Category Archives: Artifacts and Archives

Blog posts include anything that involves items from the artifact and/or archives collection of the Historical Society.

Law School Letters

The Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library at the Litchfield Historical Society has recently purchased three new letters pertaining to the Litchfield Law School and its students. Two of the letters are likely relatable to many of today’s parents as they discuss the expense of educating children.

The first letter, written in 1815 by Putnam Catlin, father of Litchfield Law School student George Catlin (who later left the law to paint) was addressed to his friend Steuben Butler and detailed the financial difficulty in providing for his children’s education:

I am obliged to consider myself as a mere farmer, republican farmer, Beechwood farmer, without a hired man in this hurrying season of the year. How then am I to spare George and James? I admit that your reasoning is just in regard to George but I know not how to spare him at this time. I shall not be able to give him a public education. If he shall persist in the choice of law he will have to glean for himself an education in some law office, perhaps. I may indulge him a year at Litchfield, in the meantime, I will do better for him if it be in my power. Should my ‘ship arrive from England’ or should I make sale of some land I can spare he may be more favored.

Putnam Catlin to Steuben Butler, May 3, 1815
detailed image
Putnam Catlin by George Catlin, Smithsonian American Art Museum, between 1840-1849
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Miss Jones Letter

1847 Litchfield CT stampless folded letter red CDS and 5 rate [H.3508] - Picture 1 of 3

Letter, Julia Henrietta Jones to Laura Boardman Lane, March 31, 1847

As noted before, we have alerts set up for eBay and various auction sites to notify staff when Litchfield-related items and collections appear. A few weeks ago, I added this item to my watchlist on eBay. Individual letters are often bought and sold by stamp collectors who care little about the contents as was the case with this. Although I had requested an image of the contents, the seller did not comply. Instead, I received an offer to buy the letter for $8.49. Noting that it had a return option, I decided to take a chance- the name Laura Lane was familiar from my work on the Boardman papers, and the 1841 made me wonder whether the author was a former Litchfield Female Academy Student.

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Inside the Collections: A Memory Jug

As an institution dedicated to documenting and sharing our town’s history, the Litchfield Historical Society is primarily a collector of stories. Sometimes, those stories come in unusual, and even unfamiliar, packages. When a regular supporter of the Society donated this ceramic and glass vessel to our museum collection, it set me on a research path that began in Litchfield, moved to the American South, and ended in Central Africa.

The vessel is striking in its appearance and composition, formed by covering a commercially produced glass bottle with clay or putty. Ceramic fragments were pressed into the clay while it was wet to form a mosaic of colors, patterns, and shapes. The most noticeable (and charming) feature of the mosaic is a pink, petite pig head poking out from the center of one side.

This piece is the first and only memory jug (also commonly called a memory vessel or jar) in the Litchfield Historical Society collection. Memory jugs are complicated objects, representing a craft tradition informed by African cultural and religious beliefs, imported to America by those forcibly enslaved, and later popularized through the sentimental culture of the Victorian era. This memory jug dates to the turn of the twentieth century (1890-1910) and was made in Northfield, a village in the town of Litchfield. It was likely crafted by Hattie Davida Gustafson Blakeslee (1890-1963) or her mother, Christina Nilson Gustafson (1857-1931), using ceramic fragments found in the trash pit or midden on the family farm.

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Inside the Collections: A Sailor’s Memento

This trip “Inside the Collections” features another object on display in our 2021-2022 exhibit, Antiquarian to Accredited: A Look Inside the Historical Society. The embroidery seen below is a “found in collection” object, meaning we do not know how or when it came into our collection. Usually given to the Society at a time when we had limited recordkeeping, found in collection objects are rarely attributed to a creator or owner. This piece was no different.

At first glance, the embroidery reminded me of a woolie. What is a woolie, you ask? Woolie is a common name for a sailor’s woolwork picture, a folk art tradition centered on embroidered images of ships, nautical scenes, and patriotic motifs.  

Souvenir embroidery, unidentified soldier aboard USAT Thomas, c.1898, LHS Collection

Woolies

Most sources agree that woolies originated with British sailors in the first half of the nineteenth century, and remained popular from about 1840 to World War I. As a folk art form, woolies represent the coming together of three factors: free time, sewing skills, and sentimentality. Facing long hours at sea and in port, sailors likely turned to embroidery as a way to pass the time, keep their hands busy, and differentiate their working and leisure hours, similar to other maritime folk arts such as scrimshaw and knotwork. For as long as sailing ships dominated naval and merchant fleets, sailors were also required to possess rudimentary sewing skills, as one of their duties was to repair and maintain the ship’s sails. Sailors also mended and embellished their own uniforms, requiring them to keep sewing supplies on hand. Lastly, woolies served as mementos of a sailor’s service and travels or as gifts for loved ones upon his return. The number of woolies that survive from this period suggest they were prized possessions. Examples in period frames may even indicate that the sailor or his family made a monetary investment to have the woolie displayed.

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Detective Work in the Archives

Group photo of Sons of Veterans of the United States of America C. O. Belden Camp #31 Litchfield, about 1881


Project Archivist Leith Johnson is working on creating and enhancing descriptive records for the Litchfield Historical Society Photograph Collection funded by a Connecticut Humanities SHARP grant. He contributed the piece below about this photograph, which had no identifying information written on it or with it, and required some investigation.

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