on fellow ous ulletin Volume No A Newsletter of the Friends of the Longfellow House and the National Park Service December Harvard Scholars Use House As a Laboratory to Examine Material Culture his fall, for the first time, two renowned important tool for histori- Tscholars conducted their Harvard Uni- ans The lower echelons of versity undergraduate class at the Longfel- society usually generate low National Historic Site, using the few written records, but wealth of artifacts held within the House the objects they leave as the basis for study Pulitzer Prize-win- behind can tell us much ning historian and author of A Midwife’sTale about how people lived LaurelThatcher Ulrich and art and cultural and what they thought historian Ivan Gaskell taught the students Students in this course how to decipher objects in order to gain called “Confronting Ob- insight into the cultures that produced jects/Interpreting Culture: them During the semester, students visited Interdisciplinary Perspec- the House at least a half dozen times to tives on North America” examine objects ranging from a vernacular are exploring the methods Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Jim Shea, and Harvard students at the House door lock to fancy satin brocade shoes used in interpreting artifacts from colonial ological items The high level of documen- Not only historic documents, but also and early American history NPS museum tation for many artifacts in the House offers everyday objects provide clues and infor- staff assembled a list of dozens of objects additional and unusual information for the mation about the past Examining the from which to choose, including textiles, historian sleuth Many objects have a long material culture of a society serves as an ceramics, architectural fragments, and arche- (continued on page ) Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House Celebrates 25 th Anniversary he year marks the th anniver- Research into deeds, probate records, and century colonial style, such as the symmetry Tsary of the construction of the now tax records is needed to provide more of its facade and floor plan, the central stair- famous yellow Georgian mansion for definitive confirmation of the date case, the gently sloping hipped roof, and the wealthy merchant JohnVassall Jr at Brat- Although it was enlarged significantly in classical ornamentation But the House’s tle Street The Longfellow National His- subsequent years, theVassall-Craigie-Long- projecting central pavilion crowned by a toric Site will celebrate the building’s fellow House remains a fine example of balustrade and the four decorative Ionic anniversary throughout the year with com- Georgian architecture and features many of pilasters on the façade give it a unique char- memorative programs, special walking tours, the most typical elements of the eighteenth- acter, as do the two man-made terraces lead- and lectures on Georgian architecture ing up to the mansion extant today The Because of the date “” cast terraces raise the house and are sur- into the iron fireback of the second mounted by three short flights of steps floor southwest chamber, residents The original structure is still and historians have long assumed that intact and consists of a simple rectan- the House was built in that year gle comprised of the parlor, study, din- “This fireback looks as though it is ing room, front of the library, and the probably original to the fireplace and bedrooms above these The piazzas has no other markings to suggest that [side porches], the rear ell including it is commemorative of some other the “Blue Entry,” and the rear part of historical event occurring in ,” the library are all later additions to the Society for the Preservation of New original structure “The piazzas at the England Antiquities’ historian Mor- sides did not exist, I believe, in Wash- gan Phillips concluded in his report ington’s days,” Longfellow wrote in for the National Park Service in Iron fireback in the second floor bedroom, showing date of (continued on page ) Harvard Scholars Use House As Lab (continued from page ) history of ownership, before and after study As the students passed around the Henry Longfellow’s tenure at the House mystery item, each offered an observation, Ulrich and Gaskell’s course emphasizes such as “it is smooth” or “it is black ”Next the relationship between particular objects they contemplated how this rod could have Friends of the Longfellow House and larger historical themes, such as colo- been used, given its known connection with Board of Directors nialism, patriotism, or the beginnings of the House Ulrich showed nearly matching Heather S Moulton, President mechanization Students also learn about photos from an Internet search, one of Barclay Henderson, Clerk other historical tools, including laboratory which was a nineteenth-century surveyor’s Robert C Mitchell, Treasurer analysis of materials, quantitative studies tool Shea provided what he knew about the Hope Cushing of household inventories, and iconography object: Harry Dana, Longfellow’s grand- Diana Der-Hovanessian [interpreting symbols] After selecting and son, bought the rod in because it was Edward Guleserian analyzing a particular object, each student purported to have been made by Henry Elisabeth W Hopkins is asked to give an oral presentation and Longfellow’s great-great-grandfather, a Sarah B Jolliffe Linda Almgren Kime write a paper about it blacksmith Dana kept the unidentified Laura Nash “The Longfellow House collections plain rod in the front hall After he died, Elizabeth F Potter extend from pre-history through the twen- other House occupants leaned it against the Lynne Spencer tieth century,” Ulrich and Gaskell write in study wall near the fireplace as a fire poker their course syllabus “In addition to art During the semester, students also heard Advisory Board works, furniture, clothing, household special presentations at the House NPS Ruth Butler implements, and a wide range of ‘souvenirs’ senior archeologist Steven Pendery gave a LeRoy Cragwell from all over the world, the house has lecture on the more than , archeolog- Diana Korzenik printed works and manuscripts of all ical artifacts in the House’s collection, all Richard Nylander Stephen D Pratt descriptions Supporting materials can be excavated in and around the house Harvard Marilyn Richardson found in Harvard’s libraries and museums anthropologist David Odo conducted a Marc Shell and in nearby collections ” class on the photographs that Charley Charles Sullivan As a preliminary exercise, Ulrich and Longfellow commissioned and purchased Lowell A Warren Jr Gaskell chose an iron rod for the class to in Japan in the early s Administrator J L Bell House Celebrates 25 th Anniversary (continued from page )
Newsletter Committee “They were built by Mr Craigie, who craftsmen to execute their plans Glenna Lang, Editor, Writer & Designer enlarged the house in the rear So old Mr This Georgian mansion was one of many James M Shea Sales once told me; and he lived in the days such country houses that once lined Brattle of Craigie, and may be supposed to know ” Street and were scattered throughout the Andrew Craigie acquired the house in , region (See articles on pages and ) and records corroborate that within a cou- This coming summer during its annual National Park Service ple of years and prior to moving in, he hired Cambridge Discovery Days, the Historic Myra Harrison, Superintendent someone to build Cambridge Col- James M Shea, Museum Manager Lauren Downing, Administrative Officer these additions laborative will Nancy Jones, Education andVisitor Services Exactly who celebrate Cam- Paul Blandford, Museum Educator designed Vassall’s bridge’s heritage Anita Israel, Archives Specialist house in is of Georgian arch- David Daly, Collections Manager unclear, although itecture and offer Lauren Malcolm, MuseumTechnician some experts sug- multiple tours of Flo Smith, Management Assistant gest it may have the historic build- Liza Stearns, Education Specialist been the profes- ings Comprised Scott Fletcher, Facility Manager sional architect of the Cambridge Peter Harrison Historical Soci- Printed by Newprint Offset, Waltham, Mass (See article on ety, the Cam- page ) Most bridge Historical educated wealthy Commission, the The section of the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House gentlemen of the Cambridge Arts All images are from the Longfellow National Historic day, such as John Vassall Jr , had some Council, Mount Auburn Cemetery, and the Site collections, unless noted otherwise. knowledge of architecture This knowledge Longfellow National Historic Site, the col- together with the many available pattern laborative has designated knowledgeable books, which disseminated the current volunteers from the community to present style, enabled people to design their own guided walks on two Saturdays in the houses They hired skilled carpenters and month of August Interview wit a Friend…Meet Laurel Thatcher lrich, Historian Professor of history at Harvard Univer- were wool I prevailed upon a University of the family artifacts, and the property all in sity, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich writes about Rhode Island professor, a textile scientist, one place together is an unparalleled re- early American social history, women's his- who worked with museums She agreed to source for doing historical investigation tory, and material culture Her books take little filaments from the basket and LH: Can you tell us a little about what include A Midwife'sTale:The Life of Martha Bal examine them with her electron microscope you teach your class here at the House? lard Based on Her Diary, 1785 1812 – win- What was amazing was that she could not LTU: This is a course in developing his- ner of the Pulitzer Prize for history in only tell me that, yes, it was wool, but what tory out of artifacts And kind of like the and the basis of a PBS documentary – The kind of sheep it came from Then I worked archeologist knowing which part of the Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Mak with a conservator from the Peabody Muse- ground an object came out of, the House ing of an American Myth, and Well Behaved um on another basket, trying to figure out tells us which part of the world of the nine- Women Seldom Make History. We spoke with what the pigment was on the stamp on the teenth century a particular object took its her in her office in Robinson Hall basket They sent it over to the Museum of meaning from Longfellow House: How did you Fine Arts to get a final report It turned out Ivan Gaskell and I both believe that the become interested in material culture? first task is to get the students to look It’s Laurel Thatcher Ulrich: I have always the first task with documents too – it’s not enjoyed museums and art and architecture, about casting your eyes over the page It’s but I became interested in a scholarly way in all about intensive investigation Our stu- these materials when I was working on my dents are extremely bright, but a lot of book The Age of Homespun. In that project I them have never done anything like this wanted to find a new kind of focus for writ- They sometimes feel very cautious about ing about early American women I’dworked making an observation They haven’t been with a diary in A Midwife’sTale, so I thought trained, and they don’t want to be wrong it would be interesting to work with fabrics We show them an object and tell them themselves I’d done a lot of documentary nothing about it For one hour they go research on household productions, and it around the table, and each person has to appeared to me that fabrics matter At a con- make an observation Finally, we ask them ference I met a museum curator who was at to take some wild guesses What do you the Royal Ontario Museum inToronto, and think this was? How might it have origi- she suggested I apply for a fellowship to go nated? Through close looking and trial and there and use the collections That was a error, they figure it out One of the won- really formative experience because she derful things about this method is it’s a helped me feel more comfortable working it was probably ordinary lamp black, but it social process of learning because they are with artifacts Eventually my interest in was wonderful to discover the complexities interacting with each other [studying material culture] grew and devel- of that kind of examination of artifacts The next strategy is library research to oped into a sub-specialty LH: What is it like working in a house get background on whatever it is They do LH: What is the difference between museum setting rather than an art museum? methodological and theoretical readings studying objects and studying documents? LTU: The Longfellow House is really But the real learning happens when they LTU: There are a lot of similarities, but unusual because it is so professionally orga- have to apply this and they have to choose the biggest difference is access If you’re nized and managed There are so many their objects They write a complex paper looking at unique objects, you can’t Google house museums, particularly in New Eng- that uses close observation, library research, and find it on the Internet and you can’t land, that are run by volunteers on a really and material culture methods of analysis to walk into a library, go through the card cat- low budget I did a lot of research in places make a historical argument alog, and have them pull it up for you Arti- with people pulling stuff out of drawers LH:What does the historical argument facts are usually kept in museums You have and boxes and bags The other distinction include? to make appointments, interrupt people, between a house museum and an art LTU: The paper has to situate the cho- and rely on them to help you At the Royal museum – there’s a kind of rationalization sen object in a lot of context They’re build- Ontario Museum, I had full access, and it about specialized museums that take things ing complex connections out of the ob- was a marvelous experience because I met out of context, so you get row after row of jects We sometimes think of the object as so many fabulous scholars who worked in spinning wheels in museums of American a hub of the investigation, and then there museums, not in universities I think work- textile history You go to the MFA, and you are spokes The historical argument is the ing on objects is more collaborative in a lot can look at many hand-stitched embroi- rim I like source-based studies A lot of of ways because you rely so much on spe- deries of idealized spinners But you go into people start with the big broad secondary cialists and conservators, who are just a place like the Longfellow House and it’s picture and look for ways to challenge it amazing resources for so many things all there It feels kind of hodge-podgy, but By starting with the artifact, it’s fascinating I had a couple of specialists come to my it’s the way people live It puts something in how they tend to escape easy categories rescue When I was working with an Indian a context that’s really fascinating The other LH: We’re learning a lot from the stu- basket at the Rhode Island Historical Soci- thing that’s exciting about the House is the dents They’re doing a kind of analysis on ety, it had fragments that the museum said documents Having the family papers and these objects that has never been done before Georgian Country Houses In and Around Cambridge and Boston n eighteenth-century New England, mansion with acres of orchards, farms, of the American Revolution Iwealthy gentlemen built lavish mansions in and a formal garden This was Royall’s only As Commodore of the Lakes of North areas not far from the city of Boston They abode His daughter Penelope married America, Joshua Loring retrieved the cargo modeled these Georgian country houses Henry Vassall (see article on page ) and and equipment of large sunken ships and after large country estates in England, such moved to Cambridge, and his son, Isaac Roy- received commissions for his work In as Blenheim Palace and Stourhead, with all Jr , inherited the property and continued this wealthy British naval officer built on extensive gardens and landscaped parklands to live there after his father died in Isaac an old farmstead a Georgian mansion, now Situated on rising ground, the English Geor- Jr embellished the front of the house with the Loring-Greenough House, on South gian country houses were classical in faux stonework in wood and an elaborate Street in Jamaica Plain, five miles southwest style—inspired by ancient Greece and door and windows He entertained guests of Boston His sixty-acre estate was his only Rome—both inside often and lav- residence, surrounded by gardens, orchards, and out The classical ishly, invested and livestock Loring, a LoyalistTory, aban- design and ornamen- in real estate, doned the house in and fled the tation of the houses and held sev- colonies Colonial troops confiscated the and grounds conveyed eral public mansion and used it as a headquarters and the status and erudi- offices and hospital for Continental soldiers during the tion of the owners military posi- Siege of Boston The new world tions Having The Apthorp-Borland House at Lin- gentlemen had made journeyed to den Street in Cambridge was erected on G Gross Used byUsed GGross permission fortunes off England, Boston when property originally owned by John Vassall
some as appointed the Battle of Jr Peter Harrison designed the ornate colonial officials and Lexington Georgian mansion in for the first min-
Photo © others as businessmen broke out, ister of Christ Church, East Apthorp Its who benefited from Royall could extravagance, however, so irritated Puritan- favorable tariffs and Royall House, Medford, with facade remodeled in never return ical Cantabrigians, who dubbed it “the the British navy’s protection of their ships to Medford General John Stark made the Bishop’s palace” that Apthorp left for Eng- With their enormous wealth and loyalty Royall House his headquarters early in the land in In John Borland and his to the King, colonial gentlemen emulated war and conferred here with GeneralsWash- wife, Anna Vassall, acquired the mansion the fine English country houses of their ington and Lee The Isaac Royall House still The house is now enclosed in the courtyard counterparts back home Clusters of these stands along with its separate slave quarters of a Harvard dormitory and is therefore mansions sprang up in such places as Cam- for the Royalls’ thirty to forty slaves missing its original magnificent terraces bridge, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Dorchester, In William Shirley built an ornate and sweeping view of the river and Milton Although some wealthy men country house, now known as the Shirley- Leonard Vassall owned most of Western also had a town house in Boston, for many Eustis House, in Jamaica and had
the country house was the main residence, Roxbury, three about one Historic thou- Site named for its location in the outlying areas miles south of sand slaves In , The American eighteenth-century Boston King eight years after he country house represented the full embod- George II had left theWest Indies iment of all the Georgian architectural appointed him for the American National principles Unlike the more modest farm Royal Governor colonies, he con-
houses of the same period, these country of the Massa- courPhoto structedtesy theof corethe of Adams houses were fully designed with Georgian- chusetts Bay Co- the Georgian gam- style elements, not only in their facades, lony and Com- brel-roofed Vas- symmetrical-plan interiors, and elegant mander-in-Chief sall-Adams House woodwork throughout, but also in the of all British (known as The landscaping complete with orchards and forces in North “Old”House), now cultivated ornamental plantings America With The “Old” House as it was when LeonardVassall Borland the Adams Na- All of the Georgian country houses in money he made conveyed it to John Adams Watercolor by E Malcolm, tional Historic Site, and around Cambridge and Boston de- from the capture of Louisbourg in the in Quincy, nine miles southeast of Boston, scribed below are still preserved today French and Indian War, he purchased on a large tract of land He willed this Isaac Royall Sr made his fortune from his thirty-three acres in rural Roxbury on house and his slaves Pompey andVidalia to plantation in Antigua, trading in sugar, rum, which he erected a mansion, possibly his first wife, Phebe She, in turn, passed and slaves In at the age of sixty, he designed by Peter Harrison During the them to her daughter Anna, who married decided to retire to an easier life in the Amer- winter Shirley lived at Province House in John Borland The Borlands lived in the ican colonies and bought a seventeenth-cen- Boston, where he performed his official Apthorp House in Cambridge (see article tury farm house in Medford, Massachusetts, duties, and spent the warmer months at his on page ) In John Adams bought the west of Boston, close to the Mystic River country estate Shirley died in , thus house from Leonard Vassall’s grandson He enlarged and rebuilt it into a Georgian avoiding any need to flee Boston on the eve Leonard Vassall Borland The Vassalls and Their Relatives on Eighteenth-Century Brattle Street ealthy gentlemen related to John area By he owned over one hundred rum distiller and therefore part of the slave WVassall Jr through blood or mar- acres along the King’s Highway and was one trade “triangle ” Rum from New England riage lived nearby along the King’s High- of the largest landholders in Cambridge bought slaves from Africa for West Indies way (now Brattle Street) in Cambridge All Although John Vassall Jr never lived in sugar plantations whose sugar supplied the owned slaves, remained loyal to the King of the West Indies, he New England rum England—hence the name Tory Row by continued to receive a business For a time he —and all fled Cambridge on the eve huge income from the lived on his forty- of the American Revolution Their massive plantations he inher- four-acre Tory Row estates of land are now gone, but their ited there He owned estate, the Lechmere- Georgian-style houses survive today slaves not only in Sewall House, built in William Vassall, the first of the Vassalls Jamaica and Antigua, , at Brattle to leave England and settle in the Massachu- but also at home in Street In Lech- setts Bay Colony, arrived in with his wife Cambridge, like many mere sold his home to and six children Although he was an early other Bostonians and Jonathan Sewall, the member of the colony, in he moved Cantabrigians Slaves royal attorney general with his family to Barbados and grew worked as household A crowd mobbed the wealthy raising sugar cane and buying and servants, coachmen, house that September, selling slaves For the next century Vassall gardeners, and crafts- and Sewall and his family members amassed fortunes from their men Owners often family fled from Cam- slaves and plantations in theWest Indies and gave their slaves their bridge the next day also acquired land in Massachusetts surnames, and there Judge Joseph Lee Born in Jamaica, Leonard Vassall moved were several genera- had married Rebecca to Massachusetts in , bringing with him tions of black Vassalls Brattle Street on a map of Cambridge Phipps, the youngest his four children His son Colonel John in Cambridge child of Lt Governor Vassall Sr bought land at what is now Henry Vassall built a house for his new Phipps In Lee purchased and modern- Brattle Street in Cambridge According to bride, Penelope Royall, at Brattle Street ized the Joseph Lee House (now called the a nineteenth-century genealogist, in . Penelope had grown up in Antigua, Hooper-Lee-Nichols House, home to the ColonelVassall erected a house and lived in and she and Henry owned over a dozen Cambridge Historical Society) at Brat- this property until slaves When tle Street so his wife could be near her sis- his death in Penelope’s ters Judge Lee helped found Christ Church Remains of a re- father, wealthy in Cambridge Although he was a Loyalist, cently unearthed gentleman and he did not actively participate in the Revo- foundation at the slaveowner I- lutionary War and supported the new gov- front of this site saac Royall Sr , ernment In he was the only person on appear to support died in , Tory Row who was allowed to return to this claim she had inher- reclaim his property He died there in When John Sr ited “One Ne- at age ninety-three died, he bequeathed gro girl called Son of a wealthy plantation owner,Tho- properties in Bos- Present, One mas Oliver was born in Antigua and was a ton and Dorch- Negro Woman double in-law of JohnVassall Jr Vassall mar- ester and two called Abba and ried Oliver’s sister Elizabeth, and Oliver parcels of land in Henry Vassall House, Brattle Street, Cambridge her six children marriedVassall’s sister also named Elizabeth Cambridge—one of which was the current named Robin, Coba (Cuba),Walker, Nuba, Oliver retained property and slaves in the location of Brattle Street—to his nine- Trace and Tobey ” Henry bought Tony West Indies He bought one hundred acres year-old son, John Vassall Jr John Sr ’s “Vassall” in Jamaica to be his coachman on Tory Row for his estate and built his wealthy father-in-law, Lt Governor Spen- Cuba was Penelope’s maid Tony and Cuba house, the Thomas Oliver Home on Elm- cer Phipps, and his brother Henry Vassall married and had children When Henry wood Avenue, just off Brattle Street, in helped to raise the young boy died in , Penelope sold her slave Cuba When James Russell Lowell (a descendant Two years after graduating from Harvard and Cuba’s children to John Vassall Jr , but of Henry and PenelopeVassall) lived there a College in and only twenty-one years she kept Cuba’s husband, Tony, to take care century later, he called the house “Elmwood ” old, John Vassall Jr built his famous man- of both Henry Vassall’s and John Vassall’s Captain George Ruggles married Hen- sion, later called the Vassall-Craigie- homes on Brattle Street ry Vassall’s sister Suzanna and in built Longfellow House, on the six-and-one- Richard Lechmere married Mary Phipps, a mansion at Brattle Street known as the half-acre lot diagonally across from his daughter of Lt Governor Phipps Her sis- Ruggles-Fayerweather House He was born uncle Henry’s house on the King’s Highway ter Elizabeth Phipps married JohnVassall Sr in Jamaica, where he owned plantations and He continued to expand the property by Mary inherited her father’s massive farm slaves In he sold this estate toThomas acquiring six parcels adjacent to the man- comprising most of East Cambridge, which Fayerweather and disappeared during the sion as well as property in the surrounding became Lechmere Point Lechmere was a Revolutionary War Peter Harrison, Eighteenth-Century Architect in America lthough no conclusive evidence exists, Apthorp House (built for minister East from where they lived on Tory Row The APeter Harrison may likely have been Apthorp) and the Longfellow (Vassall) Vassalls contributed land on which to build the architect of the Vassall-Craigie- House He based this on the importance the minister’s house and may also have Longfellow House Born in York, England, and activity of Harrison in Boston and arranged for Harrison to design it in , he emigrated to Rhode Island with Cambridge and on the use on both of these Garrett argued in his Apthorp House, - his brother in They established them- houses of Palladian features associated : “On the basis of numerous stylistic selves as merchants and captains of similarities between his documented their own vessels Peter Harrison buildings and Apthorp House and returned to England in for for- Harrison’s connections with the Ap- mal training as an architect, including thorp family and their building of a tour of Italy and Greece and the Christ Church, it is my conviction that study of the works of ancient Roman Peter Harrison was the architect of architect Vitruvius and Renaissance Apthorp House ” He makes a compa- architectural master Palladio In rable case about the Longfellow House Harrison return to the colonies and Jim Shea, Museum Manager of the embarked on his new career Longfellow NHS points out the simi- Harrison is considered the first larities in the interiors of the Apthorp professionally trained architect in and Longfellow Houses Both have a America, and the buildings identified broken pediment and paneling over the as his are some of the highest quality mantle in the parlor, similar turnings and finest examples of Palladianism in Apthorp House, Cambridge, built in possibly by Peter Harrison and risers of stairways, large floating the American colonies Although many with Harrison’s style, among them the pro- panels and dentils in all the rooms, and buildings are attributed to Peter Harrison, jecting central pavilion with its two-story window seats “You have to look twice at only a few are fully documented as being Ionic pilasters on high pedestals and the photos of the Apthorp House to realize it’s his creations These include Touro Syna- classical doorway not Longfellow,” he remarked gogue () in Newport, Rhode Island, Further evidence that Harrison designed Yet more research is called for to prove King's Chapel () in Boston, and Christ the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House lies the authorship of the design or to discover Church in Cambridge (-) in the fact that the Vassalls helped to found the names of the carpenter or other work- In his book on the Apthorp House Christ Church and hired architect Peter men involved in both these projects During in Cambridge, Wendell Garrett proposed Harrison to build this Georgian treasure in the American Revolution, Harrison sided that Peter Harrison also designed both the on the Cambridge Common, not far with theTories and England After his death in , a mob of revolutionaries attacked his home in New Haven, Connecticut, and Recent Visitors & Events at the House burned his library and all his papers and People from all walks of life have always come to the Longfellow House for cultural activities.Today drawings Thus the most important docu- the House continues to host numerous people and events.The following items represent only a small ments that could identify Harrison as the portion of what has taken place here recently. architect of his buildings were lost forever Museum professionals from the Central State Historical Archives in L’viv, Ukraine, toured the House to learn about its history, collections, and conserva- Longfellow House in the edia tion practices UNESCO designated the city of L’viv as a World Heritage Site The Country Dance and Song Society pub- Longfellow’s London-based great-granddaughter Ann Hutchinson Guest, founder lished Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s of the Language of Dance in London, and her husband Ivor Guest, a scholar of drawing of “TheVillage Smithy”in a book- French Ballet, stopped by the House when they were in Massachusetts to be hon- let titled “Cracking Chestnuts ” Old New ored jointly by the American Society for Aesthetics with an award for Lifetime England dances are known as “chestnuts ” Achievement in Dance Scholarship On November , , the Harvard Musi- Pakistani higher education and government officials visited as part of the Pakistani cal Association presented a musical tribute Educational Leadership Institute, a summer program funded by the U S State Dept ’s to honor Henry Longfellow’s st birth- Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Based at Plymouth State University in day The program featured the da- New Hampshire, the institute trains leaders in Pakistan’s educational system guerreotype of Longfellow on the cover Cholthanee Koerojna, president of the King of Thailand Birthplace Foundation, The Fall newsletter of the MountVer- and colleagues viewed rare photographs from Siam that Charley Longfellow obtained non Ladies’ Association ran a feature, with there in - Thailand’s present King Rama was born in Cambridge in LNHS photos, called “Alice Longfellow’s Quest for Authenticity” about their “longest serving vice-regent in association history ” Smithsonian Class Harvard Student Studies Servant Bells in House Studies Asian Objects aitlin Hopkins, a graduate student in tations for gentility and the tranquility of CAmerican Civilization at Harvard Uni- domestic space,” Hopkins deduced tudents in a master’sdegree program in the versity, considered studying the Longfellows’ Using the census records, Hopkins SHistory of Decorative Arts sponsored by kitchen stove or an item in the garden con- learned that the Longfellows had four ser- Smithsonian Associates and the Corcoran nected with servants, but she vants that year Three were College of Art and Design in Washington, decided to base her project for women, two of whom could D C , spent a day at the Longfellow House as Ulrich and Gaskell’s course not read, and three of the part of a course called Asian Influences in “Confronting Objects/Inter- servants were immigrants Anglo-American Decorative Arts, 17th to preting Culture” on the bell Focusing on the servants’ 20th Centuries Their professor, Cheryl Ro- system used by the Longfel- bells led Hopkins to contem- bertson, a Cambridge-based independent lows to call their servants plate “the master-servant rela- scholar and museum consultant, brought them Bell pulls hung next to the tionship between a native- to view an unusual collection of in situ objects fireplaces in many of the born American woman and
spanning three periods of Chinese and Japan- rooms so that a family mem- her immigrant employees in byPhoto Caitlin Hopkins ese influences ber could summon a servant As products of an indus- NPS staff Jim Shea and Lauren Malcolm when he or she wished The trial process, the bells are con- first showed the fifteen graduate students Longfellows would pull on nected to the rising factory Chinese-related items from the Colonial and the cord attached to a thin Servant bell in the kitchen system that furnished the Federal periods, such as the bedroom-fire- wire that ran through the walls to the Appleton and Longfellow families’ wealth ” place tiles from the s with a Chinese kitchen or pantry, where it rang a metal bell Bells, too, have religious, alarm, and theme and the Chinese Chippendale fence Studying the servants’ bells provides musical associations, and Hopkins exam- Andrew Craigie installed in front of the insight into the lives of the lesser-known ined what they might have meant to the ser- House in the s In the mid-nineteenth occupants of Brattle Street in those vants and to the family She has also looked century when Henry and Fanny Longfellow days “The location of the bells in the at Longfellow’s poetic references to bells, bought the House, they also displayed the kitchen and pantry indicates that servants such as in his poem “The Bells of Lynn ” prevailing taste for Chinese articles They would be expected to spend their time in Hopkins plans to expand her discussion purchased a tall Chinese vase for the parlor those rooms unless engaged in specific of the servants’ bells into a larger explo- and a Chinese table for the front hall tasks elsewhere,” said Hopkins That the ration of bells as both symbols of continu- After Commodore Perry opened up Longfellows chose to request service with ity and instruments of change in regard to Japan in , the Japanese influence in taste bells rather than shouting connotes “expec- immigration, labor, and the market took over Henry’s son Charley Longfellow was among the first Americans to live in Japan He brought back numerous items Recent Research at the House ranging from “high-end art objects to pop The Longfellow House archives contain over , manuscripts, letters, and signed documents and culture,” said Robertson “It’s an unbeliev- are used extensively by researchers from around the world. Here are a few recent researchers from ably special collection, like a time capsule ” among the several hundred who use the archives annually. In the archives, students viewed his s’ photos of Japan, kimonos, rare kimono Kathleen Verduin, professor of English at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, is pattern books, and a silver trophy Charley exploring how Longfellow’s interest in Dante worked itself into his and his family’s won at a sporting competition in Japan daily life and casual conversation At the House archives she looked at Frances The House also contains American art Appleton Longfellow’s papers, diaries, scrapbooks, and other documents At Har- pottery by Fulper, Grueby, and Marblehead, vard’s Houghton Library she studied Longfellow’s copy of his translation of the among others, during the Asian-influenced Divine Comedy interleaved with his handwritten notes and corrections Arts and Crafts movement at the turn of the twentieth century In Charley’s cousin, For a monograph about writers’ houses in New England, Nicola J Watson, a senior Alexander (“Waddy”)Wadsworth Longfel- lecturer in literature at the Open University in Milton Keynes, England, came to low – a fellow Japanophile – was a founder of the archives to research how Henry Longfellow’s private dwelling was transformed the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, and into a museum She looked at the Longfellow House Trust papers, documenting Charley’s sister Alice was a lifelong member the efforts of the Trust to manage the House as a museum from - Robertson and her students, many of whom are highly knowledgeable about the In the Bowdoin College library, recent Bowdoin graduate Aisha Woodward found decorative arts and plan a career in the field, the nineteenth-century British clergyman John Dayman’s translation of Dante’s commented on the value of seeing these Divine Comedy (into Dante’s original terza rima rhyme scheme) and a letter from objects in their original context “It is an Henry Longfellow to Dayman Woodward came to the House archives to view utterly different experience from seeing them Longfellow’s copy of Dayman’s translations of Inferno ( ) and the entire Divine in a brightly lit gallery behind plexiglass,” Comedy (), which the translator had inscribed to Longfellow Robertson noted “It’s so helpful to see the objects in a house rather than a museum ” potlight on an bject n each issue of the newsletter, we Longfellow National Historic Site, National Park Service Ifocus on a particular object of inter- Longfellow National Historic Site joined the national park system in Its est in the Longfellow House collection many layers of history, distinguished architecture, gardens and grounds, and exten- This time our spotlight shines on a sive museum collections represent the birth and flowering of our nation and con- bookplate designed for John Vassall tinue to inspire school children and scholars alike The Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow Engraved by the well-known Boston House most notably served as headquarters for General George Washington in the silversmith Nathaniel Hurd, this rectan- early months of the RevolutionaryWar It was later the home of HenryWadsworth gular black-and-white bookplate dis- Longfellow, one of America’s foremost poets, and his family from to plays the coat of arms of JohnVassall Jr , the builder of the Longfellow House The Rococo foliated cartouche with a For information about the Longfellow House and a virtual tour, visit: shaded background depicts a goblet www.nps.gov/long (vase) under a sun (sol), a rebus-like play on the name Vassall At the crest of the cartouche is a ship with three lowered sails, three small swallowtail pennants at Friends of the Longfellow House the mast heads, and an ensign from a staff on the poop deck This may have Since , the Friends of the Longfellow House, a not-for-profit voluntary group, symbolized the family’s trade with the has worked with the National Park Service to support Longfellow National Historic West Indies or that the family had gained Site by promoting scholarly access to collections, publications about site history, great wealth by helping to defeat the educational visitor programs, and advocacy for the highest quality preservation Spanish Armada Beneath the cartouche is engraved “JohnVassall Esqr ” To find out more about the Friends of the Longfellow House, visit: Henry Longfellow’s grandson Harry www.longfellowfriends.org Dana assiduously collected material re- lated to the Vassalls He probably pur- chased this bookplate and bookplates of two other Vassall family members for the House archives in the late s Friends of the Longfellow House Brattle Street Cambridge, Massachusetts