historic new england fall 2008

HistoricNEW ENGLAND

FALL 2008FALL 2008

A FAMILYCOLLECTION

A FAMILYCOLLECTION

F R O M T H E P R E S I D E N T

Strengthening historical organizations ismuch on the minds of trustees and staffresponsible for New England’s heritageresources at this time, when there are fre-quent news reports of organizations facingfinancial difficulty. At Historic New Eng-land, we take a long view. We recognizethat expanding volunteer support, member-ship, financial support, and earned incomeare all essential to sustaining our programsfor the future. Our finances are sound, ourstrategic direction is showing strong results,and we are committed to continuing tostrengthen our organization in order to bestserve the public.

In this issue you will read about severalinitiatives that are positioning HistoricNew England for the future. We welcomethe addition of the Hoover House to ourStewardship Program—a national modelfor the protection of privately-owned his-toric houses. We are embarked on a multi-year effort to make our collections fullyavailable on the Internet. Caring for ourbuildings, landscapes, and collectionsremains a priority, as is sharing our collec-tions with wide audiences. Our newest pub-lication, America’s Kit-chens, heralds the plannedYear of the Kitchen in2009, when programs willfocus on topics dear to usall—kitchens and food.

—Carl R. NoldPresident and CEO

SPOTLIGHT 1History on your Screen

LANDSCAPE 8Dappled Majesty

MAKING FUN OF HISTORY 10Portraits

MUSEUM SHOP 13America’s Kitchens

YESTERDAY 14

Dear Mr. Santa Claus

PRESERVATION 20

Preserving a Modern House

AT HOME 24

Stables and Carriage Houses

ACQUISITIONS 26Preserved on Film

Except where noted, all historic photographs and ephemera are from

Historic New England’s Library and Archives.

A Family Collection 2

Style in Tile 16

V I S I T U S O N L I N E AT w w w. H i s t o r i c N e w E n g l a n d . o r g

HistoricNEW ENGLAND

Fall 2008Vol. 9, No.2

Historic New England141 Cambridge StreetBoston MA 02114-2702(617) 227-3956

HISTORIC NEW ENGLAND magazine is a benefit of membership.To join Historic New England, please visit our website, HistoricNewEngland.org or call (617) 227-3957, ext.273. Comments? Please callNancy Curtis, editor, at (617) 227-3957, ext.235. Historic NewEngland is presented by the Society for the Preservation of NewEngland Antiquities. It is funded in part by the Institute of Museumand Library Services and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Executive Editor Editor DesignDiane Viera Nancy Curtis DeFrancis Carbone

COVER Piazza San Marco (detail) by a follower of Antonio Canaletto.1730–50.

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1Fall 2008 Historic New EnglandFall 2008 Historic New England

S P O T L I G H T

anufactured by John Rogers and Son inStaffordshire, England, during the 1820s, thesoup tureen pictured here features a transfer-printed view of the Massachusetts State

House in Boston. It may seem odd that an English-made ceramic would feature anAmerican scene, but in fact such pieces were regularly turned out by British potterieseager for a share of the American market.

This particular tureen entered Historic New England’s collection in the earlytwentieth century, but has rarely been on view. In 2009, along with thousands of otheritems, it will be featured online as part of a multi-year Collections Access Project.Supported by a $1 million grant, the project will make possible unprecedented onlineaccess to museum objects, manuscripts, books, photographs, and other materials.Members, researchers, and even casual Web searchers will be able to see on-screenimages and descriptive catalogue information for many of the objects in the housemuseums and in storage.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a comprehensive catalog. By conserva-tive estimates, Historic New England has more than one million items in its collec-tions. While many of the objects have previously been catalogued in a variety of ways,the sheer volume of the material makes bringing it all together into a single onlinedatabase a Herculean task. As you read this, the new computer systems needed tomanage this massive effort are being installed and customized. New cataloguers arejoining the staff, and existing information is being reformatted. The new system willbe up and running internally by the end of the year, and portions of the collection will be accessible on the Web by mid-2009. Initial efforts will focus on convertingexisting databases, including the unparalleled collections of jewelry, wallpaper, andphotographs of domestic interiors. Additional materials, such as daguerreotypes,architectural drawings, and the contents of the house museums, will be added on anongoing basis.

The Collections Access Project embodies Historic New England’s commitment toproviding access to its vast holdings of research materials and historical artifacts in newand exciting ways. As this project proceeds, we look forward to telling you more abouthow you can use your computer to explore Historic New England’s hidden treasures.

—David DwigginsSystems Librarian/Archivist

ABOVE This soup tureen was part

of an extensive collection of blue

Staffordshire earthenware given

to Historic New England by the

Harrington family. After years in

storage, it will be viewable online

in 2009 as part of Historic New

England’s Collections Access

Project.

M

History onyour Screen

2 Historic New England Fall 2008

A Family Collectionhe paintings mentioned by Richard Codman(1762–1806) in his 1794 letter to his brotherJohn (1755–1803) in Boston were the beginningof a rich legacy for the Codman family. Those

that remain at Historic New England’s Codman Estate inLincoln, Massachusetts, are considered by many to comprisethe earliest collection of European paintings in the country tosurvive relatively intact. Members of the next three genera-tions connected with the house continually added to the col-lection, revealing an interesting story of changing tastes, col-lecting trends, and family pride.

Richard Codman had gone to France in 1793 to act asan agent for the family business. By all accounts he livedextravagantly there, entertaining lavishly in an elegantly fur-

“I have bought in Paris 80 odd pictures which I have ordered packed and shipped to Havre.

Some of them are very pretty and done by the finest Masters, they cost me about £270 sterling.”

T

nished Paris townhouse and several chateaux in the country.The tumultuous years after the French Revolution were anadvantageous time to buy art and other luxury goods, andCodman traveled in the right circles. Among his acquain-tances were the American-born artist John Trumbull andJean-Baptiste Pierre LeBrun, the husband of the well-knownpainter Louise Elizabeth Vigée-LeBrun. LeBrun was consid-ered the most knowledgeable art dealer of his day and hadaccess to the collections of many prominent but recentlyimpoverished families.

FACING PAGE, TOP The Colosseum, possibly by Gaspare Vanvitelli. Early

eighteenth century. FACING PAGE, BOTTOM Richard Codman, by John

Singleton Copley. 1793. RIGHT Silenus, possibly by Willem van Mieris.

c. 1700. BELOW The Cattle Fair, by Jean Louis de Marne. c. 1780.

Historic New England Fall 20084

ABOVE Charles Russell Codman by Gilbert Stuart. c. 1815. (Courtesy

of the granddaughter and great-grandchildren of Cora Codman

Wolcott).

ings, some of them family portraits, which were dividedamong his five sons. Eleven paintings from Richard’s initialpurchases hang at the Codman Estate today.

Of John’s sons, Charles Russell Codman (1784–1852)took the keenest interest in the paintings he had inherited.Indeed, of the four generations who owned the collection, heacquired some of the best pictures and stands out as the trueconnoisseur. Soon after his father’s death, Charles sold thefamily house in Lincoln and at age twenty-four left for anextended trip to Europe. The journal he kept during his travelslists the places he went to look at paintings, presumably forcomparison and to further educate his eye; he commentsspecifically on the collections that he viewed at WindsorCastle, Hampton Court, Blenheim, and several places inScotland. In London he saw works by American-born artistsJohn Singleton Copley and Benjamin West and visitedThomas Hope’s collection of paintings and furniture at hishouse on Duchess Street.

Between 1820 and 1825, Charles Russell Codman wasactively building his collection, purchasing many works atauctions in Boston, a prime source of art and furnishings forthe elite in the city, who were decorating their new housesbuilt in the fashionable Federal style. He displayed his paint-

Between 1794 and 1797, Richard purchased over onehundred and fourteen paintings, which he sent to his brotherJohn in Boston. The twenty-four that he bought from LeBrun in 1796 came with an invoice, called by later genera-tions “the LeBrun Certificate,” that described them in detailand attested to their authenticity. The next year, Codmanbought ten additional works from another Paris dealer,Jacques-Nicolas Brunot. The paintings—landscapes, genrescenes, and religious subjects, many of them attributed to themost illustrious Old Masters—were the same types of artsought by the English gentry on the Grand Tour as marks ofwealth, status, and education.

John Trumbull himself, with the financial backing of afriend, had bought many similar paintings from LeBrun andshipped them to London for resale, hoping for a huge profit.Richard may have sent his paintings to Boston with the sameidea in mind. His brother, however, decided to keep many ofthem. He hung some in his Boston townhouse and others inhis country seat in Lincoln, where he had just completedremodeling the house and landscaping the grounds in themanner of an English country estate. John knew the value ofhis collection, and at one point, when he was abroad tryingto rein in his brother’s excesses, wrote to his wife fromEngland, “The pictures and statuary we have would bring adeal of money in this country. I have thought of sending forsome of them over here but believe shall see Richard first.”In 1803, when John died, his estate included sixty-four paint-

ABOVE Adam and Eve, Flemish school. Seventeenth

century. Charles Russell Codman bought this work

for $50 at a Boston auction in 1820.

5Fall 2008 Historic New England

ings in several rooms of his house at 29 Chestnut Street,including all three levels of the stair hall “because it had afine light for pictures.” Codman’s house became a mecca forother American collectors. Philip Hone of New York visitedBoston in 1828 and noted in his diary, “I have seen nearly allthe fine Pictures in the private collections.” Codman’s collec-tion, he noted, was a “splendid Gallery of ancient paintings,many of which are originals of great artists.”

Today we view Charles Russell Codman’s collection astypical of many of those formed in the late-eighteenth andearly-nineteenth centuries, consisting of works by minor artists,paintings with undocumented attributions, good copies, andsome original works, like the magnificent Still Life by WillemClaez. Heda. During the course of his study, Codman becameaware that some of his paintings, like the Venetian scene onthe cover, were not by the artists to whom they were ascribedwhen he bought them, and he himself reattributed them toothers in a catalogue he compiled of the collection. WhileCodman’s taste was for “ancient” Dutch and Italian pictures,in 1820 he did add one notable contemporary work—“Lastbut not least,”as he noted in his catalogue. This was a landscapewith a sunset by Washington Allston (now at the CorcoranGallery in Washington, D.C.), for which he paid the artist $150.

In 1827, Charles Russell Codman was one of five mem-bers of a committee charged to gather paintings to display inan exhibition “for the encouragement of the Fine Arts” in theBoston Athenaeum’s newly constructed gallery, the precursorof the Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition opened in Mayand in the first four days, 1,300 people had purchased ticketsand viewed the 317 paintings that had been lent. For the nexttwenty years, Codman lent dozens of his paintings to theAthenaeum’s yearly exhibitions.

Charles Russell Codman nearly doubled the size of thepainting collection he had inherited. When he died in 1852,his house contained over sixty paintings, as well as numerousfamily portraits and framed prints. These were dividedamong his five children. Because his two youngest sons,Ogden and Richard, were minors, Henry Greenough, a familyfriend and brother of the sculptor Horatio Greenough, selectedtheir shares, which were kept for them by relatives until theboys reached the age of twenty-one.

Ogden Codman (1839–1904), orphaned at thirteen, maywell have viewed the old family home in Lincoln, which hisfather had sold, as a place where he could reestablish roots.He bought the house in 1862, renamed it The Grange, andwith his young wife, Sarah Bradlee Codman, immediately

ABOVE Still Life by Willem Claesz.Heda.1632.The artist signed and

dated the work on the knife blade.


began remodeling it in the Victorian style. The sixteen paint-ings he had inherited became important features of the newlyredecorated rooms on the first floor. Many of the Old Masterpaintings were hung in the drawing room, and some, like theHeda, were reframed to be more compatible with the newdecor. Landscapes by contemporary artists were acquiredspecifically to hang in the billiard room. Like his father,Codman bought art and furnishings at auctions in Boston.

The Great Boston Fire of 1872 destroyed many rentalproperties owned by Ogden Codman, and his income suf-fered greatly. Thinking to live more cheaply in Europe, hemoved his wife and young family to Dinard, on the Brittanycoast, and rented the Lincoln house completely furnished,with the pictures still hanging on the walls. During the fami-ly’s stay in France, Codman added only a few paintings to thecollection. When the family returned to Lincoln in 1884,these were integrated into the rooms of The Grange alongwith the other furnishings they had purchased in France.

Ogden Codman does not appear to have been the con-noisseur that his father was, although he obviously did likepictures, for by the time of his death in 1904 he again haddoubled the number of paintings he had inherited. He willedthe contents of The Grange first to his wife Sarah and then

jointly to their five children. For the first time in one hundredyears, the paintings were not dispersed but remained togetherin Lincoln.

Of the children, Ogden, Jr. (1863–1951), Tom(1868–1963), and Dorothy (1883-1968) were the ones mostinterested in the art they had inherited. Between the 1920sand the 1950s, they again doubled the number of paintingsin the collection to over eighty works. Their acquisitions,which appear to have been motivated primarily by sentimentand a desire to preserve the family legacy, form a diversegroup of portraits, landscapes, and Old Masters. Many ofthe nineteenth-century landscapes, including Niagara Falls,had hung during their childhood in the Boston home of theirmaternal grandparents, the Bradlees, also apparently collec-tors. In the process of purchasing paintings from the estatesof various aunts and cousins, they brought together an eclec-tic group of works by such New England artists as SamuelLancaster Gerry, Thomas Hewes Hinckley, and ErnestLongfellow (reproduced on contents page), the son of thepoet. Ogden Codman, Jr., was especially pleased by anuncle’s gift of John Singleton Copley’s portrait of RichardCodman, the founder of the collection.


As the members of the last generation grew older, theirmain interest was in documenting how and when each paint-ing had come into the collection, relying heavily on the infor-mation in A History of the Codman Collection of Picturescompiled by their cousin Cora Codman Wolcott, who hadaccess to many of the original documents. The “LeBrunCertificate,” the 1796 invoice to Richard Codman, becamethe cornerstone for provenance and attribution. In 1954,Dorothy Codman added the last painting to the house inLincoln and brought the family collection full circle, whenshe purchased from Wolcott’s estate a small landscape thatRichard Codman had bought from LeBrun in Paris and sentto his brother John in Boston nearly one hundred and sixtyyears earlier.

—Richard C. NylanderCurator Emeritus

FACING PAGE Harbor Scene, St. Servan, 1882, was a gift to Ogden

Codman, Sr., from the artist Edward Darley Boit. ABOVE View of

Niagara Falls. Some scholars believe this to be a work completed by

John Vanderlyn in 1801 and subsequently lost after being taken to

London to be engraved. BELOW Landscape by Nicholas Duval. Sold

by LeBrun to Richard Codman in 1796, the painting was brought

back into the collection in 1954, when Dorothy Codman purchased

it from the estate of a family member.


ichael A. Dirr, in hisManual of Woody Land-scape Plants, describes theiconic elm habit as a

“vase-shaped form in which the trunkdivides into several erect limbs stronglyarched above and terminating in num-erous slender often pendulous branch-lets, the whole tree a picture of greatbeauty and symmetry.” In the late1890s, when Emily and Elise Tysonfirst visited Hamilton House in SouthBerwick, Maine, and saw the property’selms soaring gracefully above thegrounds, the classical forms of Ulmusamericana must immediately haveinfused their garden vision. Thesenoble trees, providing structure, shade,and shelter, were central to the elabo-rate landscape plan the two womencreated.

Elms had already become a well-loved shape in communities region

wide. Thomas J. Campanella, in TheRepublic of Shade, traces their popu-larity to New England village improve-ment societies, which by the mid-1800shad transplanted thousands of treesfrom woods to towns. A native speciesfrom Newfoundland to Florida, withattractive yellow fall color and rapidgrowth to heights of eighty feet or more,elms by the million soon provided protective tunnels of dappled shade in streets throughout eastern NorthAmerica.

Cruelly, this vast monoculturebegan to fail, probably in 1931, whenDutch Elm Disease (DED) arrived via alog shipment from France to Cleve-land. Within years, trees as far away asNew Jersey were succumbing. PhilMcCombs of the Washington Postwrote that the disease had “killed 77million trees by 1970,” lamenting that“once upon a time in America, great

L A N D S C A P E

Mleafy high-arching cathedrals of elmslined the streets of villages and citiesfrom the Atlantic to the Rockies, castinga deep cool shade upon life’s turmoil.”

DED is a fungus, first encounteredin 1921 in the Netherlands, that infectsthe water conducting system of thetree. The leaves wilt, yellow, and thenbrown as the fungus clogs the vasculartissue and prevents water movement tothe crown. The fungus can move frominfected trees via root grafts to adja-cent trees, and its spores are also car-ried by elm bark beetles, which createtunnel galleries beneath the bark.Another fatal disease, similar inappearance, is Elm Yellows, a bacteria-like infection of the inner bark.

Dappled Majesty


For the property owner or com-munity hoping to preserve existingelms, the best means of managing dis-ease is sanitation— removing infectedtrees or branches. In dormant season,wood should be destroyed before over-wintering beetles emerge in April.During growing season, removalshould be completed within two tothree weeks of detection. Insecticidesand fungicides can provide effectivecontrol but are expensive and have var-ious drawbacks. A proactive measureinvolves severing root grafts so as tointerrupt transmission between largetrees within twenty-five to fifty feet ofeach other.

For the long term, genetic diversityholds the key to restoring these mag-nificent trees to the American land-scape. A strategy that is gaining inter-est nationwide is to identify disease-reistant or -tolerant specimens, clonethem, and plant the progeny. The U.S.National Arboretum has evaluatednineteen American elm varieties,including “Valley Forge,” “Princeton,”

“New Harmony,” and “Jefferson,”cloned in 1993 from a survivor of sixhundred elms planted in the 1930s on the National Mall. A National Elm Trial, begun in 2005, is beingcoordinated by Colorado State Uni-versity. There are currently over fiftynamed cultivars in the nursery trade,available in sizes from 1-gallon pots to4-inch caliper. Interest is such thattwelve thousand “Princetons” weremade available by Home Depot inspring 2008.

In 1996, Historic New Englandembarked on an ambitious effort tobring the stately elm back to HamiltonHouse, planting several varieties inlocations where elms appeared in his-toric photographs. The “Homestead,”which has complex European, Asian,and American elm genetics, has thrivedbut doesn’t display classic form. The“Liberty” has grown quickly andexhibits good form, while other vari-eties have died from fungus or severewinter conditions. Last spring, weplanted two 14-foot “Accolade” elms,

FACING PAGE Photographs taken by Paul

Weber in 1928 capture the Hamilton elms in

their glory, as they arch over the house and

vine-covered pergola and dapple the lawns

with shade. LEFT Eleven-year-old “Home-

stead” elms have been planted on the bank

overlooking the Salmon Falls River in the

same locations as the original American

elms. ABOVE A protective collar prevents

porcupines from climbing the tree to gnaw

bark and eat branchlets.

a classically vase-shaped variety origi-nating from seed collected in 1924 at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston,and will continue adding trees as thelandscape restoration expands towards historic, elm-filled view sheds impor-tant to the Tysons’ garden design.Meanwhile, native volunteer elmsappear regularly around the verges ofthe property. To date all have contractedthe fungus and been removed, yet wemonitor them in the hopes that onewill turn out to be disease-resistant. If so, perhaps its offspring—named“Hamilton,” of course—can helprepopulate the American landscape.

—Gary WetzelLandscape Manager

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This tiny portrait, called a “miniature,” measures about threeinches across. One side holds a carefully detailed portrait ofRobert Harcourt Twycross, painted on a piece of ivory, whilethe other contains tendrils of his hair, preserved under glass.Before the invention of photography, people gave portraitminiatures like this one as keepsakes. Portrait miniatures wereoften used as jewelry and worn close to the heart. Having a lock of hair would make people feel more connected to a distant loved one, even if it seems a little strange to us today.

M A K I N G F U N O F H I S T O R Y

�

2500 BC Sculptures ofEgyptianpharaohs are

among the ear-liest portraits.

1503–1505 AD Leonardo da Vincipaints the famousMona Lisa.

Seventeenth century Portrait painters, or “lim-ners,” begin working inthe American colonies.

1774Boston portraitist JohnSingleton Copley travelsto England to studyEuropean painting techniques.

1790sGilbert Stuart paintsportraits of GeorgeWashington, includingthe one reproduced onthe dollar bill.

Can you guess what this was used for?

Portraits

what is it? �

Let’s learn about portrait traditions in

People have made portraits since the days ofAncient Egypt. Portraits can honor kings andqueens, depict a hero, capture the likeness of afamily member, or remind us of a loved one faraway. Portraits can be made in stone, clay, paint,or paper, but before the invention of the camera,most people could not afford them.

New England and around the world.

Do you have a photograph thatshows multiple generations ofyour family? If so, send it toCasey at the address below,and we will send you a HistoricNew England coloring book.

Casey the ClockHistoric New England141 Cambridge StreetBoston, MA 02114


Eighteenth and nine-teenth centuries Silhouette portraitsbecome popular.

1840sDaguerreotypes, thefirst commercially suc-

cessful photographs,are widely used for portraiture.

��puzzle

write to Casey!

1870sAmerican ImpressionistMary Cassatt paintsportraits of mothersand children.

Mid-twentiethcentury Portrait photographsof American childrenare taken annuallyin school.

Artists often include an object in a portrait that tells us the sitter’s occupa-tion or favorite activity. Look at the two rows of pictures below and draw aline connecting each face to the most appropriate object.

See if you can match these things and people from Historic New England’scollection of portraits. For answers, see page 13…

Portraits serve an important purpose in fami-lies. They help us to remember our ancestors,record what young family members look like aschildren, and commemorate important familygatherings. In this daguerreotype, members offour generations of the same family pose together.That in itself is an unusual occurrence, but these familymembers all have the same name! From left to right,they are Josiah Quincy III, Josiah Quincy IV, JosiahQuincy V, and Josiah Phillips Quincy.

1962The National PortraitGallery opens inWashington, D.C.

[email protected]

Performer Mariner Hiker Upholsterer


M A K I N G F U N O F H I S T O R Y

Directions1. For a “gilded” frame, cut a piece of aluminum foil severalinches larger than the shoebox cover. Wrap it around the out-side of the cover and over the edges, and glue it in place.2. Cut a piece of plain paper that will fit into your “frame,”and sketch your self portrait. Include some of your favoritethings so your picture will be personal.3. When you are satisfied with the sketch, make a templatefor each section—face and hands, background elements,clothing, and other details—then trace these shapes onto thepieces of paper and fabric you have chosen for the collage.Assemble the buttons and ribbons you plan to use for the fin-ishing touches.

4. Place the collage pieces in the frame to make sure theyfit. Lay the background pieces down first, followed bythe clothing, face, and hands, with the finishingdetails of buttons, ribbon, or yarn on top. Onceyou are pleased with the way everything looks,glue each piece in place, starting with thebottom layer and working your way up.Allow the glue to dry, and display yourself portrait in a special place.

—Amy Peters ClarkEducation Program Manager

Suppliesshoebox coveraluminum foilplain paper and construction paperpencil, crayons, or colored pencilsglueassorted scraps of fabric, wallpaper, wrapping paper, buttons, ribbon, or yarn

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Making a self portrait, with a shoebox cover and some odds and ends of coloredpaper and materials, is a fun project.You can depict yourself in your room,doinga favorite activity, or playing a sport. Include a favorite pet, book, or toy in thepicture.What will be in the background? Do you want to be wearing your bestclothes,a sports uniform,a costume? The details you put in your picture expresswhat makes you unique.They are clues that tell other people about your inter-ests and the kind of person you are.

Self portrait


M U S E U M S H O P

America’s Kitchensistoric New England isproud to announce publi-cation of the forthcomingAmerica’s Kitchens, the

second volume in its popular newseries. The book considers the socialhistory of this important room, usingexamples from Historic New England’shouse museums as well as detachedkitchens on southern plantations,Spanish colonial kitchens of theSouthwest, elaborate nineteenth-centurykitchens in the Midwest, and middle-class open-plan homes of 1950s subur-bia. The kitchen today is commonlyviewed as a warm place—indeed, theheart of the home. Nonetheless, forcenturies, many women felt trapped in

their kitchens by endless drudgery.Gradually, technological developmentslike the cast-iron cookstove, the effi-cient Hoosier cabinet, and the refriger-ator altered kitchen work and broughtchanges to the lives of the people whoworked and gathered there.

Lavishly illustrated with drawings,photographs, and ephemera fromHistoric New England’s collections,among others, America’s Kitchensdescribes what it was like to live andwork in kitchens that had none of theconveniences we now take for granted.At the same time, the book analyzesthe profound place of the kitchen inour own lives today.

H America’s KitchensNancy Carlisle and Melinda TalbotNasardinov, with Jennifer Pustz

Member price, $31.45. Price, $34.95(plus applicable tax, shipping, and handling)

Deluxe paperback with 208 pages, 190 illustrations, many in full color.

To order, call (617) 227-3956 or orderonline at www.HistoricNewEngland.org.

Answers to puzzle on page 11.performer/violin; mariner/ship; hiker/dog;upholsterer/hammer


n December 1915, eight-year-oldStephen Phillips of Salem, Massa-chusetts, laboriously penned thisletter to Santa Claus:Dear Mr. Santa Clausif you want to know what I want

for Christmas? I want a pony and cartand a harness and a Meccano set num-ber two And a bigger Indian hat Threemore magic paint books.

And the Adventures of Unc’ BillyPossum and Jerry Muskrat, and theTraveling Bears in Outdoor Sports,and a baseball bat. Ten beautiful thingsfor children to make and a jack plane,and the Mother goose picture buildingbook The two bad mice Mrs. Littlemouse. The rainy day scrap book, andthe teddy bears, book + the Irish twinsstories of the Pilgrims. The enchantedpeacock, the Princess and Curdie TheKingdom of the Winding road theEnchanted House.

From Stephen Phillips 34 Chestnutstreet Salem the pony and the cart andthe harness all go over to 34 Warren St

Most children could easily com-pose a wish list this long, and manymight long for a pony. Stephen was oneof the privileged few who actually gothis pony, and judging by the things thatremain in his childhood home, many ofthe other items on his list as well. Hewas the only child of attorney StephenWillard Phillips and Anna PingreeWheatland, a prominent couple wholived in a handsome Federal house onSalem’s finest street. Young Stephenand his friend Alfred (Bunny) Putnamloved to drive around town and evenventured as far as Swampscott, attendedby the family coachman, Connie Flynn.(Stephen’s instructions to deliver thepony and equipage to 34 Warren Streetwere practical; the address was a liverystable owned by his mother.)

Y E S T E R D A Y

I

ABOVE Relics of a privileged boyhood:

Steven Phillips’s letter, a snapshot of

him standing on the front porch in his

Indian outfit, favorite books and pas-

times, and the pony cart.

DearMr. Santa Claus

Gre

gory

Wo

stre

l


Meccano sets, the precursor ofErector sets and Lego, were educationalconstruction toys that were invented inEngland in 1901 and became popularworldwide by 1915. Consisting of per-forated metal strips, wheels, and gears,the sets needed only screwdrivers andwrenches to assemble a variety of mod-els, including bridges, automobiles,steam shovels, and so on. Stephen hada workbench in his playroom and wasalso given weekly carpentry lessons.

Stephen’s book list was long, butin an era before television and elec-tronic amusements, not unusually so. It included a masterpiece of the Vic-torian fantasist George MacDonald,The Princess and Curdie, as well asrecent volumes by well-known authorswhose works are still in print today,such as Thornton W. Burgess (Unc’

Billy Possum andThe Adventures ofJerry Muskrat) andBeatrix Potter (TwoBad Mice and Mrs.Tittlemouse). LucyFitch Perkins’s IrishTwins was one of aseries that intro-

duced the young American reader tolife in foreign cultures, while SeymourEaton’s Roosevelt Bears books wererhymed comic verses that helped estab-lish the popularity of the teddy bearduring this period. Stephen’s childhoodlibrary evidently established a habit,for he remained an avid readerthroughout his life.

It is hard to pinpoint exactly whenthe tradition of writing letters to SantaClaus began. The political cartoonistThomas Nast (1840–1902) is creditedwith creating Santa’s physical appear-ance and may be responsible forencouraging children to write to him aswell. A cartoon he contributed toHarper’s Weekly of January 4, 1879,depicts a young woman posting a letterto Santa Claus outside a toy shop asher shaggy dog looks on. Nast alsogave the jolly old elf a North Poleaddress and a workshop with elves tohelp him make toys.

At the time he wrote this letter,Stephen was enrolled in the TowerSchool, a private school that stressedcreativity and was deemed rather pro-gressive. Despite his family’s wealthand social position, however, his up-

bringing was notentirely sheltered. Inthe eighth grade,his parents senthim to the localpublic school.Bunny Putnam latercommented that he thoughtStephen’s parents wanted him “tomeet the rest of the world and beexposed to the ordinary person.” Heremarked that Stephen earned therespect of the boys from the GallowsHill neighborhood for “his ability tofight and stand up for himself.”Stephen went on to Milton Academyand thence to Harvard, after which hemanaged the family firm and continuedhis father’s tradition of volunteerismand philanthropy. His letter, pho-tographs, pony cart, and many of hisbooks and toys can still be seen at thePhillips House, where they offer a vividglimpse into his boyhood during thetwentieth century’s early years.

—Nancy Curtis, Editor, andKen Turino, Manager of CommunityEngagement and Exhibitions

Phillips House is open Tuesday through Sunday,from 11 am to 4 pm through October 31, andSaturday and Sunday, same hours, from November1 to May 31.

Photographs by David Carmack


or centuries, New Englanders have used tiles to dec-orate the walls, fireplaces, and floors of their homes,adding color, design, luster, and durability. The tilesmay be simple and utilitarian or so elaborate and

colorful that they enrich a room with their patterns and sto-ries. In both its historic houses and its study collection,Historic New England has wonderful examples of decora-tive tiles dating from the past three hundred years.

The oldest decorative tiles in the collection are Dutch,which were for several centuries the most sought-after tiles inEurope. The region’s foremost families used imported Dutch

C O L L E C T I O N S

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StyleinTile

tiles to decorate their homes and display their wealth. Typicallate seventeenth-century examples depict birds or flowers asthe central motif, with scrolls or ox-head designs at the cor-ners. In the eighteenth century, tiles with religious subjects, inblue or purple on a white ground, became popular. Often,entire fireplace surrounds were decorated with tiles depictingscenes from the Old and New Testaments; usually, the sub-ject is framed in a circle with small decorative motifs at thecorners and sometimes chapter and verse at the bottom.Other Dutch tiles feature decorative patterns, seascapes,landscapes, ships, soldiers, or animals. At the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm in Newbury, Massachusetts, a set of purple-and-white tiles depicting seascapes and landscapes was formerlyinstalled in the fireplace surround in the second floor parlor

THIS PAGE Dutch delftware tiles: a seventeenth-century polychrome tile; an

early eighteenth-century tile depicting Pharaoh’s daughter and the infant

Moses; and a mid-eighteenth-century landscape tile from the Spencer-

Peirce-Little Farm, Newbury, Massachusetts. FACING PAGE De Morgan tiles,

c. 1880, in the library at the Lyman Estate,Waltham, Massachusetts.


and placing it face down on the tile and rubbing or “transferring”it onto the ceramic surface before firing. The method was perfect-ed and made popular by Sadler and Greene of Liverpool in the sec-ond half of the eighteenth century. Overglaze transfer-printed tilesfrom the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were usuallymonochromatic—black, blue, red, or brown—and depicted genteeland country life or scenes from literature, art, and the theatre. TheCodman Estate in Lincoln, Massachusetts, features several fire-place surrounds with English transfer-printed tiles.

In the early nineteenth century, the use of decorative tileswaned, as did the delftware industry in England in general. Thesecond half of the nineteenth century, however, saw a resurgence inthe popularity of decorative tiles, inspired by the Gothic Revivalmovement. The trend began in England with reproduction brown-and-white medieval floor tiles, which were soon superseded byrichly colored encaustic tiles, such as those produced by ThomasMinton & Sons and popularized by architects like Augustus Pugin.Encaustic tiles of this time were inlaid tiles made of two or morecolored clays compacted or pressed together to produce anextremely durable, hard tile. Because the design resulted from thecolored clay body itself rather than a surface glaze, encaustic tilesretained their decorative pattern despite heavy wear, making themideally suitable for use on floors. The elaborate patterned floors ofthe extensions of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (begun in1851) are decorated with encaustic tiles, as are the entry hall floorand the library fireplace surround at the Codman Estate, whichwere installed in the early 1860s.

In the late nineteenth century, the influence of the English Pre-Raphaelites and designs of William Morris created a fashion for

chamber. The family subsequently removed the set, but asoften happened when decorative schemes were changed, thetiles were saved rather than discarded.

English-made delftware tiles, which imitated Dutchdesigns and motifs, were also very desirable in New England.In the mid-eighteenth century, a new method of decoratingceramics—transfer printing—changed the industry dramati-cally. Typically, the process involved printing a copperplateimage on a thin cast of glue, called a bat, or a piece of tissue,

ABOVE Transfer-printed tiles: Mercury instructing Cupid before Venus,

Liverpool, c. 1765; The Mischievous Dog, from Aesop’s Fables,

Liverpool, c. 1765–75; and portraits of actors, popular late-eigh-

teenth-century subjects, at the Codman Estate in Lincoln,

Massachusetts.


TOP LEFT Detail of De Morgan tiles in the K.L. Rose design illustrat-

ed on page 17; note the dynamic pattern that results when the tiles

are grouped together. TOP RIGHT Encaustic tiles, c. 1860, at the

interiors rich in aesthetic appeal. Morris’s early tiles wereoften simple—sprigs of flowers and fruit laid out in a repeti-tive square or tile motif. It was William De Morgan, a col-league and friend of Morris, who became one of the mostfamous and prolific tile designers and fabricators of the period, creating tiles with vibrant colors, luster glazes,Islamic-inspired patterns, and repetitive floral motifs. The De Morgan tiles in the fireplace surround in the library at theLyman Estate in Waltham, Massachusetts, demonstrate thedynamism of his tile designs as well as the powerful impactthat tiles can have on a decorative scheme.

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw theestablishment in New England of numerous art potteriesinfluenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, including theChelsea Keramic Art Works, Grueby Pottery Company, J. &J.G. Low Art Tile Works, and the Saturday EveningGirls/Paul Revere Pottery. The influx of skilled craftsmenfrom England, combined with the economy of mass produc-tion, made decorative tiles popular and affordable. The J. &J.G. Low Art Tile Works of Chelsea, Massachusetts, was best known for its relief tiles with foliate motifs or portraits.The tiles’ raised surfaces were made by pressing the wet clayslab into a recessed plaster mold. Rich, monochromatic high-

Codman Estate, Lincoln, Massachusetts. BOTTOM ROW Aesthetic

tile, 1870–1900, maker unknown, and two relief tiles, c. 1880, by the

J. & J.G. Low Art Tile Works, Chelsea, Massachusetts.

gloss glazes accentuate the tiles’ raised and recessed areas,creating highlights on the tops, where the glaze is thin, andrich colors in the recesses, where the glaze has pooled. Theserelief tiles were used to decorate fireplace surrounds andhearths as well as on ceilings, walls, and even furniture.

As styles and tastes continued to change, and interiordecorative schemes were updated, fireplace tiles that hadbeen removed were sometimes reused. The parlor of BarrettHouse in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, boasts a fireplacesurround decorated with a hodgepodge that mixes eigh-teenth-century purple-and-white Dutch landscape tiles andeighteenth- and nineteenth-century English transfer-printedtiles, in both blue and white and black and white, depictingcounty life, pastimes, and fables. The arrangement appearsrandom, but no matter—even when grouped haphazardly,tiles continue to fascinate and delight.

—Julie A. SolzTeam Leader, Collection Services

For a list of Historic New England properties that have tiles as part oftheir decorative schemes, please visit www.HistoricNewEngland.org.

Historic New England Fall 2008Historic New England Fall 200820

H O U S E C A L L

n 1937, architect Henry B. Hoover(1903–89) paid $1,000 for twoacres of land in Lincoln, Massa-chusetts—a wooded, rocky upland

with a dramatic view over the Cam-bridge Reservoir. At the time, Hooverwas working in a landscape architec-ture firm and wished to establish hisown practice as a residential architect.The house he built on the site wasintended both as a home for himselfand his family and as his professionalcalling card. Hoover had studied archi-tecture at Harvard and was familiarwith the principles of affordableModern architecture that had devel-oped in Europe in the 1920s and ‘30s,featuring flat roofs, open floor plans,flexible space, and absence of orna-ment. Hoover’s home was the first ofthis type to be built in Lincoln, soon tobe followed by houses designed byWalter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Carl

Koch, Walter Bogner, and others. Thehouse launched a successful career forHoover, who went on to build nineteenmore houses in Lincoln, not to mentionthose he designed elsewhere, before heretired in the 1980s.

In laying out his house, Hooverpaid particular attention to the contourof its hillside lot. He planned the land-scaping himself and made sure thehouse complemented the topographyand took advantage of the sweepingviews. He designed the fenestration tomaximize light in winter and provideda roof overhang to protect the interiorfrom the hot sun in summer. Both sit-ing and planting ensured complete pri-vacy from the neighboring lots oneither side.

Hoover’s original 1937 designincluded eight rooms arranged on onestory, with three bedrooms, two bath-rooms, kitchen, living/dining room,

Preserving a Modern House

Istudy, and two fireplaces. Utility andstorage rooms were placed at a lowerlevel. In 1955, as the needs for livingspace of his family changed, heenlarged the kitchen, increased the sizeof many of the window openings, andadded additional bedrooms, flagstonefloor with radiant heating, and a car-port. In the living room, he replacedthe original multi-paned door and win-dows with ones of plate glass, remov-ing any visual barrier to the landscape.Yet despite these upgrades, the scale ofthe house remains intimate.

Today, architect-designed housesof the mid-twentieth century, modest insize and sited in the landscape withsensitivity, are falling victim to demoli-tion. The problem is especially ram-pant in communities surrounding bigcities, where land values vastly exceedthat of these older homes, and demandfor large new houses with the latest

LEFT At the Hoover

House in Lincoln,

Massachusetts, sliding

glass doors provide

easy access to the

flagstone patio and

serve to integrate the

house with its site.Dav

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Open and flexible interior spaces serve the

varying requirements of modern day living.

The unadorned firebox and cinder-block

walls are typical of the elegance and simplic-

ity of Hoover’s designs. Views of the reser-

voir and distant hills enhance the interior

by opening the living/dining area to the

outdoors.

amenities is high. Teardowns havebecome commonplace, while the man-sions that replace older, smaller housescan overwhelm their neighborhoods.But thanks to the care and foresight ofHoover’s three children, who inheritedthe house after his death, Hoover’smodern gem will be protected throughHistoric New England’s StewardshipProgram.

The preservation restrictions heldby Historic New England have beentailored to preserve the architect’s aes-thetic vision. The landscaping so essen-tial to his concept, including plantingbeds, terraces, stone walls, and paths,must be retained, as well as the existingtypes of plantings. The exterior siding,doors and windows must remain unal-tered, and no additional structures maybe constructed without the priorreview and approval of Historic New

England. Restrictions also protect thefloor plan, flagstone flooring, fire-places, walls, built-in screens, wood-work, pickled oak finish on the interiorpaneling and the white exterior. TheHoover family has no immediate plansto sell the property; however, shouldthe house leave the family’s ownershipin the future, the restrictions will pro-tect this intact specimen ofthe Modern aesthetic andalso serve as a model forhow to responsibly preserveother Modern homes acrossNew England for futuregenerations to live in andappreciate.

—Joseph CornishSenior StewardshipManager

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Historic New England’s Stewardship Program is a nationalmodel, protecting more than seventy New England prop-erties ranging in date from the seventeenth to the mid-twentieth century. Historic New England staff work withowners to ensure that their properties will be protectedfrom alteration or neglect. Protected elements may includea house or an entire complex of buildings, as well as the landscape and interior architectural details like fram-ing, carved woodwork, early wallpapers, hardware, andantique window glass. For information, call (781) 891-4882, ext. 227; e-mail [email protected]; or write to Historic New England, StewardshipProgram, 185 Lyman Street, Waltham, MA, 02452-5645.


A T H O M E

“Picturesque Appendages”

Stables and Carriage Houses

William Gilpin, an eighteenth-century English clergyman and artistbest known today for his essay on the principles of picturesquebeauty, noted that stables and coach-houses “are picturesqueappendages to a country house when designed with taste.”

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A T H O M E


FACING PAGE This well-maintained 1887 backyard barn evokes

the promise offered by the residential suburb to combine the

best of two worlds, rural and urban, in a healthful and pleasant

semi-urban setting. ABOVE The 1793 stable and carriage house

at the Lyman Estate, photographed in the early twentieth cen-

tury. BELOW The 1870 carriage house at the Codman Estate.

nother English architectural theorist, RichardBrown, advised in 1841 that stables and carriagebarns “should be detached, and at some moder-ate distance from the dwelling-house, and embo-

somed or concealed by trees, though parts of the buildingshould be seen peering above the tops of the branches,” to“give a picturesque effect to the home scenery.”

Tucked away on the grounds of Historic New England’scountry estates are several of these “picturesque appendages”—architecturally-sophisticated outbuildings “designed withtaste” to shelter the horses, carriages, equipment, and staff thatwere a hallmark of the country gentleman’s seat. Two ofHistoric New England’s finest outbuildings neatly fulfill theselofty precepts: the carriage houses at the Lyman and Codmanestates, both tastefully designed to complement their architec-turally distinguished and bucolically named country houses,“The Vale” and “The Grange.”

The carriage house at The Vale, or Lyman Estate, inWaltham, Massachusetts, was built in 1793, presumablyunder the supervision of the house’s architect, SamuelMcIntire. It displays an almost Palladian simplicity and sym-metry, with a shallow projecting central entrance bay markedby a massive keystone arch and a classical pediment. Nowthe home of Historic New England’s preservation carpentryshop, the building that once housed Lyman horses and car-riages literally buzzes with the sounds of the property careteam’s saws, planes, and routers.

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ABOVE The carriage house of a grand Second Empire house, c.1870,

in Newburyport, Massachusetts, illustrates the preferred practice

of designing outbuildings in the same style of architecture as the

dwelling-house. Set back from the main house, the carriage house

is both “convenient and ornamental,” as Downing said such build-

ings should be. BELOW Downing’s “Model Cottage Stable,” with

suburban homeowner, not just the country gentleman. In Downing’s idealized order, the cottage was occupied

“by industrious and intelligent mechanics and working men,the bone and sinew of the land.” But even though the cot-tage-owning mechanic or working man probably kept a cowand some chickens, the suburban carriage barn was primarilythe artifact of commuting and transportation, reflecting anew mobility and an increased separation between home andwork life.

Cottage stables, the down-sized version of the utilitarianfarmhouse barn, accommodated the routine care and feedingof a horse and the maintenance of a carriage or wagon andhad little pretence to architectural style. Once common in the

The carriage house at The Grange, or Codman Estate, inLincoln, Massachusetts, was designed by the Boston firm ofSnell and Gregerson and constructed around 1870, well afterJohn Codman’s 1797–99 Federal-style enlargement of the1739–41 mansion. Presenting a dignified classical comple-ment to the main house, it features quoins and pedimentedwindows like those added to the mansion by Boston architectJohn Hubbard Sturgis in 1862. In scale and appearance, thecarriage house conveys the picturesque qualities desirable fora country estate.

In Cottage Residences (1842), the American tastemakerAndrew Jackson Downing popularized a new suburbanlifestyle that promoted efficient, comfortable house designintegrated within a healthful and attractive semi-rural land-scape. His early designs for “laying out thegrounds,” featured stables only in expansive settingsof an acre or more. By 1850, his Architecture ofCountry Houses included plans for a tiny 18- by 20-foot stable for a single horse and wagon, and aslightly larger 20- by 24-foot stable in which a cowas well as a horse, wagon, and small carriage couldbe kept. With these plans, Downing signaled that thestable or carriage barn was within the grasp of the


or setback requirements. Residential rental conversions maybe barred, and rehabilitating or restoring the buildings,which are typically located on lot lines, often requires obtain-ing a variance. Condominium conversions, as well as the riseof telecommuting and the home office, open new possibilitiesfor preserving suburban carriage barns. While convertingthese outbuildings for human habitation involves interiorremodeling, retaining the carriage house in its residential set-ting can make a significant contribution to preserving aneighborhood’s historic character.

These “picturesque appendages” deserve the extra mea-sure of creativity and perseverance that may be required torepair and reuse them.

—Sally ZimmermanPreservation Specialist

stalls for two horses, a harness room, space for three vehicles on

the first floor, and a generous hay-loft, was typical of the carriage

houses built in the new suburbs. ABOVE The gambrel roof of

backyards of nineteenth-century neighborhoods around NewEngland’s cities and towns, these modest utilitarian carriagebarns are increasingly rare. Almost always constructed withtheir sills directly on or very close to the ground, such struc-tures deteriorate quickly from ground-level moisture if notwell maintained.

At the other end of the architectural spectrum from thebackyard barn are the grand suburban carriage houses of thelate nineteenth century, built to complement the spacioushouses of the upper middle class. The Edwin Mellen house inCambridge, Massachusetts, a Colonial Revival mansiondesigned by the Boston architectural firm of Hartwell,Richardson and Driver in 1896, boasted an elegant and capa-cious gambrel-roofed carriage barn and stable. Built just asthe automobile age dawned, these expansive structures weredoomed by the greater efficiency, speed, independence, andconvenience of the automobile. Some of these buildings, con-verted to garages or dwellings, survived the transition, butmany, including the Mellen house and carriage barn, werelost to rising labor costs, the universality of the auto, andmore intensive land uses.

Preserving a carriage house can be challenging. Zoningregulations can constrain adaptive-reuse, either through use

the carriage house and stable at the 1896 Edwin Davis Mellen

house, Cambridge, Massachusetts, dominates the structure

(demolished, 1980).

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141 Cambridge StreetBoston MA 02114-2702

Non-Profit OrganizationU.S. Postage

PAIDBoston, Massachusetts

Permit No. 58621

two or three times a week, he observeda special dynamic between the largefamily of proprietors and their employ-ees. His images are filled with atmos-phere, showing people at work, detailslike a crowded desktop or a row ofkeys on hooks, steam rising from theholding tanks, and vivid portraits ofthe men. After the terrible fire last

ustin Goodstein-Aue has spentmuch of the past year documentingthe daily life of the James HookLobster Company, a family busi-

ness founded in 1925 and located onBoston’s waterfront in the heart of thefinancial district. Goodstein-Aue uses alarge-format view camera that capturesincredible detail. Visiting the business

A C Q U I S I T I O N S

Preserved on Film

May that destroyed much of the Hook Company, these photographs are poignant reminders of a belovedcity landmark.

Aware of the Historic New Eng-land’s important collection of nine-teenth- and twentieth-century docu-mentary photographs, Goodstein-Auerecently visited the Library and Archivesand showed us some of his images. Iand my colleagues immediately recog-nized the quality of his work and itsvalue as a record of a business that hasbeen an important part of the city’scharacter. Goodstein-Aue has gener-ously donated a portfolio of twentyphotographs to the Library andArchives and will continue to docu-ment the company as it rebuilds.

—Lorna CondonCurator of Library and Archives

ABOVE Ed Hook in his office, surrounded by

company memorabilia.

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historic new england fall 2008

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