Summer 2005 The Newetowne Chronicle/ 1 IN THIS ISSUE P E O P L E A N D P L A C E S Summer 2005 Happy Birthday to Us Volume V—Number 2 By Daphne Abeel _________________________ P E O P L E A N D P L A C E S Our big news—the Cambridge Historical Society is 100 years old. In 1905, a Happy Birthday to Us small group of amateur historians, led by Richard Henry Dana III, founded the cover story Society. Research to date has not revealed exactly what motivated them, but F R O M T H E P R E S I D E N T their first subject of study, as recorded in the organization’s Proceedings, was Letters to Sara Old Cambridge (or West Cambridge)—as distinct from East Cambridge, page 2 Cambridgeport, or North Cambridge. Streams of immigrants were settling those 19th-century neighborhoods, and it appears that the purpose of the Soci- F R O M T H E D I R E C T O R ety was to preserve Cambridge’s earliest history, that is, its Puritan-Anglo- Thank You! Yankee heritage. page 3 S O C I E T Y L E C T U R E Looking Backward: Club 47 and the 1960s Folk Music Revival page 4 D A N A F E L L O W E V E N T The Worcester House page 5 F R O M T H E L I B R A R Y & A R C H I V E Mark Time The Parmenter-Hunt Diaries page 8 S O C I E T Y N E W S The Restoration of the Chippen- dale Standing Desk C A L E N D A R O F E V E N T S The Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research hosted the Cambridge Historical page 10 Society’s Grand Centennial Celebration. Here, a group of attendees tours the dra- ______________________ matic interior spaces where transparent surfaces maximize the natural light. Photo courtesy of Marcia Bushnell THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Over the years, the CHS has evolved from an exclusive club to an organization The Hooper-Lee-Nichols House 159 Brattle Street that is open to all who are interested in the city’s history. Its subjects of interest Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 include every neighborhood, whatever its location, national, or ethnic identity. Volunteers used to run the Society; it now has a professional staff. Whereas once Tel: 617/547-4252 the group met in members’ homes or in various locations around the city— Web site: www.cambridgehistory.org including Sanders Theatre, the Harvard Faculty Club, and the Cambridge Latin E-mail: [email protected] School—the Society found a home in 1957 with the acquisition of the Hooper- Lee-Nichols House at 159 Brattle Street. The membership has increased from its original authorized 200 to nearly 500. (continued on page 6) Summer 2005 The Newetowne Chronicle/ 2 F R O M T H E P R E S I D E N T those dealing with their mutual interest in OFFICERS occultism and theosophy. Letters to Sara Theodore L. Hansen Another frequent letter writer was Annie President The Cambridge Historical Society is fortu- Kathy Born Fields, the widow of the publisher James nate to possess a series of letters to Sara Vice President Fields and a writer and literary hostess. Her Thorpe Bull. This extensive correspon- Chandra Harrington 75 letters also deal with the supernatural Vice President dence spans the years 1880 to 1910, when and religion. Sara’s third most frequent Maxwell D. Solet she lived in Cambridge. The collection— correspondent was Sarah Orne Jewett, the Vice President which includes several photographs, news- Andrew Leighton prominent Maine author. Treasurer paper articles, drawings, and poems—was Thomas Bracken given to the Society in 1986–88 by Sara’s Sara also corresponded with such notable Secretary granddaughter, Sylvia Bull Curtis. people as Jane Addams, social reformer; Lindsay Leard Coolidge Curator Elizabeth Agassiz, educator and founder of Sara Thorpe was born in 1850, grew up in Daphne Abeel Radcliffe College; Henry Wadsworth Madison, Wisconsin, and in 1870 married Editor Longfellow, whose daughter Annie mar- the renowned Norwegian violinist Ole ried Sara’s brother Joseph; Frances COUNCILORS Bull. In 1879 she moved to Cambridge, Willard, president of the Women’s Chris- Charlie Allen renting ―Elmwood‖ from James Russell Robert Crocker tian Temperance Union; James Russell Lowell. After Ole Bull’s death in 1880, D. Eliot Klein Lowell, editor and professor; and Julia Ellen G. Moot Sara continued to live at ―Elmwood‖ until Ward Howe, author and reformer. The cor- Paula Paris 1889 when she moved into a house built by respondence also includes letters from P. Susan S. Poverman her father at 168 Brattle Street. She was T. Barnum, James Gordon Bennett, news- active in the Boston-Cambridge social and paper publisher; and Booker T. Washing- cultural scene and formed close friendships ADVISORS ton, educator. with important figures of the time. M. Wyllis Bibbins The Cambridge Historical Society is fortu- Carol M. Cerf The collection of letters total nearly 1,000. Luise M. Erdmann nate to be the custodian of this glimpse of Her most frequent correspondent was the Karen F. Falb life in the late 19th century. Shelagh Hadley poet and landscapist Celia Thaxter, from George H. Hanford whom Sara received 99 letters. Of note are Swanee Hunt Ted Hansen, President Dennis C. Marnon Brian Pfeiffer Charles M. Sullivan STAFF Karen L. Davis Executive Director Lewis Bushnell Associate Director Victoria Hickey Assistant Mark J. Vassar Resident Archivist Candice Allen Todd Altröm Shane LeGault Resident Fellows The Newetowne Chronicle is published three times annually Sara Thorpe Bull (2nd from left), seen with friends and family, ca. 1893. This photo- by the Cambridge Historical graph is part of the collection donated to the Society by Sylvia Bull Curtis in 1987. Society. Summer 2005 The Newetowne Chronicle/ 3 F R O M T H E D I R E C T O R W E H A D C O M P A N Y Thank You! As we reach the halfway point in our centen- nial year, we are all aglow over the most suc- cessful fundraiser in the Society’s history. Thanks to the generosity of the Novartis Insti- tutes for BioMedical Research, we were able to mark our milestone birthday by celebrating the restoration and history of the NECCO factory, a beloved landmark on Massachusetts Avenue (see cover story and photos on page 7). We are especially pleased that Novartis, an interna- Three groups of third-grade students from the Gra- ham and Parks School visited the Hooper-Lee- tional pharmaceutical firm, chose to support Nichols House this spring. Teacher Mary DiS- our event with a $10,000 leadership gift. This chiavo (left rear) said, ―As an immigrant child in gift reveals its deep commitment to the Cam- east Cambridge, I never knew this existed. I wanted bridge community. them to know about it.‖ Renny Little and Ted Han- sen (next to DiSchiavo) led tours. Karen Falb (not pictured) led the third group. We are also grateful to all of you for your gen- erous donations that more than quadrupled the Novartis gift, bringing our total raised to nearly$47,000. Most of that money is ear- marked for the operating expenses that enable us to collect, preserve, and interpret Cambridge History and to maintain the Hooper-Lee- Nichols House. For example, $25,000 will be used to match a $50,000 Institutional Preserva- tion Grant we have received from the Cam- bridge Historical Commission to repair the bal- ustrade and replace the roofs on the Hooper- Lee-Nichols House and its garage. Our centennial exhibition, which opened on June 17 was made possible by the efforts and financial backing of Lindsay Leard Coolidge. Under her direction, the collections committee culled and researched the most significant ob- jects owned by the CHS and reorganized them throughout the house to help us tell stories about our city. Lindsay also wrote and pro- duced a gorgeous catalogue, 100 Years of Cambridge History: Highlights from the Col- lection of the Cambridge Historical Society. A video crew from ARK MEDIA prepares to This free publication will stand as a reminder interview history of science professor Peter of this remarkable year. Please stop by the Galison in the Chandler Room as part of the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House to pick one up if program, ―Einstein’s Letter to FDR.‖ The show you were unable to attend the opening. will be aired on the History Channel next spring. Photos by Lewis Bushnell Karen L. Davis Summer 2005 The Newetowne Chronicle/ 4 A P R I L L E C T U R E from all over the country who came to play Looking Backward: Newport and then Club 47. As photos from the old club were shown, the audience gasped hap- Club 47 and the 1960s Folk pily in recognition. Music Revival Bob Dylan never made it in Cambridge. This was one of many fascinating stories told by folklorist Millie Rahn, who travels around the country to collect and document the history of the folk music movement. Closer to home, Millie is the folklorist for Club Passim and other regional folk music venues. She pro- duced a documentary on Club 47 for WGBH and is currently at work on a book on the same subject. Chris Smither playing at the Newport Folk Festival in 1967. Later he was a regular at Club Passim, and most recently he performed at the tribute to Club 47 on May 21 on the Cambridge Common.