Behind Closed Doors
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EXPLORATIONS Behind Closed Doors Regional house museums of prominent alumni • by Nell Porter Brown NC./ I ELL PORTER BROWN N E; E; S OU H S THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, F HILLIP O P S AUGHTER D ONNECTICUT TABLE; DAVID CARMACK/TABLE; DAVID C Edward Gorey House S RINK, B WORTH Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts S AD W ANDEN 508-362-3909; www.edwardgoreyhouse.org V E AND RIAN From top left, counterclockwise: the S The artist and writer Edward Gorey B OU ’50 lived and worked in an 11-room cottage, Robert Frost Farm; interior of the H Jonathan Fisher House; the Governor ROWN; B surrounded by cats and books, for the last Jonathan Trumbull House; the kitchen at ore than 100 houses in New 14 years of his life (see Vita, March-April, the Phillips House; and a scene at the ORTER England, from the colonial era page 38). The museum, opened in 2002, dis- Edward Gorey House. Opposite: Gorey’s P facsimile on the front porch of the museum NELL T: through the twentieth century, plays many of his personal items—boyhood F M have been turned into public drawings and diaries, typewriter, signature known rhyming alphabet book depicting museums. Inherently different from art in- raccoon coat, and the divan in the back room the demise of precisely 26 children: “A is for GOVERNOR JONATHAN TRUMBULL ROM TOP LE F E stitutions, these places reveal not only the that was ravaged by his clawing cats (he Amy who fell down the stairs”; “B is for Basil S work of their former inhabitants but the typically had six)—as well as rotating ex- assaulted by bears”; and so on, to “Y is for habits, predilections, and even failings that hibits of his work. Yorick whose head was knocked in”; and comprised their daily lives. Following is a On display through December 29 are the “Z is for Zillah who drank too much gin.” OUNTERCLOCKWI selection of such museums with Harvard af- original pen and ink drawings, preliminary Printed reproductions fail to convey the del- C filiations. (Most are open only seasonally.) sketches, and texts for The Vinegar Works: icacy, depth, and richness of his meticulous Their caretakers are often highly devoted Three Volumes of Moral Instruction, published creativity. “Edward drew every illustration to, and scholars of, their subjects: they can 50 years ago. Deemed “whimsically maca- to scale, using these tiny lines,” notes Rick talk for hours, educating visitors as well as bre” by the museum, the trilogy contains The Jones, the director and curator, as he exam- eagerly enlivening the past. Gashlycrumb Tinies: or, After the Outing, a well- ines the intricate shadows around “Xerxes 12d July - August 2013 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 NEW ENGLAND REGIONAL SECTION devoured by mice” as he huddles in a corner. studio—with one view of an elegant South- collecting those things, along with African, Note also the peeling wallpaper and wood- ern magnolia tree—drawing multiple layers Tibetan, and Indian rings and amulets and grained floor of a once-grand room from the of lines the width of a hair, cross-hatching Coptic crosses (which he also wore). The series’s The West Wing, a mystery told through sections to create contrasting images that artist amassed hundreds of such objects that interior room scenes that feature a possible ultimately offer a three-dimensional quality. inspired him: he would arrange them into dead man in a suit in one and three shoes Gorey was a fan of routine. He often ate patterns and relationships while he worked. left on the floor of another. Gorey favored breakfast and lunch at Jack’s Outback. He Only once did Gorey leave the United Higgins India ink and a Gillott Tit Quill pen, saved ticket stubs from events through- States—in 1975 to see some remote islands and could sit for hours in his small upstairs out his life (including every performance off the coast of Scotland. “An interviewer through 27 sea- asked him at some point, ‘What’s your fa- sons of The New vorite journey?’” Jones reports, “and Edward York City Ballet answered, ‘Looking out the window.’” under George Balanchine). On Governor Jonathan the weekends, Trumbull House he regularly Lebanon, Connecticut shopped at yard 860-642-7558 sales. “He loved www.govtrumbullhousedar.org blue glass, beach Jonathan trumBull, A.B. 1727, was a stones, door- trained minister and successful business- knobs, antique man who became the governor of the Con- potato mashers, necticut colony in 1769—and was the only and cheese grat- colonial governor to fully support the cause ers,” says Jones, of independence. Answers for addiction For individuals in crisis, Fernside helps break the cycle of relapse by treating addiction and co-occurring illnesses that often accompany it. Instilled with compassion and guided by research, this Harvard Medical School affiliated program is like no other in the world. Boston, Mass. www.mcleanhospital.org/fernivy 800.906.9531 U.S. News & World Report ranked McLean Hospital first among all freestanding psychiatric hospitals. McLean Hospital is the largest psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a member of Partners HealthCare. Harvard Magazine 12e Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 NEW ENGLAND REGIONAL SECTION The “keeping room” at the Governor Jonathan Trumbull Chronologically, the Derry farm came House and a portrait of first: Frost lived there with his wife, Eli- Trumbull nor, and young children from 1900 to 1911. the cause of lib- Surrounded by pastoral scenes, he decid- erty, made him ed to devote himself to poetry, while also the perfect per- teaching English at the Pinkerton Academy son for the Revo- and working the 30-acre property and egg lution.” Three of farm, according to Bill Gleed, manager of the Trumbull’s sons, state-owned National Historic Site. “He was ARM who also played not a good farmer,” Gleed adds. “The other F T S roles in the war farmers would hurry past his house because RO F effort, went to they didn’t want to be asked any questions, Harvard, too: or for help.” Frost did attend to the details of HE ROBERT Joseph, A.B. 1756; the natural world, however, becoming one T John, A.B. 1773, who was born at of the country’s most articulate and lyrical ELOW: B the house and later became the translators of the rhythms and metaphors TABLE; famous patriot artist; and Jona- of rural life (and of his origins as a city boy S Known for his integrity, Trumbull wrote than Jr., A.B. 1759, LL.D. 1809. A statesman in nearby Lawrence, Massachusetts). Frost’s WORTH S a letter to British general Thomas Gage in his own right, he also served as governor first three collections—A Boy’s Will, North of AD shortly after the battles of Lexington and of Connecticut from 1797 to 1809. Boston, and Mountain Interval—“were all pret- W E AND Concord, calling the events “the most un- Visitors to the house will learn more of ty much inspired by the farm,” according S OU provoked attack upon the lives and property New England’s colonial history—and mar- to Gleed. “Mending Wall,” for example, is H of his Majesty’s subjects…as would disgrace vel over antiques, Colonial dish ware, and about his neighbor’s annual repairing of the even barbarians.” He preached restraint, textiles. Of note are rare handcrafted bed stone wall that bounded their respective “tempered wisdom,” and continued efforts rugs made by Sally Kate Clap, the niece of properties, in the belief that “good fences to “prevent this unhappy dispute from com- Nathan Hale, as well as an embroidered de- make good neighbors.” ing to extremities.” Yet he also made clear piction on silk, by Trumbull’s wife, Faith, of The 1880s farmstead was home to the that “as they apprehend themselves justi- their daughter Mary’s engagement to the “Frosty Acres” junkyard before the state NC./GOVERNOR JONATHAN TRUMBULL fied by the principles of self-defense,” the boy next door, William Williams, a signer bought it in 1964 and largely funded the I colonists “are most firmly resolved to defend of the Declaration of Independence. restoration, guided by Frost’s oldest daugh- their rights and privileges.” ter, Lesley Frost Ballantine. The wide plank Within days, Trumbull held what would The Robert Frost Farm floors downstairs, Gleed notes, “are painted be the first of more than a thousand meet- Derry, New Hampshire red because Rob liked the way they looked ings to organize support for the patriot 603-432-3091; www.robertfrostfarm.org with the Christmas tree.” THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, F cause, especially by delivering provisions. The Shaftsbury, Vermont, house is near O S He was instrumental in acquiring herds The Robert Frost Stone the poet’s gravesite in Bennington. There of cattle that were driven down to the he composed many of the poems that ap- AUGHTER troops at Valley Forge, says Cece Messier, House Museum peared in his Pulitzer Prize-winning New D a member of the Connecticut Daughters Shaftsbury, Vermont Hampshire, Thompson says, and planted more 802-447-6200; www.frostfriends.org ONNECTICUT of the American Revolution, which owns than 1,000 red pine seedlings on the grounds. C the museum. After the food arrived, “‘you New england has four properties with The site offers biographical notes, photos, could have made a knife out of every bone ties to the poet Robert Frost, class of 1901, discussion groups, and lectures, along with OP RIGHT (2) left on the field,’” Messier says, quoting his- Litt.D.