The Past Decade
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The Past Decade By ABBOTT LOWELL CUMMINGS, Director HERE seems no more fitting isfaction, nevertheless, that the amount way to honor our retiring Direc- has virtually doubled within the past T tor than review events of the past decade. ten years. The story of the past decade for Equally important, though far less our Society is the story of unprecedented substantial gains have been made in both growth-slow and steady in some areas, the Museum and Library funds. In his explosive in others-but growth never- annual report for the year 1960 the then theless in the most challenging and awe- Librarian lamented that that department some sense of the word. As we meet to- of the Society’s operation with its impor- day to celebrate this sixtieth anniversary it tant collections of books, photographs, may truly be said that in many individual photographic negatives and other ephem- respects the gains of the past ten years era, had never been able to count on any have doubled or even quadrupled the per- regular income whatsoever, relying in- formances reported in those same areas stead upon the unpredictable financial within the entire first fifty years of the support of current gifts. At the close of Society’s existence. We have heard often that annual meeting in 1960 a generous and inelegantly that the army travels on friend of the Society came forward and its belly, and so we should begin, perhaps, wrote a check upon the spot in the with the parallel thought that charitable amount of $3,000 for the purpose of be- institutions must cover their ground on ginning an endowment fund for the Li- endowment income, though hopefully brary. In reporting this most welcome gift not in the same undignified posture. in his annual report of the following While it may seem crass to leap at once year, the Librarian expressed a hope that in our retrospective reverie into the sub- others would be encouraged to add to the ject of money, it should be remembered, Fund, thus permitting our Library in of course, that much of what we are time to become self-supporting. This about to relate in the name of progress thought, I am happy to say, has appealed would not have been possible without the to a number of our members and friends, very satisfying increment to those gen- and the Library Fund, while again far eral, unrestricted capital funds which from adequate to our needs, has never- over and beyond the capital funds held theless grown handsomely, and now a by the Society for individual restricted decade later stands at $18,876. A Mu- purposes, have permitted us to add to our seum Endowment Fund was established staff, provide better salaries and reason- by the Society at the same time in 1960, able fringe benefits, and to inaugurate and here we can report with satisfaction new programs in line with the many and (though the similarity in the amounts is startling developments in the field of his- entirely coincidental) that a number of toric preservation. While the total figure generous friends have boosted this Fund of the Endowment for General Purposes also to the amount of $18,773. is far from adequate to our needs even The income from these two Funds yet, we can reflect with considerable sat- helps, of course, in the ongoing activities 7.0 The Past Decade 21 and administration of two of our most our Library unique, or to build up important interests: for the Museum, the strength in certain categories which can- garnering in of the many and incredibly not be duplicated elsewhere. Thus, the diversified smaller antiquities which, decade of the 1960’s brought to the So- falling outside the category of house ciety’s Library the original measured furnishings, are to be considered pri- drawings of the John Hancock House in marily as deserving of display upon the Boston, drafted by John H. Sturgis in case shelf; and for the Library, the care- 1863 and considered to be the first mea- f u1 preservation of the past on paper, the sured drawings of an historic house ever record, in our opinion particularly in the made in this Country. A major portion of form of a photograph, often proving to be the original sketches of the artist, Edwin almost as valuable as the object itself. Whitefield, have also been received for To record the growth of our Museum our Library. The significance of these ap- collections through gifts, bequests and pealing pencil and watercolor drawings through purchases during the past decade lies in the fact that many of them were would fill a report in itself. Suffice it to translated by Mr. Whitefield to litho- say that the steady inflow of material has graphic stones and were published under consistently kept our curatorial staff the series title of The Homes of our Fore- stretched out straight, and was climaxed fathers, in various New England states. this spring by the arrival of thirty-seven They are considered the first formal ef- packing crates from Portland, Maine, fort of their kind to record in systematic from the executors of the estate of our fashion the architectural landmarks of much-esteemed member, Miss Margaret New England, beginning to vanish even Jewel1 (whose earlier gifts to the Society then in the 1870s’ and 1880’s. But all have included that collection of children’s other considerations in connection with mugs which has contributed in such an the Society’s Library pale before the important way to the popular appeal of spectacle of growth in the category of our New England Museum). To keep historic negatives. By 1960, owing pace with this steady influx it is gratifying largely to the indefatigable efforts of our to report that not only have the exhibition founder, the Society already boasted one areas in the Museum building attached to of the most impressive negative collections the Otis House been freshened and rear- in the Country, and in terms purely of ranged, but far more adequate study- subject matter, probably the largest col- storage areas have been constructed for lection dealing specifically with historic our all-important collections of textiles buildings on a regional basis. The Bal- and costumes, wallpaper, and children’s dwin Coolidge, Annie Haven Thwing, toys. Emma Coleman, Stebbins Marine, Similarly, the Library has grown by George F. Noyes, Haliday and Mary H. leaps and bounds, and we have found it Northend collections are all too well necessary during the years between I 960 known to require further identification, and 1970 literally to double the space and had helped, in the aggregate, to swell which houses the collections. Here, per- the number of negatives held by the So- haps, it might be wise to mention in more ciety by 1960 to approximately 30,000. specific terms certain gifts and purchases, During the past decade we have had particularly as they have helped to make the rare good fortune to make further 22 Old-Time New England highly significant additions to the collec- the growth which has taken place in con- tion, including some 3,000 negatives of nection with the Society’s many historic rolling stock and stations of the Boston & properties-the acquisition, preservation Albany Railroad, now of blessed mem- and interpretation of which has been ory, a collection of several thousand nega- from our very founding a principal, if not tives which document nearly every struc- the principal focus of the Society’s en- ture within those five towns submerged ergies. In several of the existing proper- now beneath the waters of the Quabbin ties the picture has been substantially im- Reservoir, the surviving remnants of the proved through additions to capital funds, justly famous Wallace Nutting Photo- the segregated income from which helps graphic Collection, and above all, some to support the individual operations. Thus 6,000 negatives exposed during a long we report with pleasure for the decade of career devoted to architectural photogra- I 960 to I 970 significant additions to the phy by the late Arthur C. Haskell, one of endowments of the Emerson-Howard the most distinguished artists in his pro- House in Ipswich, Mawdsley-Gardner- fession, and remembered today in par- Watson-Pittman House in Newport ticular for the superb photographs he (this through a generous bequest from contributed to the White Pine Mono- our former president, Arthur B. Lisle), graph Series. Our negative holdings now the Richard Jackson House in Ports- number with these additions something mouth (through a welcome bequest from more than 50,000, and can safely be con- Miss Jewell), and our headquarters, the sidered the largest regional collection of Harrison Gray Otis House, through two the kind in the Country. In the breadth substantial bequests, one from Miss and quality of our holdings the collection Jewel1 and the other from our former is second to none in the Nation. Happily, trustee, the late Albert W. Rice. too, it can be reported that by the spring The Vale in Waltham, whose falter- of 1963 we had completed the construc- ing steps had become ever shakier owing tion of a new room specially designed for to the twin-horned dilemma of increasing the housing under proper conditions of administrative and maintenance costs and these negatives. One need hardly add insufficient endowment, has during the that their chief practical value lies in fur- past decade received a new lease on life nishing fresh photographic prints to stu- through the untiring efforts of the Vale dents, collectors, publishers and others, Committee, ably headed by Mrs.