Rain, Rain, Rain

Tuesday: We met at the Flynt Center for our usual morning seminar/meeting. We divided up the Old Indian House exhibit research questions and objects. We then searched the catalog folders for additional information about our objects. I decided to take on some of the later pieces, including a souvenir teacup with the Old Indian House printed on it (ca. 1900), as well as a souvenir spoon with an image of the house and an engraving (ca. 1890s). Both pieces may have been made in Germany. I also agreed to examine a copy of George Sheldon’s History of Deerfield for any information involving the Old Indian House and its occupants. Another one of my duties in this exhibition will be to look at references to the Old Indian House in pieces of literature. That research will come at a later date. Lunchtime was an interesting experience with the former Curator and active Trustee of Historic Deerfield, Peter Spang. He tried to speak with each of us and he discussed in depth how the Flynt’s started Deerfield, their motives, and how he became involved. While taking us on a tour of the Allen House, the home of the Flynts, Peter revealed stories about the house, the family, and some of the secrets of Deerfield. He was not only a professional associate of the Flynts, but also a personal friend, so he had much to tell us. It was a fun tour. The afternoon was spent at the Williams House which is basically a 14 room home that belonged to a man with something like 10 children. It was immense. Our tour guide was incredible. She discussed the furniture in each room and told us funny tidbits of information about certain pieces, or stories about the family who owned the house. It’s really a lovely historic home.

Wednesday: A workshop on silver and base metals was first on the agenda! It was conducted by Amanda Lange, the Curator of Interiors, who had us handle each of the pieces in gloves, due to the corrosive nature of the oils on our hands. We discussed noble and base metals, the properties of iron, copper, silver, pewter, gold, bronze, brass, etc. We determined the differences between American and British silver and the uses of each type of metal. It was interesting to learn about how the different pieces were shaped and made using lathes, casting, molding, sheeting, among other methods. The afternoon was spent in the library doing more extensive research on our research paper topics. I continued to look at secondary sources for information on the Improved Order of Red Men.

Thursday: Unfortunately, the rain has started to have an effect on our plans! We were supposed to visit Old Greenfield Village, but the older gentleman in charge seems to have some trouble after heavier rains, so our trip has been rescheduled. I decided to head back to the house to do some research. I started looking through Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America and Constructing Brotherhood: Class, Gender, and Fraternalism for my paper. I found some interesting concepts. During lunch, Marc Belanger, the Marketing Director here, ate with us and spoke about his role at Historic Deerfield. His job seems very multilayered and we hope to hear more from him at a later time. Afterward, we met Anne Lanning for a lecture on the history of the Barnard Tavern which has an interesting family history, even though it only existed for about 5 years as an actual tavern. Deerfield’s next project is to restore the tavern and to have an exhibit that correlates with its use and its family history. In tandem with the lecture, Billy Flynt then took us on a tour of the tavern in which he discussed his restoration efforts and the history of the construction of the house. By using dendrochronology and many other methods, Bill can discover the modifications and original standing of the house, as well as door placement and original painting. It seems a long and laborious process to get to the root of a home. The tavern also has a massive hearth in the back and a “ballroom,” more so used for public meetings, on the upper floor. Finally, we ended our day with David Bosse who gave us a powerpoint presentation on analyzing and using primary source documents. We mostly discussed account books and daybooks and how to determine who is the debtor and creditor and how to determine occupation from the listings. We also received a handout on currency conversions in early America/Massachusetts. It will be really helpful for future use.

Friday: A busy, but enlightening day! A shout out to Dr. Kehoe is in order. She is here for the Dublin Seminar and I ran into her several times today. I must say that I very much appreciate her support in my work at Saint Vincent, as well as outside the school. She is the one who introduced me to Historic Deerfield and its Summer Fellowship Program, so I must thank her for that and her letter of recommendation. Anyway, after our usual morning meeting, the Fellows headed to Hall Tavern for a workshop on Tour Guide Training. Amanda Rivera Lopez had us share our good and bad museum experiences, so that we could analyze what makes a good tour guide. She gave us this really beneficial handout on how to be a good guide and how to connect with the visitors, as well as specifics regarding Historic Deerfield guiding. The afternoon was full of a research paper brainstorming session (the thing in which we have all been dreading and anticipating). About 6 of the Historic Deerfield curatorial and research staff heard our research paper ideas and provided insight and sources to check into. It was actually really nice to hear from everyone. The highlight of our day, however, came from 3-6 at our open hearth-cooked dinner. We made salamagundy (spelling?), a sort of salad concoction made from romaine, fresh herbs, grapes, and chicken, as well as cornbread, fresh bread, lemonade, and a delicious strawberry shortcake for dessert! It was really fun and we are probably lucky that the weather has been so chilly, otherwise we may have been really hot inside the colonial-style kitchen! The evening ended at the Dublin Seminar with several lectures on the Civil War. I won’t go into much detail. The Seminar lasts all day Saturday and half of Sunday as well.

Readings:
The Idea of Rococo by William Park, excerpt
The Same Ax, Twice: Restoration and Renewal in a Throwaway Age by Howard Mansfield, excerpt
“Wholesome, Toothsome, and Diverse: Eighteenth-Century Foodways in Deerfield, Massachusetts” by Daphne L. Derven
“Mid-Eighteenth Century Food and Drink on the Massachusetts Frontier” by Michael D. and Sophie D. Coe
“A Comfortable Sufficiency: Food and the New England Kitchen” in Our Own Snug Fireside: Images of the New England Home, 1760-1860 by Jane C. Nylander

Until next time…

"Into the Woods"...of Deerfield, MA

I have been so busy with workshops, lectures, tours, and readings that I haven't had time to update. I will go through the week up until this evening.

Thursday: We met with the Master Tour Guides to discuss when we will begin Tour Guide training in the 4 houses selected for us to guide in. Then we went on a tour of the Ashley House, a home owned by the Rev. Ashley in Deerfield. Before lunch, we also got a tour of the Frary House, the home of C. Alice Baker (a very interesting Deerfield personality during the Arts and Crafts movement here), by Anne Lanning. We had an early textiles workshop with Ned, the Collections Manager. We learned about men's and women's clothing from the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as quilts and needlework. Ned showed us examples of different types of fabric, including silk, damask, cotton, linen, among others. The Textile Gallery in the Flynt Center is fantastic. Don't miss it!

Friday: Our morning began with a meeting with Josh and then a discussion/tour of his exhibit "Into the Woods," a look at 17th and 18th century furniture. It was a fascinating study. We learned about different types of wood, why the particular types were used, as well as how woodworkers constructed different pieces. The exhibit was sooo well done and Josh really knows his stuff. I've already learned so much basic information about early American decorative art, as well as other tidbits of information. After lunch, all of the Fellows and Josh took a trip to visit the Memorial Hall Museum which was overwhelming and eye-opening. The museum is technically a separate entity from Historic Deerfield, but they focus on the history of the Deerfield Raid in 1704 and includes large collections of material culture from the area. The building has at least 4 floors of maze-like exhibit space with ceramics, textiles, toys, musical instruments, architectural fragments, and many, many other items. We mainly went to see the Old Indian House door and to look at their exhibit on the Old Indian House and the Deerfield Raid. Their collection is great, but unfortunately they are having trouble maintaining it all. I guess that's the downside of trying to maintain a small historical institution. Since I've been here, I've heard from so many Historic Deerfield staff about the struggles of keeping up an institution like Deerfield. Anyway, the last bit of the day consisted of going back to the Ashley House to do a case study on a settle (sort of like a bench that people put near their hearths). Josh just let us examine the piece and explore it's history, as well as its historical validity. It's an expensive piece that the museum decided to purchase a few years back, so we went through the investigative process to try and determine whether or not it would be good piece for purchase. It was a fun and interesting experience. For dinner we went to a Chinese place called The Wok that apparently sells takeout cocktails. Haha. The food was great and the service very good.

Saturday: Finally a day off!!! Tom, Katie, and I took a trip to a butterfly conservatory called Magic Wings, stopped at the delicious Richardson's Candy Store, Old Deerfield Country Store, and later we went out to dinner at Mesa Verde, and got ice cream at Friendly's. We came home and watched The Brother's Bloom (a great movie) and ended this successful day.

Sunday: All of the Fellows were scheduled to work the Historic Deerfield booth at the annual Craft Fair. I worked with Katie from 1-2:30 and we explored the fair afterward. Horace joined us all later in the evening for a cookout dinner.

Weekend Readings:

"The Concept of Mannerism" by Robert F. Trent

"Mannerism in Early American Furniture: Connoisseurship, Intentions, and Theatricality" in American Furniture 2005 by Glenn Adamson

"The Intersections of Life: Tables and Their Social Role" in American Tables and Looking Glasses in the Mabel Brady-Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University by Gerald W.R. Ward

Monday/Today: Today we discussed our furniture readings and spent some time researching paper topics at the library. After lunch, we went on a guided tour of the Flynt's silver collection which was so enlightening. Paul Revere's silver, the kind he actually made, can be found here! The pewter collection was also very interesting. Our tour guide was a sweet old lady whose passion for the collection was evident. In the afternoon, we met with Amanda Lange for a workshop on early ceramics. We were each given a shard of ceramic and asked to describe and perhaps determine its use. Then, she went through a description, qualities/properties of, and examples of earthenware, stoneware, porcelain, redware, white salt glazed stoneware, creamware, and pearlware. Other than the textiles seminar, this workshop has been my favorite thus far.

Readings:

Clock Making in New England, 1725-1825: An Interpretation of the Old Sturbridge Village Collection by Philip Zea and Robert C. Cheney

"Forging the Artisan's Identity: Tools and the Goldsmithing Trade in Colonial Massachusetts" by Barbara McLean Ward



This week is going to be extra busy, including a very long weekend at the Dublin Seminar. I will try to update at least every few days. By the way, the mosquitoes are killer here! Ugh.

Wells-Thorn House: A Glimpse into the Early American Home

I can't believe it's only Wednesday, my third full day here in Deerfield. It already feels like much longer.

Today the Fellows met with Josh and Horace to discuss the Old Indian House exhibition project we will be working on. We will each be assigned specific research and specific objects to research and write labels for. It should be an interesting project. We went through objects connected to the house and categorized them into groups and we came up with questions and ideas for the project.

Afterward, we did a room study/tour of the Wells-Thorn House. This house is open for public tours, but Josh took us on one and had us observe some of the interior decorating. We travelled from the early 1700s to the early 1800s as we walked through each room. Each room corresponded did a different architectural/decorative time period. It was interesting to note the changes in each decade or two in regards to the furniture, the hearth layout, the window and doorway positions, as well as all of the other decorative pieces. Each room was beautiful in varying ways and it was a great tour overall.

At some point we ate a quick lunch, but then we had another meeting about our Old Indian House research and what we have coming up for the rest of the week. We had a little break time before meeting for our dinner trip with Horace at 5:30. We drove about 25 minutes to the nearest Whole Foods and ate in the cafeteria there. We also took a quick trip to Target for odds and ends. It ended up raining like crazy here once again, but the day time was really nice with the temperature in the low 80s, as compared to the chilly 60s and rain the past few days.

Tonight's readings:

Alicia Annas' "The Elegant Art of Movement" in An Elegant Art: Fashion and Fantasy in the Eighteenth Century

Linda Baumgarten's What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America, "The Myths and Meanings of Clothing"

Marla Miller and Anne Lanning's "Common Parlor': Women and the Recreation of Community Identity in Deerfield, MA, 1870-1920"

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's "Cloth, Clothing, and Early American Social History"

Tuesday's Readings:

Frank Britton's London Delftware, excerpts

Amanda Lange's Chinese Export Art at Historic Deerfield, excerpts

Amanda Lange's Delftware at Historic Deerfield, 1600-1800, excerpts

Monday's Readings:

Susan McGowan and Amelia Miller's Family Landscape: Deerfield Homelots from 1671, excerpts

J. Ritchie Garrison's Two Carpenters: Architecture and Building in Early New England, 1799-1859, excerpts

Sunday's Readings:

Elizabeth Stillinger's Historic Deerfield: A Portrait of Early America, excerpts

John Williams' The Redeemed Captive: Returning to Zion, excerpt

Architecture and a Potluck Feast

Today we headed to the Flynth Center to have an informal tour given by the Collections Manager, Ned. We explored the Attic Collection area that's a storage facility open to the public. We briefly looked through the textile gallery (Amazing!) and explored a few of the other conservation, research, and storage rooms. The Deerfield collection is fantastic. The furniture, textiles, silver collection, ceramics, and all kinds of various pieces of early American decorative art.

We then attended a lecture by Bill Flynt, the grandson of the founders of Historic Deerfield. He discussed architecture of the Connecticut River Valley from 1600 to 1860. It was an interesting lecture and the readings we had last night supplemented the talk. We had a quick lunch at Allen House and then headed to the library from research paper exploration. I may be doing my paper on the philanthropic work of the Improved Order of Red Men, a fraternal society that had a chapter in this area from the 1860s to the mid-1900s. More specifically, they erected a statue of a Mohawk chief in Charleton, MA, about 30 minutes from Deerfield. The librarian at the Historic Deerfield Library suggested the topic to me because they have a small collection of manuscripts that cover the dedication of the statue and the philanthropic work of the group, as well as some meeting minutes of the society. I still have to discuss it with Josh, but it may be a good idea.

Afterward, all of the Fellows attended a potluck hosted by the President of Deerfield, Phil Zea. All of the sweet older folk who volunteer here and the staff who work here made delicious dishes for the occasion. Best potluck I've ever been to! We met many of the Master Guides, as well as volunteers, and other important museum staff members.

After dinner, a few of the Fellows, Horace, and I trekked through the Blake Channing Meadow Walk which goes through farm land, walked to the Deerfield River, explored the campus of Deerfield Academy, perused the Old Burying Ground, and discussed some of the historic homes and their beauty.

Now I am sitting in my cozy room, getting ready to start my readings on early ceramics. By the way, stopped at the home of the Deerfield Innkeepers and owners of Champney's Restaurant (the most comfortable and quaint Inn and restaurant EVER). They had two dogs and a cat named Fat Martha. We visited with them. Very friendly people. If you ever come to Deerfield, go to the Inn! The people there are the best and friendliest around.

First Day

Not much time to blog, but my time in Deerfield has been pleasant, busy, and exhausting.
Arrived here at Historic Deerfield and found Allen House, one of the many beautiful homes along Old Main Street. I met Horace, our friendly co-tutor with the most robust laugh you've ever heard. I eventually moved into the Wright House with 3 other girls. The other fellows are living in Allen House where we have lunch and dinner (sometimes). Pictures will come soon! Old Main Street is beautiful, but I didn't realize how much walking we would be doing. The Street itself is one mile long and our house is at the far end. I met all of the other Fellows. Really great people. I met Josh as well and he is very nice, soft-spoken, and knowledgable. We had pizza, salad, and ice cream for a dinner meet-and-greet. We were told some of the details of the program and given reading assignments for the morning! Many, many, many pages of reading and we didn't get back to our apartment until about 8:45.

My bedroom is very cozy. I will post pictures of it later too. Woke up today at 7 to be at the Flynt Center for 8:45. We got our "professional" photo ID pictures taken, as well as several group Fellow photos. After that, we went on a brief, somewhat informal walking tour of Historic Deerfield. Josh gave as a preview into the history from the 1500s up until about the 1700s and the Raid on Deerfield. We were given reading material that was relevant to the history last night. We learned about the founding of Historic Deerfield and the contribution of the Flynts. I am already exhausted and my feet are sore. I better get used to the walking soon. Although, I can use my bike for trips when I don't have to be with the group. Deerfield is a very bike-friendly area and the locals are constantly walking and biking, as well as some of the visitors.

Later in the afternoon, we discussed the readings more in-depth. We looked extensively at the history of Deerfield, the 1704 raid, as well John William's account in The Redeemed Captive: Returning to Zion. We also discussed possible topics for our research papers. Then, we took a short walk to the library at Memorial Hall and met with the librarians. They discussed protocol and the research facilities. They and the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association have extensive primary and secondary source material relating to Deerfield and the decorative arts.

We just got back from dinner at Mesa Verde, a cool Tex Mex restaurant with the BEST salsa and chips ever. We played "get to know you" games like Two Truths and a Lie. So, we all loosened up and learned a little about each other. In a few minutes we will all reconvene at the library to receive and actually read our readings for the night. May not make it back until late and have a 7 a.m. wakeup in the morning. We will be going on an architertural walking tour and possibly attending a potluck at the President Philip Zea's personal home here on Old Main Street.

Busy days ahead!

Acceptance Letter

Here is a copy of my acceptance letter. It's hard to read, but they are giving me between $1300 and a $2000 stipend after the completion of the program!

The next day, I received my "orientation" materials. Joshua Lane, the Summer Fellow tutor, sent along a book entitled Historic Deerfield: A New England Village which details the history of Deerfield and of the living history museum's establishment. He also provided a packet of information about the Fellowship.

I will be arriving in Deerfield on either June 11 or 12. My boyfriend Andy and I will be taking a short trip to Boston beforehand. I will be living in one of two apartments attached to historic museum houses, either the Allen House or the Wright House. Each apartment has a full kitchen, two shared bathrooms, and dorm-style bedrooms. They furnish each room with a bed, desk, chair, lamp, shelving, and closet space. The kitchens will be stocked with breakfast food for each day, but lunch and dinner will either be made for us or we will go out to eat. I'm also glad we get a window air conditioner so I don't die in the Massachusetts summer heat!

I am excited for doing research at the Memorial Library in Deerfield, but I also get borrowing privileges at the University of Massachusetts Library. Exciting!!

As for the work: I know we will have to give tours of the historic houses, but I'm not sure which one (s) yet. Our main group project will be to research and write labels for a group of objects to be displayed in the Flynt Center lobby exhibition cases next spring. That will definitely be a great museum learning experience! Our individual project consists of researching and writing about a topic of our choice related to the history of the Connecticut River Valley. The final paper will be 20+ pages and will be due on August 5.

After the completion of the paper and the program, we will be going on a week-long field trip to Washington D.C., Colonial Williamsburg, and the Winterthur Museum, with other stops along the way!!

Fortunately, we get three days off from July 1-3, so I will probably come back home for two days.

There are a total of 7 Fellows, including myself. 5 girls and 2 guys. Most of them have just graduated from College this semester. They amount of diversity is great: we hail from Kansas to Massachusetts to Virginia to Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and even France! I am anxiously awaiting my arrival in Deerfield (and Boston) and aim to prepare myself for an interesting, busy summer in the meantime! I'll keep you posted.

Good News and A Fantastic Opportunity

Yesterday morning, I woke up at 6 am to prepare for my Archaeology final. I checked my email and found an email from Josh Lane, the Education Coordinator at Historic Deerfield. I had been chosen to attend the Summer 2011 Fellowship Program. My acceptance letter and orientation materials are now in the mail. The program lasts from June 12 to August 14. I am so excited! I will provide updates as soon as I get the materials in the mail.