The Past Decade

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. Ronald and by so doing the Society will not only T. Lyman, Jr., who has succeeded in gain increasing recognition, but the raising funds to offset in some measure, reasonable margin of profit derived from at least, the almost Augean character of printing and processing the photographs expense gobbled up by this magnificent will go far in the future to supplement the and important late eighteenth-century still limited Library income. Would it country estate. Among the more impor- seem out of place to remark here that tant gains are a complete restoration of volunteer help in the all-important task of the smaller original greenhouse of about cataloguing these many negatives would I 800, and the putting into more effective be welcome indeed! shape for use of those greenhouses which All of which leads to a most highly house the historic grapes and camelias, to important category, and consideration of say nothing of the later greenhouse to the The Past Decade 23 north in which classes in plant care are through bequest from the late Miss now being conducted in conjunction with Dorothy Codman. More modest in scale the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. is the early nineteenth-century Merwin Further, the whole complex is now sub- House in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, re- ject to the full-time oversight of a green- ceived from the estate of Mrs. E. T. house specialist. Merwin. Here the full complement of The decade of the 1960’s also saw the family furnishings of the middle and later re-creation of Miss Sarah Orne Jewett’s nineteenth century helps to create un- garden at the rear of her impressive usual interest and round out a somewhat eighteenth-century home in South Ber- neglected period in time among the So- wick-a vast improvement over the ciety’s houses. Four of the newer acquisi- ravages of untamed Nature which had tions represent that period for which New hitherto for many years gone unchecked England has become perhaps most well here ; and, most importantly, the long- known-the seventeenth and early pressing need for direct oversight of our eighteenth centuries, and all reveal un- rare and interesting Rocky Hill Meeting- usual features or characteristics not repre- house of 1785 was solved in connection sented elsewhere among our houses. The with a state highway project in the area, Gilman Garrison House in Exeter, New at which time the eighteenth-century Hampshire, which came to the Society parsonage, adjacent to our meetinghouse under the will of our long-time member, but long privately owned, was acquired William P. Dudley, is, as its name im- by the Society and moved onto the meet- plies, and despite a later coat of clap- inghouse lot to serve as attractive custo- boards and the presence of a handsome dian’s quarters-the age of the house eighteenth-century wing, a seventeenth- making the project desirable in itself century hewn log defensive dwelling of from the point of view of preservation. a variety now scarcely to be found in New Our newest acquisitions, however, England. The Pierce House in Dorches- must take the limelight. There have been ter, Massachusetts, built about 1650, is eight highly significant and exciting ad- one of the earliest, if not the earliest ditions to the number of properties owned house now extant in metropolitan Bos- and administered by the Society between ton, and can boast of the continued OC- 1960 and 1970. These range in period, cupancy by a single family through ten scale and character. At the head of the generations of Pierces until its acquisition list for sheer impressiveness stand those by the Society in 1968, made possible by two finely proportioned, three-story man- the generosity of a former trustee. The sions of the eighteenth and early nine- Captain Matthew Perkins House in Ips- teenth century respectively, each gener- with, Massachusetts, of about 17 IO, is ously furnished with the possessions of distinguished for the wealth of its surviv- the last families to occupy them, namely, ing architectural detail, including one of the Fisher-Bliss (or Captain’s) House in the best Jacobean staircases in New Eng- Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard, the land, while the Gedney House in Salem, most welcome gift of Eleanor B. Radley, C. 1665, acquired by the Society in 1967, and the celebrated Codman House with makes extraordinary virtue of the fact fifteen acres of surrounding park-like that its interior trim had unhappily been land in Lincoln, Massachusetts, received stripped away before the house came to 24 Old-Time New England our notice. The resultant opportunity to hold Inventories, 1675-1775, and a sec- see in totally unimpeded fashion the bare ond printing in 1969 of the Society’s bones of a seventeenth-century structure, popular manual, Bed Hangings; the first however, was too good to miss. This in- and subsequent Fall series for members teresting house will thus be maintained devoted to specialized lectures in depth in its present condition for the edification on the subject of architecture and house of architects and students of early con- furnishings; the detailed study under- struction. And even as we are gathered taken by the Society under contract to here this afternoon active negotiations the Boston Redevelopment Authority to are in progress for the acquisition of the determine the feasibility of sympathetic eighth property on our list, the celebrated rehabilitation of the Faneuil Hall Mar- Henry C. Bowen House. (Roseland Cot- kets for viable contemporary use; the tage) in Woodstock, Connecticut. The inauguration in May of 1961 of the first house itself is one of the best-preserved of a series of bus tours sponsored by the examples of the Gothic Revival in New Society to visit outlying properties, cul- England, and comes to us with its orig- minating in April I 970 in our first inter- inal lawns and formal gardens and national tour to visit via transatlantic Gothic outbuildings which include the plane and bus the many and varied tim- earliest bowling alley in the Country. ber-framed buildings of late Medieval Five American presidents have been en- England which served as the prototypes tertained here, and July 4, 1970, marks of our New England houses; receipt of a the one-hundredth anniversary of Presi- grant of $3,500 from the Permanent dent Grant’s visit, an event which he Charity Fund, Inc. to implement a study marked with a perfect ten-strike in the carried out jointly by the Society and Bos- now unique alley. Acquisition of the Pink ton University to determine the feasibil- House property has been made possible ity of establishing a doctoral program in largely through generous private sub- American Studies in the latter’s graduate scription and special considerationsto the school. This carefully considered pos- Society by the family in whose hands the sibility, we are happy to report, will be- property has always remained. come a reality in the fall of the current Of new activities, inaugurated year, and through special considerations throughout the course of the past decade, the Society is privileged to advance one of time will permit touching upon only the the first fellowships to be associatedwith highlights: the establishment of a this vital program which will go a long Women’s Council which has rendered way towards preparing the leaders of to- invaluable service in our many social morrow in the field of historic preserva- functions and is now, in the Society’s tion; and not the least of our achieve- sixtieth year, broadening the sphere of its ments, though not yet complete, is the re- concern to more momentous matters; the furbishing of the Harrison Gray Otis creation of an OLD-TIME NEW ENG- House. Starting in bravely during the LAND advisory Board, under whose summer of 1969 with what seemed then guidance our quarterly has now been ex- an adequate Development Fund, and panded in size and quality; the special looking to the additional support of sup- publication with hard covers in 1964 of plementary gifts, we were caught quite the source reference book, Rural House- off guard by the financial strictures of the The Past Decade 25

current season. Much has been accom- torial stafI of the Lyman Allen Museum plished, nevertheless, including the in- in New London; a Library Assistant stallation of an early warning fire detec- from the excellent student co-op program tion system throughout the entire head- at Northeastern University; a part-time quarters plant, and there are noticeable professional Registrar and Curatorial As- improvements as you will see later this sistant; a fully qualified Financial Secre- afternoon, in particular the newly re- tary; a Membership Secretary; two ad- stored Withdrawing Room on the sec- ministrative secretaries; a building super- ond floor. Work has been halted, how- intendent and the services in the field of a ever, until the times improve, and it need skilled carpenter. The substantive boost scarcely be added that the necessary work to the routine administrative affairs can go forward only insofar as our mem- which this highly qualified group has bers and friends respond in an effort to brought to bear within the past year gives help us surmount the financial hurdles. every promise that the Society can move Finally, we come to that most impor- forward with confidence to take up new tant consideration of all, the growth of challenges as the decade unfolds. our Society in human resources. As the Our staff is for the most part composed decade of the 1960’s opened one could of younger persons, and we are all (hope- easily discover by consulting the cast of fully) young in heart, and anxious to characters published on the inside cover meet the challenges of the coming years. of OLD-TIME NEW ENGLAND that the In the face of even those more alarming entire full-time administrative staff of the challenges which have been foreshad- Society consisted of six persons, including owed by the strife of the 1960’s it is most importantly our much loved and particularly heartening to me to realize indispensable Florence Addison, who that our ebulient staff remains basically with this meeting rounds out fifty years undismayed. In the midst of the untamed of unparalleled service and devotion to frenzy in our streets there exists, we be- the Society. Now, as we embark upon the lieve, a core of constructive energy wait- seventh decade of the Society’s labors and ing to be harnessed-nergy constructive a vastly more complicated world of his- in its concern for the conservation of our toric preservation the director can look open spaces and natural resources, in its forward to drawing upon the skilled, full- concern for the quality of our environ- time professional services of an Associate ment and concern for the preservation of Director whose former training included the best which we have inherited from the service with our National Park Service; a past. If ten years from today it can be re- Supervisor of Properties recruited from ported that the Society has done nothing the Columbia University graduate pro- more than help to play a really significant gram devoted to the techniques of his- role in the achievement of these all-im- toric preservation; a Curator of Collec- portant goals then I am sure we can all tions, trained in the New York State His- look back upon that decade of the 1970’s torical Association program for historical with as much solid satisfaction as we view administrators at Cooperstown; a Li- today the accomplishments of the decade brarian who comes to us from the cura- just past.