Miss Wiggin’s Attic

As many of our readers know, the Historical Society closes from the end of November through mid-April to the public.  The research library remains open during this time but the Tapping Reeve House & the Litchfield Law School and the exhibits at the Litchfield History Museum close for the winter.

This may give the perception that the staff is resting their feet on their desks and lazily checking email but in fact winter is a very busy time of year for the Historical Society.  Closing the exhibit galleries allows the staff the staff to break down and install the main changing exhibition.

Each year the Society opens a new temporary exhibition.  The show runs the duration of the time the museum is open to the public for the year, focuses on a local topic and uses objects and archives from the Society’s collection to illustrate the themes and ideas of the exhibit.

Each December the previous exhibit is taken apart and the room prepared for the new exhibit to be installed.

In November 2009, the Historical Society closed the highly acclaimed exhibition To Please Any Taste: Litchfield County Furniture & Furniture Makers, 1780-1830.

Slowly the furniture was moved out of the room and the stands and decorations piled into one corner.

The Historical Society relies on the help of Guy Livolsi and Tom Rinkus to assist the staff in moving platforms and cases in and out of the exhibit spaces.  Here they are taking a load of platforms over to the Tapping Reeve House where they are stored until needed for the next exhibition

As different rooms are worked on, materials are piled in unused spaces until they can be placed in the appropriate gallery or taken to storage.

After all of the objects and archives are removed from the exhibit, the room is given a fresh coat of paint.  The needed cases and platforms are brought in and arranged.   Below you see the History Gallery where the 2010 exhibition Goods for Sale! Cash, Credit & Trade in Litchfield, 1790-1850 will be installed over the next six weeks.   The walls have been painted a vibrant red color and the platforms are ready to be placed in the room. 

The museum hires John Kilbourn, a local professional painter, to paint the galleries each season.

The Historical Society hosts an annual Preview Party for members.  This year the event will be held on Friday, April 16th at 6:30pm.  If you would like to attend this sneak preview of the exhibit please become a member of the Society today to receive your invitation.   The exhibit will be open to the public on Saturday, April 17, 2010 and remain on view through the end of November.

As you may have heard, the State of Connecticut is selling the Litchfield County Jail. Our collections document some of the jail’s history, but there are few exterior photographs of the structure and no interior shots. A recent open house provided staff with an opportunity to document the interior in its present state.

According to the Historic Resources Inventory, the Litchfield County Jail was originally constructed in 1812. Since that time, there have been several alterations to the building. The survey notes the addition of a cell block in 1846 and a three story brick wing with additional cell blocks at the end of the 19th Century. A Colonial Revival veranda was removed in 1987.

Perusing the town’s historic newspapers is a great way to learn about the jail’s history. An event that took place in November of 1822 is described in the American Eagle as “a high-handed riot.” The prisoners were said to have been given liquor from someone outside, and when it was gone demanded more. When this request was denied, they are said to have torn up the floor, broken chairs, and physically attacked the jailer.

The following year, the American Eagle published a notice that the “gang of noisy fellows” dispensing liquor to prisoners and disturbing the neighbors would be made public examples if their behavior persisted. Earlier in 1823. the same paper published a notice that a reward would be given for two men who escaped. A separate article described their escape:

After removing the stone under the floor of the prison, near the underpinning, and then with or without assistance from the outside, took out one of the stones from the underpinning, which it seems were not doweled together, into the hole they had made under the floor, and so made their escape through the aperture.

The October 22, 1846 Litchfield Republican printed the By-laws for the Regulation of the Litchfield County Work-House. The rules prohibited the prison keeper from holding any other office, and required him to reside at the prison. His wife was to be responsible for the welfare of the female prisoners. Required labor was expected of all prisoners, and they were expected to attend “divine service” on every Sabbath. The regulations also provide for the cleanliness of the prisoners and their bedding, clothing, and housing as well as their rations.

The building continued to operate as a prison for some time. A 1992 escape eventually led to the conversion of the facility to a drug treatment center for men. According to a 1994 New York Times article, a year later then Governor Lowell P. Weicker Jr. ordered it shut down. It reopened in 1994 as McAuliffe Manor, a rehabilitation center for women which closed earlier this year. Please let us know if you have photos or stories to share.

A big part of the mission of the Historical Society is to make the collection accessible to the public.  This is done through exhibitions at the museum’s two sites, the website, educational and public programs, and publications.

The Historical Society is often contacted by academic researchers and historians who are writing books and wish to use some item in our collection as an illustration in their work.   Some of our more popular requests are for the Ralph Earl portraits of Benjamin Tallmadge and Mary Floyd Tallmadge as well as needleworks and embroideries produced by students attending the Litchfield Female Academy.

The writers and publishers they are working with need high quality images to use in the publications.  To serve their needs and also to have quality images of items in our collection for other uses, we work with professional photographer David Stansbury of Stansbury Photography in Springfield, MA.

David generally visits the museum at least once a year for a full day of work.  This is a fairly time consuming process as space has to be set aside in the museum for him to work, objects have to be pulled off display or out of storage and ready for their moment in front of the camera and then everything has to be returned so the visiting public is unaware any changes every took place.

David Stansbury at right in the winter of 2008 as the Historical Society prepared for the publication of the exhibition catalog To Please Any Taste: Litchfield County Furniture & Furniture Makers, 1780-1830

David travels with a van load of equipment and is challenged with creating a mock photography studio in one of the museum’s rooms.  Flood lights, back drops, and tripods are arranged and adjusted as each artifact is placed in front of the camera.

David as he adjusts an image on his computer

His work is impeccable and the images he has created for the museum have been used countless times in all manner of publications.

The photographer sessions are often held in the Liggett Gallery of the Litchfield History Museum.  The large gallery provides ample space for the equipment

David will be visiting the museum again soon after we close for the season at the end of November.  He will be photographing many of the materials related to the Litchfield Female Academy and Litchfield Law School that have not already been captured.  These images will be used in future exhibitions, educational programs and in the upcoming Litchfield Law School and Litchfield Female Academy database which will be released in 2011.

The Litchfield Historical Society has a significant collection of mourning jewelry and many of the pieces were donated to the museum by the descendents of the individuals who owned the pieces.

Mourning brooch made of human hair, 2006-41-1 Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Babbitt

Mourning jewelry seems strange and even grotesque to many people today.   If you are unfamilar with the term, mourning jewelry is a piece of jewelry constructed primarily of human hair.  It was a very common practice for loved ones to exhange locks of hair.  It was a tangible way for a person to be remembered in the days before photography.  Throughout the late 18th and early 19th century, the recently deceased were often memorialized through the practice of taking a lock of hair and having it incorporated into a piece of jewelry.  Rings, necklaces, bracelets and even earrings were made of hair.  For men, watch chains and rings were popular forms.  The bereaved were comforted by keeping a piece of their deceased loved one close to them.

Bracelet made of human hair, 1937-07-4, Gift of the William Colgate Estate

Pair of earring made of human hair and jet, 1923-04-6 Gift of Mrs. Edwards W. Seymour

It was a skill that many women practiced at home.  Molds were sold and instructions were available through magazines like Godey’s Ladies Book which was published from 1830 to 1878.  There were also businesses that formed in larger towns and cities that offered the service of creating mourning jewelry for the public.  Mourning jewelry became especially prolific during the Civil War when many American households lost loved ones to battle and disease.

Jewelry Box, C. Linherr Artist in Hair 577 Broadway New York City, Donor Unknown

This October, the Historical Society has a small display case in the Ching Reading Room of the Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library which showcases some of the museum’s mourning jewelry collection.  In addition, the case includes other artifacts and archives associated with mourning and the ritual of death.

On Wednesday while looking through a collection that has not received much use, I found correspondence between the donor and Miss Wiggin.  She added the following post script to her letter:

“Since I have been at the museum my continuous slogan has become: – ‘throw nothing away.  Give what you do not want to the Litchfield Historical Society.’  I say something like this to every man, woman and child who visits the museum.  It sometimes happens that people have given us what they consider junk but which has often supplemented in a remarkable way  items that were already in our possession.”

Miss Wiggin’s words still ring true.  Our collections are so rich because the people of the community are willing to donate items that document Litchfield’s history.  Julie, our curator, and I are always happy to talk to potential donors about things they wish to donate.  If it isn’t something that fits our mission, we will give you other suggestions for where it might belong.  We are interested in items that document all time periods including the 20th and 21st Centuries- so whether you have records of a civic organization under your bed, or a Civil War uniform in your attic, please don’t hesitate to talk to us about them.

Yesterday Litchfield had its first snow fall.  It was pretty surprising but not really that unusual for this part of the state.  It is pretty common to have at least a dusting of snow prior to Halloween.   It snowed most of the afternoon and when the staff arrived back at the museum this morning it was still precipitating.   It looks like this snow fall may stick around for a few days.

Today has been a true fall day in Litchfield.  The leaves are changing colors and beginning to cover the ground.

And it is windy.    Litchfield is known for having some pretty windy days in the fall.  At one of the highest elevations in Litchfield County, the town is subject to many of the weathers whims and fancies.   Today, the wind has been strong and fairly constant.

At lunch as the staff was sitting around the lunch table a huge gust surrounded the building and the power was briefly knocked out.  We are used to these occurrences and like today, they are usually brief.  The power was back on in no time but as lunch wrapped up there appeared to be some activity on the north side of the green.  Upon walking outside for further inspection, we saw this:

A tree next to the Congregational Church has been knocked over by the force of the wind, landed on the adjacent electrical lines putting too much stress on a nearby utility pole causing it to snap in half!  The state troopers were already on hand to reroute traffic to the other side of the green and the utility crew was busy working on the problem.

Just another lovely fall day in Litchfield.

Nestled in the northwest corner of Connecticut, the town of Litchfield exudes colonial charm, picturesque views, and historic homes. Founded in 1856, the Litchfield Historical Society’s collection, which formally began in the 1890s, strongly reflects the early founders of the town and the prosperous times of the early 19^th century. Did I mention the institution also has a collection of local modern artists?

The Historical Society’s first foray into modern art began in 1957 when the museum sponsored a local art exhibition. Over the next decade local artist such as Austin Purves, Peggy Reventlow, Nils Hogner and Stanley Mortimer exhibited their works for one week a year at the Center School cafeteria. Works could be purchased by visitors with part of the proceeds benefiting the museum.

View Up North Street by Nils Hogner

In 1972, the Society became further involved with the local art movement when a fund was established by an anonymous donor for the purchase of contemporary art. In the Board President’s annual address for that year, Mrs. Sonia Seherr-Thoss commented on the fund,

A sum of money has been donated for the purchase of local contemporary works of art. The fund is not large but the donor expects to make this an annual gift. Our Litchfield area has many important artists and we would certainly be remiss as a Historical Society is we did not have a representative selection of their works. Mr. Rufus Stillman, who has a broad knowledge of the field and a most discerning eye, has agreed to serve as Chairman of Modern Acquisitions. I am sure we will all be watching with deep interest the growth of our contemporary collection and will enjoy the opportunity to study the creative activities of our regional artists.

Rufus Stillman was the natural choice to chair the Modern Acquisitions committee. He was a Litchfield resident who was interested in the modernist movement. In 1950, Stillman had hired Marcel Breuer to build his family home in Litchfield. Breuer went on to build three homes for Stillman as well as such public commissions as the Litchfield High School which was completed in 1960.

Untitled by Alexander Calder, oil on board

Stillman embraced his role as chair of the Modern Acquisitions committee traveling around Litchfield County and other parts of Connecticut purchasing works for the Historical Society. His enthusiasm spurred other local residents to donate items from their personal collections to the museum.

The committee and movement to include modern works of art in the Society’s collection were not without controversy. Soon after the committee had been established, Board President Sonia Seherr-Thoss proposed the creation of a permanent gallery space dedicated to the exhibition of modern art. This proposal was accepted but within months, community members vocally expressed doubts about its appropriateness. At the Annual Meeting held on September 14, 1973 the recording secretary noted this exchange,

Mrs. Eugene Dooman expressed dissatisfaction with the prominence of the Modern Acquisitions display and questioned the suitability of having modern art on exhibition in an historical society museum. Mrs. George Spencer stated on the basis of experience as a volunteer attendant she could only conclude that many visitors to the museum were definitely averse to it.

There followed a lively discussion in the course of which opinion on both sides of the issue was sharply divided, and at the conclusion of the discussion, the President and Mr. Edmondson agreed to attempt to work out some compromise in handling and rotating the display that would accommodate the different points of view.

It was during this same Annual Meeting that current Director William Warren publically announced his resignation from the position. In his letter to the Board he addressed a rumor that had been circulating concerning a possible reason for his decision to leave the institution,

The other rumor has it that I was angered by the idea of our being given works of art of contemporary regional artists. I am only too happy to deny this emphatically . . . No matter if one does not care for the major arts movements of today, the artists’ works do reflect the taste of the times, just as much as Ralph Earl reflected his.

Warren’s replacement, Lockett Ford Ballard did not appear to embrace the modern art collection as openly as his predecessor. In his director’s report dated October 25, 1974, Ballard listed the modern art collection as a “problem collection” and “considered by many inappropriate for exhibition in the museum proper.” He proposed creating a rotating display of examples from this collection at the Oliver Wolcott Library. The board agreed and the brief existence of an exhibition gallery dedicated to modern art at the Historical Society ended.

The evidence of this brief and controversial campaign to include modern art in the Historical Society’s collection remains though. As a result of the efforts of individuals like Rufus Stillman, Sonia Seherr-Thoss and others, the Historical Society can now count among its collection of paintings by Ralph Earl, George Catlin and Ammi Phillips, works by Robert Osborn, Alexander Calder, Robert J. Wolff, Cleve Gray, Donald Kaufman, Nils Hogner, Norman Ives, Doris Caesar, and Stanley Mortimer.

Untitled by Doris Caesar, bronze

While in recent years, the Society has not taken as active a role in collecting living artists’ works as it did in the early 1970s, the museum is entering into a new phase. The Historical Society hopes to create a partnership with the Litchfield Visual Arts. If approved, the LVA would organize a juried show of local artists to be held at the History Museum. The first exhibition would open in July 2010 and became an annual event. The shared goal of both organizations is to highlight Litchfield’s continual and vibrant artistic community.

For the past two days the Litchfield Historical Society has been pleased to host the second year graduate students from the Winterthur Program in American Culture.

The Winterthur Graduate Degree Program in American Material Culture is associated with the University of Delaware and the Winterthur Museum & Country Estate in Winterthur, DE.    The program “provides a multidisciplinary approach to the study of American material life with special emphasis on decorative arts and household furnishings.” (www.winterthur.org)

Eight students visited Litchfield with Brock Jobe, Professor of American Decorative Arts, and Greg Landrey, Director of Library, Collections Management and Academic Programs accompanying the students as faculty supervisors.

On Monday the students toured the Litchfield History Museum, Tapping Reeve House & Litchfield Law School and the Pamela Cunningham Copeland Curatorial Center.  Staff members Cathy Fields, Julie Frey and Linda Hocking explained the inner workings of the Historical Society and brought out some highlights from the Society’s textile and archival collections.

(Rachel, on left, with students on Litchfield Green)

Tuesday morning the students rejoined the staff in Litchfield and were conducted on a walking tour of the Litchfield Green and North Street by architectural historian Rachel Carley.  The students toured the Green, Congregational Church and the Benjamin Tallmadge house as well as viewing the exteriors of several other properties along North Street.

(Students touring Congregational Church)

After eating lunch, the students departed Litchfield to continue their week long field trip of New England’s museums and antique shops.

Library Catalog Screenshot

Some of you may remember that the Historical Society received a generous donation to enable standard library of congress cataloging for the book collection in the Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.  It may seem like it’s taken a long time, but staff, interns, and volunteers have been plugging away at the project, and we are thrilled that we can finally show you some results.  The catalog records for our books are being added to reQuest, the CT state library catalog.  If you search the entire state for something we have, our library will appear in the results.  If you want to limit your search to the catalog of the Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library you can use this link.  Currently you’ll find parts of our reference collection.  In the near future the reference collection will be complete and our rare publications will be added.

Please remember that this catalog is for published works.  If you wish to search our manuscript collections, we’re adding more finding aids regularly to our online database, Archon.  Other materials are still described in our on site card catalog.  Keep checking both reQuest and Archon for more additions.