Fall/Winter VILLAGE Edition Visitor
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OLD STURBRIDGE 2014 – 2015 Fall/Winter VILLAGE Edition Visitor Operators for the Teeth Historical Myths, Part II Conversion of Dennison Building “Symptoms of Thanksgiving” Winter Work & Play Annual Fund Christmas by Candlelight Winter Weddings a member magazine that keeps you coming back old sturbridge Village, a museum and learning resource of Tradition! Tradition! new england life, invites each visitor to find meaning, pleasure, Old and New Ways to Celebrate relevance, and inspiration through the exploration of history. have always believed that traditions are important—for families, for communities, and for organizations. Here at Old Sturbridge Village we celebrate many traditions throughout the year, but fall and winter bring some of my favorites. I love Thanksgiving. The air is always crisp and clean at the Village during Thanksgiving weekend, as we bid farewell to fall and welcome the arrival of winter. I find it an especially enjoyable time to walk around outside, and visit with interpreters as they VOLUME LIV, NO. 3 prepare pies at the Freeman Farm and explain to guests why staples we find on our twenty- FALL/WINTER, 2014-2015 first century table were prepared for Thanksgiving in the nineteenth century. I love hearing visitors tell me Thanksgiving Day at Old Sturbridge Village has become a family ritual. ON THE COVER: Welcome to the FALL/WINTER EDITION INTERPRETER NATE SCHLEGEL Then the next day, I get to “walk off” the feast and observe visitors learning the origins of post- of our VISITOR magazine. We hope that you will learn holiday traditions. In December, we celebrate the arrival of the holidays and the New Year with three weekends new things and come to visit the Village soon. There is of our Christmas by Candlelight program. We invite members to explore the history always something fun to do at Old Sturbridge Village. of Christmas traditions such as hanging stockings and roasting chestnuts. And we hope you will make some family holiday traditions of your own by joining us for Brunch with Santa; arranging Jim Donahue, President and CEO In This Issue: Doreen St. John and Yellow Inc., Design a family meal at the Oliver Wight Tavern; or participating in the excitement of the raffle on Lorraine Reeder, Marketing Associate Early New England Dentists: Members Shopping Weekend, December 5–7, when your gift shop discount increases to 25% to 4 aka Operators for the Teeth The Old Sturbridge Village Visitor is help you with your holiday gift-giving needs. Perhaps you can make a weekend of it by reserving a published three times a year for the Friends of Old Sturbridge Village as stay at the Old Sturbridge Inn and Reeder Family Lodges. 6 Preparing the Feast: a benefit of membership by Old Sturbridge Inc., Winter here at Old Sturbridge Village is truly a unique experience, and the fun doesn’t stop “Symptoms of 1 Old Sturbridge Village Road, at the holidays. Be sure to join us for a weekend of Winter Work and Play on January 24 Thanksgiving” Sturbridge, MA 01566. YearlY MeMbership and 25, a re-interpretation of our Fire and Ice program that is less dependent on the weather. In 8 Five Historical $50 for Individual addition to enjoying a sleigh ride, learning about ice cutting, or trying out an 1830s-style sled— $80 for Individual Plus One “Myths” Often and Dual weather permitting—you will learn about candle making and fence building, as well as how to Heard at History $90 for Family $120 for Family Plus One preserve and store food during the winter months. Museums, Part II Family membership benefits are extended Besides visiting, I hope that you will consider a gift to our Annual Fund. To keep our to two adults living at the same address and 10 A Family Tradition in the Making: their children or grandchildren under the programs affordable for families—and maintain our staff and buildings—we rely on the generous Christmas by Candlelight age of 18. Individual Plus One includes a support of our friends and members. Revenue from admissions makes up less than half of what we complimentary guest admission with each A Message to Our Loyal Members visit. Dual membership is for two adults need to operate the museum. Your gift in any amount would be most appreciated. 13 living at the same address. Family Plus One and Friends: Annual Fund Drive includes two adults, one guest, and their May you enjoy all that the fall and winter seasons bring! ✦ children/grandchildren under 18. 14 A Child’s World Exhibition Finds MeMbers enjoY • Free, unlimited daytime admission a Permanent Home • 25% discount on guest admissions • 10% discount at museum shops 16 Winter Work & Play: A New • 10% discount on food services IN MEMORIUM, JOHN KUCHARSKI • 10% discount on purchase of Program Expands “Fire and Ice” gift memberships • Discounts at partner living history ON MAy 24, 2014, OSV Trustee JOHN Kucharski passed awAy after a brief 19 Business Partner Profile: museums illness. He was the retired Chairman of the former EG and G Corporation, and lived in • Free monthly members-only events The Hanover Insurance Group • Annual members recognition event Wayland, Massachusetts, where he and his wife Marilyn raised their four daughters. • Advance notice of Village programs 20 Employee Profile: A Conversation and events As Chairman of our Development Committee, John led the museum’s Annual Fund • Member rates for all fee-based events with Thruse Hammer • Member rates at the Old Sturbridge Inn campaign and was the driving force behind our new Adopt a Building and Preservation and Reeder Family Lodges 21 Winter Weddings at Old • Periodic e-mails, newsletters, and Society programs. He and Marilyn—who served as a Village Trustee from 1989 to 2001— updates on Village happenings were ardent supporters of the Village for many years. Sturbridge Village • Members-only Dog Days It was one of the great privileges of my professional life to have worked with John. He Upcoming Events To join, to subscribe, or to provide 22 a change of address, write the was kind, brilliant, forward thinking, and as strong as they come. I learned a great deal from Membership Department, e-mail [email protected], him—about leadership, management, and doing what is right. He is deeply missed. or call 800-SEE-1830. 2 osV Visitor fall 2014/Winter 2015 osV Visitor fall 2014/Winter 2015 3 Joseph Moore of Ware, Massachusetts, was an itinerant dentist in the warmer months, but spent his winters at home making hats. Early New England Dentists: than one inexpert smith pulled not just the aching tooth but several around it at the same time, along with aka Operators for the Teeth By Tom Kelleher, Curator of Mechanical Arts portions of the jawbone. Many goldsmiths, silversmiths, and ivory workers erhaps you have met Mr. Sebre Gustin, Jr., the surgeon-dentist character who periodically appears at made false teeth. Paul Revere, for example, learned the Village, offering to fix your aching tooth. By the 1830s all the basics of modern dentistry were cosmetic dentistry from John Baker, an English physician in place except anesthesia. But thanks to two New England dentists—Horace Wells of Hartford, who spent a year in Boston in 1767. When Dr. Joseph Connecticut, and William T. G. Morton of Charlton, Massachusetts—that too became common in Warren was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill, Revere general surgery as well as in dentistry in the 1840s. But just who cleaned, drilled, filled, and pulled was able to identify the body from the dentures he teeth; made false teeth; and supplemented all that by peddling toothbrushes, pastes, and powders in had made. Similarly, ivory-worker Isaac Greenwood of early New England? Providence, Rhode Island, cleaned and “ingrafted” teeth, In colonial America, dentistry was often just a sideline to some other calling, but a growing and made artificial teeth as well as umbrellas and tooth- number of young men began working as full-time “operators for the teeth,” as dentistry evolved from brushes. His son John became a successful dentist and an often fragmented, part-time manual trade into a respected, specialized medical profession. However, made George Washington’s favorite dentures. Bone-handled toothbrush even into the early 1800s, many country doctors included dental surgery, often limited to extractions, By the 1800s larger towns had at least a few full- with pig bristles and a turned wooden box labeled Columbian Tooth Powder Besides pulling teeth and delivering babies he made spinning wheels, table legs, spools, rakes, and hoes. in their general practice. One was Dr. Robert Craige of Leicester, Massachusetts, who time dentists, including Worcester, Massachusetts, where ‘Surgeon Dentist,’ who has taken a room here in the was a farmer like his neighbors, as well as an artificer of many talents. Besides pulling Dr. Oliver Hunter Blood, a Harvard-trained physician, North-Adams House, and sticks up his advertising teeth and delivering babies he made spinning wheels, table legs, spools, rakes, and specialized in dentistry, as did Mr. Seth P. Miller, a bills on the pillars of the plaza, and all about the town. hoes. He also ran a cider mill and sharpened saws. surgeon dentist who offered a full line of dental services, He is a tall, slim young man, six feet two, dressed in a A few European-trained professional dentists could be found in cities, as well including gold, tin, and “soft paste” (amalgam) fillings, as country-made coat of light blue (taken, as he tells me, in as more humble folk who practiced at least well as orthodontia. exchange for dental operations), black pantaloons, and some branches of dentistry in addition to a But most people still lived in the countryside clumsy cow-hide boots ..