Fantastical Landscape

1735-1745
Eastern white pine, red oak, red maple

A gold and dark brown landscape of birds, Chinese architecture, bridges, human figures, large fantastical animals, and an abundance of flowering plants plays across the drawer surfaces on the façade of this Boston high chest. The decoration is known as “japanning” and was done in imitation of Asian lacquer furniture. The craftsperson, or japanner first decorated the surface with vermillion streaked with lampblack to imitate the appearance of tortoiseshell. The craftsperson then created raised figures with gesso and coated them with gold and black paint.

The japan work is thought to be that of Robert Davis, an English-born japanner who worked in Boston until his death in 1739.

Josiah Quincy (1710-1784), a wealthy merchant originally owned the piece. It was rescued from house fires, not once, but twice, before 1770. In 1769, after the second fire, Quincy wrote in his account book "the greatest part of my furniture [was] by the timely assistance of our friends and neighbors, secured from the devouring flames."

Decades later, Josiah's great-granddaughter, family historian Eliza Susan Quincy, wrote the story of this high chest's survival on a small paper label which she pasted inside a drawer. Today the chest is valued not only for its rare japanning decoration, but for its well-documented history. It is on display at the Quincy House in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Queen Slipper City

Historic New England Haverhill Center is located in one of the largest former shoe factories in Haverhill.

In 1900, 40% of the country’s shoes were manufactured in Massachusetts and Haverhill—“the Queen Slipper City”—was the third largest shoe manufacturing city in the United States.

Adapting to changes in fashion and with the advance of organized labor, the Haverhill shoe industry continued to flourish. In 1941, a profile of Haverhill boasted the city as the largest manufacturer of women’s shoes in the US, with over fifty shoe factories in the city, along with other associated businesses in wooden-heel manufacturing and leather tanning.

Breaking Free

Iconic Maine author Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) is best known for two of hermajor works, The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) and “A White Heron,” (1886).

In her day, Jewett was an internationally celebrated author. She wrote over threehundred works, including fiction, essays, and poetry.By the late twentieth century, Jewett’s fame had declined. Much of the reason for herdiminished light is the literary criticism, white-male-centered, that dominated themid-twentieth century. Dismissed as quaint and regional, Jewett’s contribution toliterature was overlooked. Recently, scholars have rediscovered her work and there isrenewed interest in the deft depictions of women, the subtleties of relationships, andthe feminist undertones in her work, notably her 1884 novel, A Country Doctor.Central themes of Jewett’s work reflect her own life: often, protagonists seek to freeof literal or figurative barriers, as Jewett carved out a life of literal and artistic freedomin her life, exchanging a traditional wife role for that of writer; themes of nature playstrongly in transcendentalist motifs referencing Jewett’s strong connection to thenatural world; themes of community reference the importance of Jewett’sfriendships, particularly female friendships in her life and as the inner circle of theprivate world she shared with partner and the love of her life, Annie Fields.Sense of place—Maine in particular--is prominent in the work of Sarah Orne Jewett,whose home in South Berwick, Maine, now a Historic New England site, was a belovedconstant in her life and she once wrote that she was “made of Berwick dust.”

Circle of Friends

In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century New England, while men were building communities through fraternal organizations or at the tavern, women's communities centered on the church, on charitable works, and on sewing and reading circles. Joining neighbors for a day of quilting was a highlight of the season for many New England women.

So-called "friendship" quilts came into vogue in the 1840s. This was a time of extensive migration in America, with families moving west, or leaving their farms for opportunities in mill towns and cities. These quilts were often given as remembrances to departing neighbors. Friendship quilts contain squares with stitched or inked signatures. The point was to offer a token of affection to the recipient. This red and white quilt was made between 1851 and 1853 by members of the Howard Sunday School of the Bulfinch Street Church of Boston, apparently for Sunday School teacher Francis Cogswell Manning. The quilt may have been a gift marking Manning's anniversary as a teacher at the Sunday School. A note by Francis Manning that survives reads: "You have taken me entirely by surprise, fellow teachers [and friends], by this unexpected mark of your favor, and I feel entirely unable to give expression, in any fitting words, to the feelings your kindness has awakened in my heart."

Devotion to Craft

C.F.A. Voysey Wallpaper
1893

A founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement, architect and designer Charles Francis Annesley Voysey created wallpaper patterns of whimsical simplicity incorporating stylized depictions of the natural world. This unused ca. 1893 sample in the Historic New England collection is a good example of Voysey’s stylization, with a large-scale flower surrounded by leaves and flower buds. Printed in olive, two greens and gold on a crimson flocked background.

A response in part to the Industrial Age, the Arts and Crafts movement began in late nineteenth century Great Britain and spread to America. The Arts and Crafts movement had varied modes of expression unified by the characteristics of devotion to craftsmanship, marriage of beauty and utility, and inspiration from the natural world.

World Traveler

This teddy bear belonged to Susan Norton (1902-1989), who at the age of four, brought it along on a trip to Rome. This particular bear is a very early specimen (teddy bears were first manufactured in 1902). It is remarkable that is survives in such good conditions, especially considering its world travels.

The iconic Teddy Bear was so named after President Roosevelt, who refused to shoot a bear cub during a hunting party in 1902. The event was memorialized in a Washington Star cartoon that inspired Brooklyn store owner Morris Michtom to make a stuffed toy bear cub for a store window display. The bear’s popularity prompted Michtom to found the Ideal Toy Company, later one of the nation’s leading toy producers.