Historic Deerfield 2015 Annual Report Historic Deerfield Celebrates the 50Th Anniversary of Its Textile Collection
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Historic Deerfield 2015 Annual Report Historic Deerfield Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of its Textile Collection On June 4, 1965, the brand new Fabric Hall was opened to the public at Hall allowed Mrs. Flynt free reign to display a range of items in the Historic Deerfield (then known as The Heritage Foundation). Situated collection, from more exotic and opulent textiles to historic fashions behind the Silver Museum in a renovated 1870s barn (now Historic and textiles demonstrating aesthetic or technical excellence. Deerfield’s History Workshop), Fabric Hall showcased the In 1998, the extensive textile collection, which today numbers museum’s growing collection of clothing, needlework some 8,000 objects, was officially moved to the Flynt and domestic textiles. The gallery, which included Center of Early New England Life, a state of the art innovative ambient lighting, air conditioning, and space that allows the museum to permanently radiant floor heat, conveyed an early awareness of display items from the collection in the exhibition the need to monitor environmental conditions “Celebrating the Fiber Arts: The Helen Geier to protect fragile items. Fabric Hall was Flynt Textile Gallery.” The exhibition the dream of Helen Geier Flynt (1895- features a vast array of costumes, 1986) who, along with her husband, needlework and domestic textiles Henry N. Flynt (1893-1970), from the 17th to the 19th founded Historic Deerfield. centuries which are displayed No longer limited to the on a rotating basis. small spaces of the historic house museums, Fabric Message from the Chair, Board of Trustees Fiscal year 2015 brought success at many programs for visitors including historic trades levels: the museum achieved the strategic demonstrations, exhibitions, a summer and goals set by the Board for the year, established winter lecture series, forums, workshops, the Deerfield Collectors Guild and acquired education programs, school programs, and two major objects for the collection, and much more. produced more than 70 engaging programs Collectors Guild. This year also marked the during the year. formation of the Deerfield Collectors Guild. Implementing the Strategic Plan. This year The Guild’s tightly-focused purpose is to marks the first full year of implementation of raise money for the acquisition of important the museum’s strategic plan--The 2020 Vision objects made or owned on The Street in for Historic Deerfield. This plan focuses Deerfield during the 17th to the early 20th additions to the collection: the Saxton Family the museum’s resources on (1) preserving centuries. Objects often appear unexpectedly Desk and Bookcase, circa 1790, and the Hoyt- Old Deerfield, (2) educating the museum’s on the market. The creation of the Guild Hitchcock Family Scallop-topped Chest, audience, (3) increasing attendance and caring makes quick and decisive action possible to circa 1779. Both are described in the Recent for our audience, and (4) raising the funds acquire important pieces. Nearly 60 donors Acquisitions section of this report. We so necessary to accomplish our many goals. joined as members in its first year of operation appreciate the commitment and support of President Philip Zea’s report to the Board enabling the museum to purchase two critical Guild members to acquiring high priority shows that major progress has been made on “Tier One” objects. virtually every goal and objective in the plan. I want to thank the staff, volunteers and This year’s achievements lay the groundwork trustees who helped make FY2015 a success! for the coming years and are an inspiring start Anne K. Groves to the plan’s five-year vision. Chair, Board of Trustees Museum Programming. Historic Deerfield’s engaging programs make the museum a rich experience for visitors of all ages. During the year, the museum put on more than 70 1,000 AD Late Woodland Indians introduce agriculture to the Deerfield area. 12,000 BC 1636 First human habitation William Pynchon and others found in Deerfield. Springfield, Massachusetts. 1 Report of the President stewardship lightly. Regardless of your as they last. Assurance of public safety is personal position on energy resources, you as much of a right as profit motive in this would not have picked up our 2015 Annual country. Cheaper fuel costs are important if Report if you did not love Deerfield, think that actually delivered after expedient rhetoric. it is unique and important, or at least worth a But you cannot replace a broken cultural Sense of Place is a recurring theme in curious look. We think that too. That is why, taproot of international significance and call it Deerfield—has been for years, a lot of along with many of our neighbors in western a necessary casualty to progress. years—beginning with human occupancy Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, After considerable public protest, Kinder twelve thousand years ago. Our rivers Historic Deerfield has opposed the Tennessee Morgan withdrew its application to the preserve and promote us on the one hand and Gas Pipeline Company (TGPC), a division Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on threaten us with the other, as they did here of Kinder Morgan, and their plan to run a May 23, 2016. in 2011 with the Tropical Storm Irene Flood. 30” pipeline for natural gas with interspersed At times like that the forces of nature merge compressor facilities through public and You should know that Historic Deerfield with memory to provide us with milestones. private land, preserved land with easements, thrice denied the TGPC access to survey our The date 1704 is one of those in these parts. and land of enormous cultural significance, land in the North Meadows. The reasoning Sometimes it is instead the year with two from Wright, New York, 430 miles eastward was captured in our letter of denial: ‘blue moons’ (a month with two full moons) to Dracut, Massachusetts, largely for overseas For clarity, let me state that Historic or the year of the yellow calf, whenever that export. Deerfield is a 501 (c) 3 public, non-profit, was. So what’s the rub? The pipeline was projected educational institution….located within The Our deep sense of place and time has led us to cross the Deerfield North Meadows (easy Old Deerfield National Historic Landmark, to form the Deerfield Collectors Guild, which digging), pierce the Pocumtuck Ridge, and one of the first established by the Department supports acquisition of significant objects pass under the Connecticut River with little of the Interior in 1962. The Old Deerfield made or owned right here on The Street. You financial benefit to the residents of western National Landmark encompasses the village cannot find collecting criteria more narrow Massachusetts other than important temporary of Old Deerfield and approximately 1000 and deep than that! And yet that is precisely construction jobs. In its wake would lay acres of actively cultivated farmland within what makes Historic Deerfield so rich, thanks considerable damage to private homeowners, its view shed along the floodplain of the to a commitment to documentation as a the farming community, and environmental Deerfield River. We work daily with local, primary collecting criterion of local material and cultural resources. The TGPC plan regional and national agencies to preserve let alone of significant objects from around took their pipeline under the very shadow and protect the agricultural way of life in the world gathered to tell the many stories of of Pine Hill, the center of the Pocumtuck this beautiful village. Historic Deerfield itself New England and American history. Native homeland and the site of numerous operates a museum of twelve antique houses, documented archeological discoveries not anchored by the modern Flynt Center of This deep past and our commitment to to mention just west of there the site of the Early New England Life, where we teach the authenticity, beauty and preservation make 1704 counterattack and final English defeat. history and culture of the Connecticut River a powerful potion, and we do not take its Construction jobs are important for as long Valley and rural New England. In all, the 1664/1665 Mohawks destroy the native village of Pocumtuck, the future site of Deerfield. Proprietors of Dedham, Massachusetts, send Joshua Fisher to Deerfield to 1673 survey an 8,000-acre grant. Deerfield incorporated as a town 1669 Mehuman Robert Hinsdale is the first English settler of Deerfield 2 Old Deerfield National Historic Landmark sense of place speak to quality of life, counts the survival of 26 eighteenth-century and when threatened create both real houses, and 14 more that pre-date 1850, on damage and dangerous precedence their original sites with related archeology to both way of life and livelihood. in a village that retains its original scale Those most affected and those with the and town plan from the 1670s. Just as least benefit only because they stand importantly, the Old Deerfield National in the way should neither endure as Landmark encompasses the homeland of the pawns to profit nor as stewards easily Pocumtuck Native Americans. Your proposed diminished. We hope you agree. pipeline is projected to travel in the very shadow of Pine Hill in the North Meadows, Philip Zea President which is the site of their principal village established 8000 years ago and which, with other Native and historic sites within view, has been excavated and preserved by the University Massachusetts Summer Field School in Archeology, an affiliate of Historic Deerfield. Designation as a National Historic Landmark by the Department of the Interior recognizes high cultural and historic significance and provides a layer of protection from development. In our view, the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company project poses a threat to the cultural resources embedded in the creation of the Old Deerfield National Historic Landmark and Historic Deerfield, Inc.