cultural history. Consider purchasing a copy for a friend or family member as well. Combined with a gift
membership, it makes a unique wedding or birthday gift. Celebrate your Historic New England with others who share the passion for preserving New England’s rich cultural heritage.
To order, please call (617) 227-3957, ext. 237, or order from the Museum Bookstore at www.HistoricNewEngland.org. Tax and shipping charges apply.
Answers to questions on page 11. CAMERA, NEGATIVE, FLASHCUBE, PHOTOGRAPHY, SNAPSHOT Secret phrase—SAY CHEESE
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C O L L E C T I O N S
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one hundred years—from a mid-nineteenth-century daguerreotype to a print from the 1940s. The dolls, too, provide a variety, from lady dolls to baby and child dolls. Whether the dolls in these images were beloved companions or just showpieces to be taken out on special occasions, we cannot know. We do know that two of the dolls were cared for lovingly and later donated to Historic New England either by the original owners or by descendants. All but one of the images were made in studios. We could not resist including the one snapshot because it provides a wonderful contrast to the formal portraits. —Lorna Condon Curator of Library and Archives
Grace Bowen and her doll were similarly attired when they had their portraits made about 1862. The doll was probably French in origin. Photograph by E. M. Douglass.
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Gift of Weld Coxe
n about 1862 Grace Bowen and her doll, both dressed in the height of fashion, traveled to the studio of a Brooklyn, New York, photographer to have their portraits made (see related story on page 5). Grace’s experience and the resulting carte de visite portrait were not at all out of the ordinary. From the beginning of the medium, photographers recognized the lucrativeness of children’s portraiture and actively marketed their services to parents. Boston daguerreotypist S. H. Lloyd made special mention of children on a trade card from about 1860, “Particular attention given to the securing of likenesses of children, who are taken in a very few seconds….” The parents reacted positively to the permanent capture of their offspring’s childhood innocence and at the same time to the conveyance of a sense of their own well-being and comfort. Children often were depicted with their toys, which for the most part were gender-specific—boys with hoops and girls with dolls. Historic New England holds many such examples of children’s portraits. The images on these pages span almost
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Gift of R. T. Moffatt
Gift of the Misses Cummings
FACING PAGE, BELOW Too big to hold, the elaborate bride doll sits next to her same-sized owner.The doll is as much a subject of the image as the child. Both child and doll have tinted cheeks, and in fact, they even resemble one another. This carte de visite dates to c.1865. LEFT Ten-year-old Edith A. Moffat proudly displays her well-dressed baby doll and her seal muff. The back of this cabinet card imparts the sad information that Edith died on May, 11, 1887, aged twelve years and five months. Photograph by Walter E. Chickering Company.
A mid-ninteenth-century daguerreotype depicts an unidentified young girl with a china doll. ABOVE RIGHT Sisters Harriet Alma and Emma Gertrude Cummings wore matching dresses, and so did their china dolls, when they posed for the photographer about 1864. The sisters must have treasured their dolls, for in the 1930s, then in their eighties, they donated one of them to Historic New England. Anonymous photograph. FAR LEFT Sometimes even beloved dolls cannot provide much needed solace, as is evident in this circa 1920 snapshot of a baby. LEFT Historic New England staff member Nancy Curtis posed with a baby doll about 1945. Contrary to what one might assume from the photograph, Nancy did not particularly care for the doll. It was her parents’ wish to include it to enhance the composition. Photograph by Ann Curtis.
Gift of Nancy Curtis
Gift of Weld Coxe
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William Morris in New England “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” —William Morris, 1882
n November of 1883, in his weekly letter from Boston to his mother in France, twenty-year-old Ogden Codman, Jr., wrote, “I went to the Foreign Exhibition & saw some very pretty rugs from Morris in London. He makes such pretty chintzes and wallpapers.” Morris & Company had set up six rooms at the American Exhibition of the Products, Arts and Manufactures of Foreign Nations held in Mechanics Hall in Boston’s Back Bay to display carpets, wallpapers, cut velvets, dress silks, printed cottons, tapestries, embroideries and stained glass. William Morris (1834–1896) is the best known of a group of English artists and designers who sought to reform design and manufacture beginning in the mid nineteenth century. Morris was a sort of Renaissance man who became totally absorbed in his many interests, which ranged from pattern designing to poetry and from dye technology to socialism. In
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1861, he became a partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company, whose aim was to improve the quality of decorative arts. Thirteen years later the partnership was reorganized as Morris & Company, with Morris in charge. Some Morris wallpapers and textiles were available in Boston as early as 1873; the 1883 foreign fair that young Codman visited was the first time the firm’s entire range of products was viewed by a large number of people in the city. Codman was enamored with what he saw, and when his family returned to their home in Lincoln, Massachusetts, the next year, he appears to have persuaded his mother, who held the purse strings, to purchase fabric to use in at least two rooms. For curtains and upholstery in his own room, Codman chose the Brother Rabbit pattern, combining it with new wallpaper and carpet in Morris-inspired patterns. At about the same time, the Codmans added a large wing to the rear of the house with a new kitchen and servants’ rooms. The former servant’s room over the old kitchen was transformed into “the new spare room,” in which antique furniture was combined with hygienic modern iron beds. Fabric in the Rose and Thistle pattern, printed in ochre
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Ogden Codman’s bedroom, c. 1885.The Brother Rabbit fabric (see contents page), designed in 1882, was used for curtains and on a newly purchased “Morris chair” (below left). The same design in red covered the box to the right of the fireplace and a chair cushion. FACING PAGE, TOP
The Codmans’ “new spare room” with curtains in the Rose and Thistle pattern of 1881. BELOW Architect H.H. Richardson hung several woven woolen fabrics by Morris as portieres in Brookline, Massachusetts. Tulip and Rose (1876) is seen in the rear center.
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An unused length of the Rose and Thistle fabric left over from the “spare room” curtains. BACKGROUND
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Photographs by David Carmack
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Wallpapers retailed by A. H. Davenport included Trellis, Morris’s first wallpaper design registered in 1864, Sunflower (1879), and Triple Net (1891). BELOW Marigold (1875) was
ABOVE (LEFT TO RIGHT)
on a white ground, was made up into floor-length curtains and must have looked stunning against the deep red painted walls. On his way to becoming an interior designer and architect, Codman worked briefly at A. H. Davenport, Boston’s major distributor of Morris fabrics and wallpapers. Albert H. Davenport began business in 1880 with showrooms occupying a five-story building on Washington Street. The firm catered to the upper end of the market and even had a branch in New York City. Davenport himself used several Morris wallpapers in the house he built for his family in his native Malden, Massachusetts, in 1891. The company merged with Irving and Casson in 1916 and continued to provide Morris papers to New England homes until about 1934, when it relocated its showroom and apparently sold the wallpaper inventory. Most of the Morris wallpapers in Historic New England’s collection come from this remaining stock. William Morris frequently lectured on interior decoration. In 1882, discussing wallpaper in a talk entitled “The 18
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chosen for the Colonial Revival parlor of a house designed by William Ralph Emerson in Cohasset, Massachussetts.
Lesser Arts of Life,” he made one of his better known pronouncements, “whatever you have in your rooms think first of the walls; for they are that which makes your house and home.” His emphasis on wall treatments, however, does not necessarily mean that he favored wallpaper over any of the other elements he designed for interiors. He took a holistic approach to interior decoration, in which each element contributed to the overall effect and nothing was superfluous. He often combined many different patterns in a room while allowing none of them to dominate. Morris’s aesthetic, his respect for handcrafts, and his products all had an enormous effect on the Arts and Crafts movement in America and were particularly embraced in Boston. While Morris had no interest in visiting the United States, several influential individuals from New England, including H. H. Richardson, arranged to meet him when they were in England. Richardson was impressed with Morris’s “straight forward manner” and the two found a common interest in pre-industrial, especially medieval design. Richardson incorporated
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Fragments of carpets Wreath (c. 1880), at top, and Lily (c. 1875), below, from Jewett House retain their original coloring. RIGHT Arthur Little stands in the morning room of his Boston ABOVE
Morris & Company’s products in many of his commissions, notably the Glessner House in Chicago, and featured some in his own studio and library in Brookline, Massachusetts, where they could be promoted to his clients and discussed by his apprentices. In New England, many Morris designs found their way into houses designed in the style we call Colonial Revival today. Architect Arthur Little was an early proponent of this revival. In the preface to his 1878 volume of sketches, Early New England Interiors, he urged that “we on our side of the water should revive our Colonial style,” much in the manner the English were reviving their classical style. In the house he built for himself in 1892, Little created eclectic interiors combining Georgian- and Federal-style woodwork, French and American antiques, French silks, and Morris printed cottons. Rather than use wallpaper in his morning room, Little stretched Morris & Company’s second most expensive printed cotton, Wandle, on the walls. Morris frequently suggested using fabric on walls, and did so in his own rooms, but he recommended it be tacked in folds, not stretched taut as Little did. In addition to designing printed and woven furnishing fabrics, the indefatigable Morris created designs for carpets.
house, which features two Morris fabrics. Honeysuckle (1876) is draped across the sofa, on which Little’s friend, Miss Palfry, reclines, while Wandle (1884) is stretched on the walls.
His hand-knotted carpets are best known, but he also designed less expensive, commercially woven patterns, which were produced in several different weaves. The two shown here were used at different times in the stairhall of Historic New England’s Sarah Orne Jewett House in South Berwick, Maine. Never exposed to light or dirt, having been cut off during installation and stored in a trunk, these remnants preserve their original intense, jewel-like colors. The Jewett sisters traveled in a circle of friends who appreciated Morris’s artistic philosophy and no doubt felt that these patterns suited the colonial architecture of their family house. William Morris’s goal was to bring beauty into the home. It is testimony to his genius that his designs have endured for more than a century. While many of his patterns have been revived over the years, some have never gone out of production. — Richard C. Nylander Senior Curator Historic New England reproductions of the Codman Rose and Thistle and the Jewett Wreath carpet are available through J.R. Burrows & Co.; visit www.burrows.com for information.
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S P O T L I G H T
Flags and costumes are recurrent themes in July Fourth celebrations: at left, in Danville, Vermont, in 1952, shot by Verner Reed; and below, in an unidentified image, c. 1890. FACING PAGE, CLOCKWISE Invitation to Henry Bowen’s festivities, 1877 (see p. 5). Postcard, after 1907, illustrates variety of fireworks available to children. Newspaper reports of children injured by fireworks spurred reform efforts to restrict their use to public displays. House in Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1892. Flags, lanterns, and yards of bunting were used to decorate Henry Bowen’s Roseland Cottage. THIS PAGE
The
Glorious Fourth
arades, music, speeches, and fireworks all are part of the festivities marking Independence Day. Over the years, the holiday has evolved and adapted to changing politics and social movements, yet commemorating the democratic traditions that this nation stands for has remained a constant theme. Even as the Revolutionary War was being fought, some cities set off fireworks to celebrate the first anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and in 1781, the Massachusetts legislature passed the first official designation of Independence Day. After the hostilities ended in 1783, the Fourth of July was observed throughout the young country, though more frequently in the populous North than in the South. Independence Day celebrations helped
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cement the union and foster growing nationalism. The early celebrations tended to follow the pattern of familiar holidays during the colonial era, such as the annual observation of the King’s birthday, with its proclamations, dinners, and toasts. The events of the day fell into two categories: what historian Len Travis has called “ceremonial rituals,” like the reading of the Declaration of Independence and the parading of the militia, and “celebrations,” meaning bonfires and a great deal of drinking. Typically, cannon fire and ringing church bells ushered in the day. Events included military processions and exercises, orations or sermons, and dinners and
toasts—thirteen was a favorite number of the latter, but they could easily be expanded on. Readings of the Declaration of Independence were widespread, as were orations by prominent citizens, such as Harrison Gray Otis in 1788 and Josiah Quincy in 1798. Fireworks displays appeared with increasing frequency as the nineteenth century progressed. The day’s tradition of oratory meant that the Fourth of July could easily be manipulated for political ends. In the late eighteenth century, Federalists and anti-Federalists used the occasion to rally their followers at separate staged events, which were sometimes contentious and, in the early 1800s, even erupted into vio-
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lence. Often, the speeches expressed the views of political parties—temperance in the 1830s and 1840s, or abolition from the 1830s on. In 1854, Andrew Leete Stone’s oration in Boston condemned the Fugitive Slave Law, and in 1857, the clergyman William Rounseville Alger, spoke on his anti-slavery views. One of the most famous orations on this topic was delivered by Frederick Douglass in 1852, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?,” a speech sponsored by the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society at Rochester Hall, Rochester, New York. With the coming of the Civil War and the division of the union, the holiday declined as a public celebration. Festivities in the North tended to be subdued, and in the Confederacy the day was hardly acknowledged. The end of the war in 1865 occasioned large celebrations in the North, and finally, in 1870, the United States Congress established the Fourth of July as a federal holiday. The nation’s Centennial in 1876 inspired a renewed interest in the founding of the country and its democratic ideals and helped foster massive observations throughout the nation that year. Celebrations in Philadelphia, host to the Centennial Exhibition, were
by the far the largest and most elaborate. Nonetheless, the importance of the day as a holiday continued to decline as did the patriotic character of the celebrations themselves. Harper’s Weekly and local newspapers bemoaned the decline of the holiday, as formal events gave way to more boisterous forms of celebration. By the 1870s, Christmas, a family-centered event, was becoming firmly established as the most popular holiday of the year. The Lynn [Massachusetts] SemiWeekly Reporter opined “even the Glorious Fourth has taken a back seat when compared with the 25th of December.” Towards the turn of the twentieth century and the beginning of the Progressive Era, reformers sought to reintroduce the patriotic values of the early Independence Day commemorations, motivated in part by a desire to instill American values in a growing immigrant population. Many towns and cities successfully sought to include immigrant groups as participants in formal exercises and festivities. In the later twentieth century, the holiday evolved to what we know today, a combination of public and pri-
vate events, parades, and fireworks. Historian Diana Karter Appelbaum has called the day a “backyard holiday”— a gathering of friends and family centered on a barbecue. The Fourth of July today still celebrates the country’s birth and democratic ideals and will continue to adapt to reflect current events and our collective nostalgia. So, strike up the band, light the barbecue, and watch the fireworks! —Ken Turino Exhibitions Manager
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L A N D S C A P E
white rose grows on the quiet northeast side of the Sarah Orne Jewett House in South Berwick, Maine. The family compound was the life-long home of Jewett, the eminent nineteenthcentury author. The rose, one of rugged stock, could easily have been there since the eighteenth century, when the house was built. The flowering shrub is seven feet tall and four feet wide. Its canes bow gracefully, especially in late June and early July as clusters of three-inch white roses unfold, the kind that draw the occasional passerby with their fragrance. The buds and nascent blossoms have a faint blush. Then the full flowers—a double form with many petals— take on a creamy warmth, as if the golden stamens at the center were radiating their hue. This is a subtle progression of tone, but the rose truly is white, both in appearance and by classification. It is Rosa alba ‘Maxima.’ The alba (white in Latin) family of roses blooms in a delicate range of whites and pinks, a veritable bridal bouquet. Even after bloom, Jewett’s white rose is an elegant arching plant with gray-green leaves of matte finish and orange oval fruit in the fall.
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It makes the most of a few hours of sun each day and requires little care. Sarah Orne Jewett (1849– 1909) grew up with old roses and kept them in her gardens and her writing. The sympathies of the heirloom flower enthusiast are evident in Jewett’s intention as a writer: “I have always meant to do what I could about keeping some of the old Berwick flowers in bloom, and some of the names and places alive in memory, for with many changes in the old town they might be soon forgotten.” Old roses like ‘Maxima’ were out of style, routed in favor of the latest hybrids, when Jewett published a lament for lost gardens, “From A Mournful Villager” in 1881. She evoked the presence of roses in her childhood, “the taller rose-bushes were taller than we were, and we could not look over their heads as we do now.” Grandmother Jewett had a tangle of them in the corner of the front yard at mid-century, including “blush roses, and white roses, and cinnamon roses.” Likely the blush and white were albas. Alice Morse Earle, Jewett’s kindred colleague, wrote in Old Time Gardens, 1901, that “The Blush Rose (Rosa alba), known also as
Gary Wetzel
Sarah Orne Jewett and the White Rose
Maiden’s blush, was much esteemed for its exquisite color… .” Jewett’s autobiographical writing reveals private moments in the night garden, among the roses. In “The Confession of a House-Breaker,” 1893, Jewett stole out of the house when “the white flowers looked whiter still in the pale light” and the great clusters of roses were heavy with dew and perfume. “The White Rose Road,” 1889, is Jewett’s tribute to Rosa alba, the true story of a buggy ride into the countryside in June of that year. She went calling in a neighborhood of struggling farms and found “every one of the old farmhouses has at least one tall bush of white roses by the door,” swaying in the breeze “with a grace of youth and an inexpressible charm of beauty.” Jewett witnessed the hardships of agrarian decline on a glorious midsummer day. The white rose was to her an
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emblem of renewal—and, indeed, ‘Maxima’ thrives at an old farm on the road today. The enduring alba is one of the oldest families of garden roses; its origins are unknown. Rosa alba ‘Maxima’ probably appeared well before the fifteenth century, and it is certainly the translucent, double white rose in Renaissance paintings. ‘Maxima’ was surely among the first roses brought to America. It was not seed that the colonists sowed, for garden roses don’t produce identical plants from seed, but rather “new shoots from the root were given one neighbor to another,” just as Jewett explained in “The White Rose Road.” That means every ‘Maxima’—from shoots, cuttings or grafts—is literally the same stuff, a remarkable historic continuum. Few roses have so many names as the venerable ‘Maxima.’ Did Jewett know that her rose is one of those called the White Rose of York? In the fifteenth-century Wars of the Roses, English factions wore rose badges. York’s rose was white, and Lancaster’s was the red Rosa gallica ‘Officinalis.’ Jewett, however wittingly, paired them again when she said the white farmhouse rose reminded her of a red colonial rose in nearby Kittery. Possibly it was ‘Officinalis,’ which persists in the old burial ground at Kittery Point. Did
Jewett, who recorded Berwick’s Scottish ancestry in “The Old Town of Berwick,” 1894, know her rose is Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Rose, the Jacobite Rose? ‘Maxima’ was the symbol of the 1745 Jacobite Rising, when Charles Stuart led Scottish clansmen— wearing white rosettes—in a failed bid for the English throne. Jewett’s farmhouse rose is also known as the Great Double White of English cottages. Gertrude Jekyll, British garden designer and author of Wood and Garden, 1899, described settings not unlike those of “The White Rose Road”: “How seldom one sees these [alba] Roses except in cottage gardens; …what Rose is so perfectly at home upon the modest little wayside porch?” Jewett had a first edition of Jekyll’s book in her library. The old-fashioned roses were rescued from obscurity in the last century, and now they are preferred by some for their fine scent and profuse bloom, charming flowers and pastel colors. They are healthy and hardy. Jewett called ‘Maxima’ a “rose-tree”—tree long being a term for alba’s uprightness. ‘Maxima’ can be used as an informal hedge at the back of a border. Mixed shrub groupings, especially with evergreens, benefit from ‘Maxima’s’ loose form. It will climb, if supported. ‘Maxima’ is perfect for the exuberant
gardens Jewett loved, with their rose, honeysuckle, and lilac shrubs and a complement of daffodil, peony, larkspur, London pride (Maltese cross), hollyhock, tiger lily, phlox, and aster for full-season display. Along the white rose road, Rosa alba ‘Maxima’ had never fallen from favor. Perhaps the ‘Maxima’ seen today at the Sarah Orne Jewett House was not planted in the eighteenth century. Perhaps Jewett was given a shoot that day in June 1889 and planted the white rose herself, for all its rich associations. —Nancy Mayer Wetzel Landscape Gardener
ABOVE Woodcut from The Herball or General Historie of Plantes by John Gerard, 1633 edition. LEFT Rosa alba ‘Maxima’ flourishes at South Berwick farmhouses. The shrub produces cascades of flowers in full-sun locations but is noted for blooming—albeit less profusely—in part shade.
Sandy Agrafiotis
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Visit the Sarah Orne Jewett House, Fridays through Sundays, 11 am–4 pm, through October 15.
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News
New England & Beyond
Friends, fun, and fundraising at winter gala Thanks to the many friends who turned out for the January Benefit Auction Gala and the lively performance of auctioneers extraordinaire Leigh Keno and Leslie Keno, Historic New England’s winter fundraising event was a huge success. More than 150 guests joined committee co-chairs Maureen Fennessy Bousa and Victoria Towers DiStefano at the Ritz Carlton, Boston, for a festive dinner at which the Keno brothers auctioned items as diverse as works of art, a weekend at the Ritz Hotel in London, a private yachting party, and a week’s stay at a Cape Cod vacation home. Funds raised by the gala will be dedicated to support educational programs and outreach.
Mrs. I.W. Colburn, Susan Paine, and Edward C. Johnson 3d with event auctioneers Leigh and Leslie Keno.
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Committee co-chairs Victoria Towers DiStefano and Maureen Fennessy Bousa.
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Historic New England board members Janina A. Longtine, M.D., Anthony Pell, and Mary Ford Kingsley. CENTER
Historic New England President Carl R. Nold. RIGHT
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Edgartown landmark to be protected The Fisher-Bliss House on North Water Street in Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, will soon be protected through the Stewardship Program at Historic New England. The former home of Captain Jared Fisher, built in 1832 by master builder Thomas M. Coffin, the building is an example of the transition from Federal style to the emerging nineteenth-century style of Greek Revival and also illustrates the popularity of the Colonial Revival style. The house was built for Captain George Lawrence, who sold it to Captain Fisher prior to completion. It remained in the Fisher family until
1964. In 1966, Eleanor B. Radley gave the property to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England). The property never operated as a public museum, but has been maintained by the organization and used for summer rentals. After a thorough evaluation, Historic New England has determined that the best way to preserve the house is through private ownership and protection through Stewardship Program preservation restrictions. The Stewardship Program is the administrator of preservation and conservation restrictions held by Historic New England on privately owned historic properties across New England. The program creates partnerships between homeowners and Historic New England using deed restrictions to protect a property’s historic character. Through preservation restrictions, Historic New England retains responsibility for working with present and future owners to protect specific features of a house from alteration or neglect. Buildings benefit from ongoing care by preservation-minded owners, are returned to the tax rolls, and continue in active use under the watchful eyes of qualified preservation
Robert Pemberton joins Board of Trustees Historic New England is pleased to welcome Robert A. Pemberton to the Board of Trustees. Bob Pemberton has been involved in the computer software business since the late 1960s, specializing in easy-to-use solutions for complex enterprises. He has provided solutions to groups as diverse as the casino industry and the Royal Mail. He founded Infinium Software, an enterprise software firm which he took public in 1995 and sold in 2002. His current business focus centers on non-profit work and growing start-up firms. Pemberton's extensive background in the computer industry will help Historic New England as it prepares to update computerized collections and library management systems. He is also a trustee of Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, and a life trustee of Cape Cod Academy in Osterville, Massachusetts. Pemberton serves as chairman of the Bank of Cape Cod, a new commercial bank scheduled to open in Hyannis, Massachusetts, in 2006.
staff. Established in 1981, the program is an outgrowth of the organization’s Preservation Management Program, an initiative undertaken in 1966 to determine the most effective way to preserve historic houses that were given to the organization but did not meet the many requirements for operation as a museum. At Fisher-Bliss House, the preservation restrictions will add an additional layer of protection to that already afforded by the local historic district. Features such as the prominent widow’s walk will be protected, ensuring that the sweeping views of the town and harbor will always visually connect the house to its role in Edgartown’s maritime history. Also to be protected is the barn, a significantly intact balloon-framed building with exterior vertical board siding and a cupola. Interior protection will include scenic wallpaper, several built-in cupboards, staircases, and fireplaces. The FisherBliss House will be the seventy-fourth New England property protected by Historic New England’s Stewardship Program, and the fifty-third in Massachusetts.
Verner Reed Freelance photographer and generous donor Verner Reed died on February 28 at his home in Falmouth, Maine. In 2002, Mr. Reed gave more than 26,000 photographic negatives to the Library and Archives collection. A selection of Reed’s work tours the region in the exhibition A Changing World: New England in the Photographs of Verner Reed, 1950–1972. A display of his photographs of John F. Kennedy was on view at the Otis House Museum during the summer of 2004.
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A C Q U I S I T I O N S
Boston from Dorchester Heights his colorful painting depicts the Boston skyline as it appeared in the 1830s. Familiar landmarks include the Bulfinch State House and the steeples of the Park Street Church and the Old South Meeting House nearby. The painting is attributed to Victor de Grailly (1804–1889), a French artist whose views of the American landscape include Niagara Falls, scenes on the Hudson River and in the White Mountains, and Washington’s home and tomb at Mount Vernon. Interestingly, De Grailly apparently never visited the United States but used prints as his source material. This painting copies an engraved illustration in Nathaniel Willis’s two-volume work American Scenery, published in London in 1840, whose images were based on sketches by the English artist William H. Bartlett. As he did in many of his paintings, De Grailly added more people and brightly colored flowers to enliven the scene he was copying. Here, men
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and women elegantly dressed in the latest Paris styles explore the fortifications where George Washington and Henry Knox had staged the siege of Boston in March of 1776. Near the center, a gentleman points to the ship houses at the Charlestown Navy Yard and what appears to be the Bunker Hill Monument in the distance. Bartlett must have seen the published images of the proposed monument—the structure was not completed until 1842, six years after his sketching trip to Boston—and included it to ensure that his depiction would be up to date.
Boston from Dorchester Heights, oil on canvas, attributed to Victor de Grailly, c.1845.The painting is a gift of Mrs. Eleanor Norris in memory of her mother, Madeleine Tinkham Miller, an early member of Historic New England and herself a donor to the collection.
ABOVE
— Richard C. Nylander Senior Curator
141 Cambridge Street Boston MA 02114-2702 Presented by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities
Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Boston, Massachusetts Permit No. 58621