July 3rd Stories of Slavery & Independence

TONIGHT! June 29th 7:30 The Red Skies Music Ensemble’s Corn Stalk Fiddles: Soundscape and Place in 19th Century Hadley. At the Hadley Library  (read more below)

THIS WEEK! July 3rd 6:30 Stories of Slavery and Independence, a remembrance of six enslaved African Americans, Zebulon Prutt, Caesar Phelps and Margaret (Peg) Bowen, and her daughters and granddaughters Roasanna, Phillis, and Phillis. This story telling event features freedom songs with Jacqueline Wallace, director of the Amherst Area Gospel Choir, and a communal reading of Frederick Douglass’s influential address "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?". (read more below)

Stories of Slavery and Independence shares new stories of Zebulon Prutt, Caesar Phelps, Margaret (Peg) Bowen and her daughters and granddaughter, all enslaved on the Porter-Phelps farm in the late 18th century, and the surprising ways their enslavement was linked to the campaign for American Independence. A decade before the American Colonies declared independence, Zebulon Prutt attempted to self-emancipate, and his brother appears to have used the American Revolution itself as a means of freeing himself from the Chauncey family and their ardent Tory sympathies. In 1776, Cesar Phelps, serving in the Revolutionary army, sent an extraordinary letter from Fort Ticonderoga to his enslaver, Charles Phelps.  In it, Cesar skillfully negotiated the precarity of enslavement and military service in a war of liberation that would not free him. Cesar’s letter exemplifies the ironies Frederic Douglass describes in "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?". A few years later, in 1778, Peg Bowen was returned to enslavement in Massachusetts by Jonas Fay, the principal author of the 1777 Vermont Constitution.  The contradiction of the Fays not emancipating Peg Bowen in 1777, as Vermont’s new constitution required, is a stark instance of the unevenness of independence at the nation’s founding. In an even more searing emblem of the relations between servitude and independence, in April 1775, during the very week that the first shots of the American Revolution were fired in Lexington and Concord, one of Peg’s daughters gave birth and the other died, both of them and the new baby enslaved to the Phelps family. By sharing these stories in tandem with a multi-vocal public reading of Frederic Douglass’s profound text, this event offers an opportunity to reflect and converse on these tensions in community. 

This commemorative storytelling event and concert is a Reading Frederick Douglass Together Mass Humanities program and is offered on Wednesday, July 3rd at 6:30 pm in the Sunken Garden at the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, 130 River Drive, Route 47, Hadley MA 01035. Admission for this event is free. Picnickers are welcome on the museum’s grounds starting at 5:00 pm.

The Hadley Historical Society, in partnership with the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, presents The Red Skies Music Ensemble’s Corn Stalk Fiddles: Soundscape and Place in 19th Century Hadley, a research-based interpretive tour of the musical and social geography of 19th century Hadley. Performances will take place at the Hadley Public Library, 50 Middle Street, on Friday June 28 at 7:30 pm and Saturday June 29 at 7:30 pm. (Reservations are not required. Suggested donation: $15.)

Written by Red Skies Artistic Director and Co-Founder Trudy Williams, with Jerry Bryant as musical director, the show offers a fascinating narration illustrated by live music and theatrical vignettes, archival images, and a special appearance by the children’s Corn Stalk Fiddle Choir, directed by Cindy Naughton, Music Director of the Amherst Community Theater.

Alan Weinberg, of the Hadley Historical Society, said that “the show is inspired and built around discovered items and documents in our collection and on research at the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum.”

Funded in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Hadley Cultural Council, performances will take place at the Hadley Public Library, 50 Middle Street, on Friday June 28 at 7:30 pm and Saturday June 29 at 7:30 pm. (Doors open at 7pm.) Reservations are not required. Suggested donation: $15.

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Copyright © 2024 Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation, All rights reserved.
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House, also known as Forty Acres, is an 18th-century farm in the Connecticut River Valley that today interprets life in rural New England over three centuries.  The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum occupies the unceded land of the Nonotuck people.

pphmuseum.org
130 River Drive
Hadley, MA 01035

PPH Opens for its 75th Season

Welcome to the 75th season at
the Porter Phelps Huntington House!

The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum opens for its 75th season on Saturday, May 18th.  Guided tours will be available Saturday through Wednesday from 1:00 to 4:00 P.M. The museum is closed on Thursdays and Fridays. Admission is $5 for adults and $1 for children 12 and under. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House is a part of the new “Forty Acres and Its Skirts” National Historic District and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The 43rd season of WEDNESDAY FOLK TRADITIONS, featuring some of New England's finest global folk music performers and ensembles, kicks off on June 12th with Tim Eriksen, experimentalist, ethnomusicologist, and leader in the “shape-note” tradition. Concerts are held outdoors in the sunken garden at 6:30, and picnics are welcome.

On July 3rd The Museum presents Stories of Slavery and Independence, a Stopping Stones remembrance ceremony for Caesar Phelps and Margaret (Peg) Bowen, who were enslaved on the site during the 18th century. The program features freedom songs with Evelyn Harris, and a reading of Frederick Douglass's speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" This is a free program offered in partnership with Ancestral Bridges & funded with a grant from MassHumanities.
 

The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum is the designated Way-Point Center for the National Connecticut River Scenic Byway. The Museum hosts a panel exhibit on the natural history of the Valley, the Museum’s history, and sites travelers will find along the by-way. A trail system begins at the Museum, traverses the farm fields along the river, and continues up the old buggy path to the top of Mount Warner where the farm’s cattle grazed in the 18th century. 

The Tour

PPH is engaged in a widespread reinterpretation project that aims to emphasize the impact that laborers, both free and enslaved, have had on the history of the site. Our new tour was developed with historian Professor Marla R. Miller, and crafted by Emily Whitted and Brian Whetstone to reflect the lives and artifacts that made life possible at 40 Acres. In doing so, we celebrate those that lived and worked on our grounds over the past 300 years.

The tour is 45 minutes long, starting in the Corn Barn and the route includes multiple staircases. While the house is not accessible by mobility assistive devices, our tour guides do offer the same information (and more!) in conversation on the grounds and in the Corn Barn. Tours are $5 for adults, and $1 for children 12 and under. Cash only.

Wednesday Folk Traditions

The 43rd season of our concert series, Wednesday Folk Traditions, kicks off on June 12th with Tim Eriksen, leader in the “shape-note” tradition, experimentalist and ethnomusicologist, performing traditional ballads from the Pioneer Valley and original pieces that have been described as “magical realism in song.” Since 1999 he has taught courses in songwriting, American and world music and film at Dartmouth, Amherst, Smith and Hampshire Colleges and the University of Minnesota. He is currently serving as musician in residence at Historic Deerfield.

Concerts begin at 6:30 and are hosted in the Sunken Garden, and picnickers are welcome starting at 5:00pm. Admission is $12 for adults and $2 for children under 16. Cash only please. We are a smoke-free, carry in/carry out site.

Wednesday Folk Traditions is funded in part by grants from the Amherst and Hadley Cultural Councils, local agencies funded by Massachusetts Cultural Council; Robinson and Cole; The Adams Foundation; Easthampton Savings Bank; Gage-Wiley and Company, and with generous support from many local businesses. The Foundation welcomes contributions from friends and visitors. Scroll down to see the full lineup, or visit our website for more information.

Meet the 2024 Porter Phelps Huntington Museum Interns! From left to right we have Alex Locher, a Simmons University graduate student in Archives and Preservation, Molly Frank, an undergraduate student at UMass Amherst majoring in History and Art History, and Lauren Brown. an undergraduate student at UMass Amherst majoring in Political Science and History.

Annual letter from Elizabeth Wheeler, Board of Directors

December 2023 

Dear Family and Friends of the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation, 

Whenever I despair of public life, I turn to Alexis DeTocqueville to remember what I had forgotten. As you recall he visited America in the 1830s and wrote about it in Democracy in America. In particular, he admired the profusion of private, voluntary associations. 

Americans of all ages, all conditions, all minds, constantly unite together. Americans use associations to give fêtes, to found seminaries, to build inns, to raise churches, to distribute books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; they establish hospitals, prisons, schools by the same method. Finally, if they wish to highlight a truth or develop an opinion by the encouragement of a greater example, they form an association. There is scarcely an undertaking so small that Americans do not unite for it. 

This enables them to be part of something larger than the circumstances of their own existence. Sentiments and ideas renew themselves, the heart is enlarged, and the human mind is developed only by the reciprocal action of men upon one another. If they do not acquire the practice of associating with each other in ordinary life, civilization itself would be in peril. 

DeTocqueville came to mind the other day when I was standing in a light rain with 150 other people at the Huntington House. Our hearts were troubled. Long ago men and women had been enslaved in this place but their stories had never been told. That bothered us. We had, therefore, gathered here to remember them and unite our stories as one. We "associated". 

Ancestral Bridges is a local community group that partners with other community groups to create educational and economic opportunities for Black and indigenous people of color (BIPOC.); and

Stopping Stones is a project that installs plaques commemorating the lives of the enslaved peoples who worked at a specific site; and

Mass Humanities, Reading Frederick Douglass Together sponsors community readings of Douglass' powerful address to his "Fellow Citizens": What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?; and

The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation believes we have a collective responsibility to engage the past in order to create a fulsome future for all, which for PPH, has meant embracing the persons enslaved by our ancestors. 

When the program was over I felt better, revived. We all did. The silence breathed Amen. Our national politics might be dysfunctional. Our individual interests might be selfish. But our local associations had broadened our perspective and expanded our understanding of community. In this moment, we had been drawn out of our private preoccupations to stand in public for something larger. We were citizens. 

Indifferent to the rain and thrilled by the words of our common purpose, our hearts expanded. Our small organizations, weak by themselves, gained power in this moment of association. As DeTocqueville implied, our local associations are the foundations of our civilization. Join us. 

Thank you. 

Elizabeth Wheeler

Board of Directors

Annual letter from Karen Sánchez-Eppler, President, Board of Directors

December 2023

Dear Friends of the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation, 

This summer and fall have been a time of harvest at Forty Acres and Its Skirts. 

In May 2023, the National Park Service approved the expanded "Forty Acres and Its Skirts" National Register Historic District-a district that encompasses not only the 1752 house but also 114 surrounding acres including the land and structures of the neighboring Phelps Farm and the forests and fields of the Elizabeth Huntington Dyer conservation area. The nomination that resulted in this new district was produced by Prof. Marla Miller and Brian Whetstone PhD, and emphasizes research into groups and individuals previously underrepresented in the historical record including enslaved and Native people, indentured servants, free Blacks, day laborers and Polish agricultural workers. In August Brian Whetstone led a program and walking tour of the new district that shared some of the stories their research had recovered. Details about that event, an overview of the new historic district, and a link to the full report are all available on the Museum's website (Museum Online). 

This was the second summer of the Museum's new tour design that combines stories of the house and family with new insights into the lives of the many other people who lived and worked at this farmstead. The more we weave these stories together the deeper our understanding grows and it was wonderful to feel the new tour really taking root. In the spirit of association Liz Wheeler describes, this summer's work with interns also included exchange visits with the guide staff at the Emily Dickinson Museum, Historic Northampton, and the Harriet Beecher Stowe center, building connections and thinking together about how to tell difficult histories. A generous gift from Nancy Locke Meyer that enabled us to hire UMass history graduate students to train guides and oversee the summer educational programs made this growth possible. 

This summer held many familiar pleasures too, especially the festivity and joy of Wednesday Folk Traditions concerts in the sunken garden for a 42nd season. The stone walls of the sunken garden were once the foundation of the "Great Barn" at Forty Acres, a barn built in 1782 during the last years of enslaved labor at the farmstead. In September the Museum set into the garden walls six "Stopping Stones" that honor the lives of the six people enslaved at this site: Zebulon Prutt, Cesar Phelps, Peg Bowen, and her daughters Rose and Phillis and granddaughter Phillis. Placed amidst the old stones and the trailing ivy these brass plaques are surprising and beautiful, and they make this place of labor, music, and festivity into a powerful place of remembrance. The program and video of the "Stirring the Ashes" installation ceremony are also available on the Museum's website (Events). 

The new historic district encompassing Phelps Farm, the new tour, the material honoring of the six people enslaved at this place, were only aspirations a few years ago. Now they are real. The Foundation has begun to implement a pollinator plan for the property and to stabilize the 1816 farmhouse at Phelps Farm; we have received grant support for these initiatives, but they are very expensive and we need your help to make them too come to fruition. Support to continue the part- time staff positions in historic preservation and humanities programing presently funded by a grant from Mass Humanities would also be an enormous boon. Transformation is possible, but it takes many hands, help us bring in this harvest. 

Gratefully, 

Karen Sánchez-Eppler, President of the Board of Directors 

Thank you for a memorable 2023 season!

Commemorating the Lives of the Enslaved

Celebrate Hadley's newest historic district!

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THE PORTER-PHELPS HUNTINGTON MUSEUM   View this email in your browser  Dear friends and colleagues, Join us this Sunday, August 6, at 1:30 for a special program with Dr. Brian Whetstone, co-investigator with Dr. Marla Miller on the National Parks Service Underrepresented Communities Grant, "The Forty Acres and Its Skirts National Register historic district," to celebrate the expansion of the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum's historic designation from a singular building to a 114-acre historic district. The program will begin in the museum's corn barn and refreshments will be served.   Brian will kick things off with a presentation on the stories that surfaced during their two years conducting research for the historic district designation and the significance of the National Register of Historic Places to preservation work at the museum and in western Massachusetts. He will then lead a walking tour of the grounds to introduce the public to the historic landscape features and architectural elements that make up the newly enlarged district. Brian's tours balance rigorous scholarship with lively audience engagement–you won't want to miss this exclusive chance to go "behind the scenes" of the museum's new historic district with him before he embarks on a fellowship at Princeton in the fall.    A public historian and historian of late-twentieth century U.S. urban history, Brian is a 2023-2024 Princeton-Mellon Fellow and holds a Ph.D. in History and certificate in Public History from the UMass Amherst. Learn more about his scholarship and publications here.   We're looking forward to seeing you this Sunday, August 6th at 1:30pm! Left top: Brian and Marla uncovered this photo of Phelps Farm from circa 1890 in the attic of the historic 1816 farmhouse. Image credit: Unprocessed collections of (Moses) Charles Porter Phelps, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Bottom right: In this photo from 1945, Dr. James L. Huntington poses with his wife and sister in the Long Room, dressed for an event with The Amherst Historical Society. Image credit: Journal and scrapbook at the house at "Forty Acres" in Hadley, Porter-Phelps-Huntington Family Papers Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Coming up Introducing the “Forty Acres and Its Skirts” National Register Historic District A public talk and walking tour August 6, 2023  1:30 pm The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum will host a celebration to introduce the “Forty Acres and Its Skirts” National Register Historic District, Hadley's newest historic district, with a talk by Brian Whetstone, PhD,  on Sunday, August 6, 2023 at 1:30pm in the Museum’s Corn Barn. The public presentation invites all to learn about the process and research that went into this successful National Register nomination and designation, and will include a tour of the historic landscape features and contributing structures that make up this new district.    This new “Forty Acres and Its Skirts” National Register historic district designation includes 114 acres and 20 historic buildings and structures on both sides of River Drive was completed as part of a National Park Service “Underrepresented Communities Grant” awarded to the Massachusetts Historical Commission in 2020.  Marla R. Miller, PhD and Brian Whetstone, PhD, were hired by the Massachusetts Historical Commission to update the existing National Register documentation for the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Historic House, which was listed individually in 1973, and to develop a district to include Phelps Farm and Kestrel Trust's Elizabeth Huntington Dyer Field and Forest Conservation Area and the associated agricultural land owned by the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation. Their work focuses on the importance of groups and individuals underrepresented in the historical record and includes enslaved and Native people, indentured servants, free Blacks, day laborers and Polish agricultural workers.  Brian Whetstone will present these stories and more that emerged during the two years of researching and developing the nomination, and will provide background on the nomination process. Following his talk, Whetstone will lead a walking tour of the PPH Museum grounds to illustrate the new landscape features and historic buildings significant in telling the stories of "pastkeeping," labor, and social history at the museum.  Reading Frederick Douglass Together & Stopping Stones Opening Ceremony September 23, 2023 Reading Frederick Douglass Together will present a reading of Frederick Douglass’s 1852 speech, “The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro”.  This public presentation will coincide with the installation of commemorative Stopping Stones, a national project of the Engagement Arts Fund that memorializes sites of enslavement through brass plaques. In partnership with the BIPOC descendants’ organization, Ancestral Bridges, the Stopping Stones Project will install plaques in the sunken garden in a ritual honoring the lives and histories of six people who were enslaved at this farmstead. This event is free  and made possible by a grant from Mass Humanities. The recent rains have been devastating for local farmers. The CSA Stone Soup and the Somali Bantu Farmers who grow crops on Porter-Phelps-Huntington fields have seen all they planted—so close to being ready for harvest—drowned and contaminated by flood waters from the Connecticut River. If you can, please help these farmers recover from these terrible losses. Stone Soup Gofundme Somali Bantu Farmers Gofundme Visit The Museum The Porter Phelps Huntington Museum is open for tours June through October, from 1:00pm-4:00pm, or by appointment. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 under 16, and free for participants in the Card to Culture program. Many local libraries sponsor free passes to PPH, ask your librarian if you can check one out! Picnickers are welcome, the site is smoke-free and carry in/carry out.  Visitors can walk a portion of the original 1752 farm land on a  trail system that includes 350 acres of preserved land. Built by Conservation Works, the trails were created with a grant to the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission from the Mass Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation in cooperation with the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, Kestrel Land Trust, the Trustees of Reservations, the Mass Department of Conservation & Recreation, and Private Landowners. Copyright © 2023 Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation, All rights reserved. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation preserves over 300 years of history in Hadley, MA. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum contains a collection of the belongings of several generations of one extended Hadley family, dating back to the house’s establishment in 1752. The farmstead, known as “Forty Acres and its Skirts,” was a year-round home for generations before becoming a rural retreat for the family in the 19th century. The house and its activities include the labor and livelihood of many artisans, servants, and enslaved people. Their lived experiences are being brought to the forefront at the museum in the form of a new tour and reinterpretation initiative funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The new tour foregrounds the lives of six enslaved men and women at the house: Zebulon Prutt, Cesar, Peg, Phillis, Rose, and Phillis. Additionally, the tour highlights the role of “pastkeeping” by exploring the home’s transition into a museum in the twentieth century. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum acknowledges that it occupies the unceded land of the Nonotuck people. Visit our website: pphmuseum.org Our mailing address is: 130 River Drive Hadley, MA 01035 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

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PPH 2023 Special Events Newsletter

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View this email in your browser   THE PORTER-PHELPS HUNTINGTON MUSEUM  Special Events Newsletter    IN PERSON EVENTS Wednesday Folk Traditions Join us for Wednesday Folk Traditions- a global folk music concert series held outdoors in the Sunken Garden! Wednesday August 2, 2023 at 6:30 Evelyn Harris with Giving Voice Sunday October 8, 2023 at 2:00 Viva Quetzal Tickets are available at the door: $12 for adults, $2 for children 16 and under, and free for Card to Culture participants. Cash only please. Picnickers are welcome on the museum’s grounds starting at 5:00 pm. We are a smoke-free, carry in/carry out site.    Wednesday Folk Traditions is funded, in part, by grants from: the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, through its Festivals and Programs Grants; the Amherst and Hadley Cultural Councils, local agencies funded by Massachusetts Cultural Council;  Robinson and Cole; Easthampton Savings Bank; Gage-Wiley and Company,  and with generous support from many local businesses. Conversations in the Corn Barn Historic Places & Open Spaces Book talk and signing with Alain Munkittrick  July 30th, 2023  2:00 pm We are delighted to host architect, scholar, and author Alain Munkittrick for a presentation and signing of his new book Historic Houses of the Connecticut River Valley (Arcadia Publishing, 2023) The author’s presentation details the contributions made by Hadley’s 18th and 19th century family farmsteads to the evolution of the Connecticut River Valley’s historical and geographical landscape, and features previously unpublished photos of the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum taken by Clifton Johnson between 1920-1940. Following the presentation, guests will be able to purchase a signed copy of Mr. Munkittrick’s newly published book.  Introducing the “Forty Acres and Its Skirts” National Register Historic District A public talk and walking tour August 6, 2023  1:30 pm The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum will host a celebration to introduce the “Forty Acres and Its Skirts” National Register Historic District, Hadley's newest historic district, with a talk by Brian Whetstone, PhD,  on Sunday, August 6, 2023 at 1:30pm in the Museum’s Corn Barn. The public presentation invites all to learn about the process and research that went into this successful National Register nomination and designation, and will include a tour of the historic landscape.    This new “Forty Acres and Its Skirts” national historic district designation includes 114 acres and 20 historic buildings and structures on both sides of River Drive was completed as part of a National Park Service “Underrepresented Communities Grant” awarded to the Massachusetts Historical Commission in 2020.  Marla R. Miller, PhD and Brian Whetstone, PhD, were hired by MHC to update the existing National Register documentation for the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Historic House, which was listed individually in 1973, and to develop a district to include Phelps Farm and Kestrel’s Elizabeth Huntington Dyer Field and Forest Conservation Area and the associated agricultural land owned by the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation. Their work focuses discussion on the importance of groups and individuals underrepresented in the historical record and includes enslaved and Native people, indentured servants, free Blacks, day laborers and Polish agricultural workers.  Brian Whetsone will present these stories and more that emerged during the two years of researching and developing the nomination, and will provide background on the nomination process. Following his talk, Whetstone will lead a walking tour of the PPH Museum grounds to illustrate the new landscape features and historic buildings significant in telling the stories of "pastkeeping," labor, and social history at the museum.  Reading Frederick Douglass Together & Stopping Stones Opening Ceremony September 23, 2023 Reading Frederick Douglass Together will present a reading of Frederick Douglass’s 1852 speech, “The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro”.  This public presentation will coincide with the installation of commemorative Stopping Stones, a national project of the Engagement Arts Fund that memorializes sites of enslavement through brass plaques. In partnership with the BIPOC descendants’ organization, Ancestral Bridges, the Stopping Stones Project will install plaques in the sunken garden in a ritual honoring the lives and histories of six people who were enslaved at this farmstead. This event is free  and made possible by a grant from Mass Humanities. VIRTUAL EVENTS Bridging The Past and Present Zoom series Records of Past-keeping: Twentieth Century Labor at Forty Acres and           Dr. James L. Huntington’s Scrapbooks A research report with Elizabeth Pangburn and Amelia Yaeger August 30, 2023 5:00pm Free admission   Like his great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Porter Phelps, Museum founder, James Lincoln Huntington, kept a handwritten, daily record of his life and work at Forty Acres. The PPH Archive contains three large, bound journals dating from 1922 to 1964, in which Dr. Huntington recorded notes on his medical practice and pasted in newspaper clippings about friends and family. These "scrapbooks" also reflect his interest in the Colonial Revival and document the work of preparing Forty Acres to become a historic house museum. Reading with and against the grain of Dr. Huntington's account of life at Forty Acres, a tantalizingly incomplete story emerges of the men and women whose labor maintained the farmstead, and physically created the PPH Museum. In this talk, Elizabeth Pangburn and Amelia Yeager will report on research undertaken by students of Dr. David Glassberg (UMass) to reveal newly uncovered labor histories at Forty Acres during the first half of the twentieth century. This project situates the labor of the men and woman who worked at the site within a broader network of personal and professional relationships across the Connecticut River Valley, and highlights Hadley's rich history of craftsmanship, farming, and pastkeeping. Pangburn is a PhD student in History at UMass, and holds an MFA from UMass and an BA in Art History from Purchase College who specializes in Dress history and public history. Yaegar is a MA student at UMass in the History Department who studies literary history and public history. UMass students Christian Castaing, Maya Gonzales and Abigail Thomsen contributed to this project. Get Involved We are looking for nature loving folks to join a new gardening group to help steward the historic gardens and support our efforts to remove invasive species on the grounds. This group will work to preserve the historic planting and is part of a larger initiative that includes a grant-funded USDA Pollinator Plan. You can learn more about the North Garden and it's original steward, Scotsman and Revolutionary War captive, John Morrison, here. Questions about what to expect or want to sign  up? Email pphmuseumassistant@gmail.com! Click on the flyer below to share with your green-thumb friends! The recent rains have been devastating for local farmers. The CSA Stone Soup and the Somali Bantu Farmers who grow crops on Porter-Phelps-Huntington fields have seen all they planted—so close to being ready for harvest—drowned and contaminated by flood waters from the Connecticut River. If you can, please help these farmers recover from these terrible losses. Stone Soup Gofundme Somali Bantu Farmers Gofundme Visit The Museum The Porter Phelps Huntington Museum is open for tours June through October, from 1:00pm-4:00pm, or by appointment. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 under 16, and free for participants in the Card to Culture program. Many local libraries sponsor free passes to PPH, ask your librarian if you can check one out! Picnickers are welcome, the site is smoke-free and carry in/carry out.  Visitors can walk a portion of the original 1752 farm land on a  trail system that includes 350 acres of preserved land. Built by Conservation Works, the trails were created with a grant to the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission from the Mass Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation in cooperation with the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, Kestrel Land Trust, the Trustees of Reservations, the Mass Department of Conservation & Recreation, and Private Landowners. Copyright © 2023 Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation, All rights reserved. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation preserves over 300 years of history in Hadley, MA. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum contains a collection of the belongings of several generations of one extended Hadley family, dating back to the house’s establishment in 1752. The farmstead, known as “Forty Acres and its Skirts,” was a year-round home for generations before becoming a rural retreat for the family in the 19th century. The house and its activities include the labor and livelihood of many artisans, servants, and enslaved people. Their lived experiences are being brought to the forefront at the museum in the form of a new tour and reinterpretation initiative funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The new tour foregrounds the lives of six enslaved men and women at the house: Zebulon Prutt, Cesar, Peg, Phillis, Rose, and Phillis. Additionally, the tour highlights the role of “pastkeeping” by exploring the home’s transition into a museum in the twentieth century. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum acknowledges that it occupies the unceded land of the Nonotuck people. Visit our website: pphmuseum.org Our mailing address is: 130 River Drive Hadley, MA 01035 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

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PPH July 2023 Newsletter

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View this email in your browser   THE PORTER-PHELPS HUNTINGTON MUSEUM   July 2023 Newsletter    Dear Friends, The recent rains have been devastating for local farmers. The CSA Stone Soup and the Somali Bantu Farmers who grow crops on Porter-Phelps-Huntington fields have seen all they planted—so close to being ready for harvest—drowned and contaminated by flood waters from the Connecticut River. If you can, please help these farmers recover from these terrible losses. Stone Soup Gofundme Somali Bantu Farmers Gofundme Thank you! Events The Wednesday Folk Traditions concert series continues into the first week of August.  Join us this Wednesday for Tony Vacca & World Rhythms (rhythm, jazz, world music, spoken word) on July 19th, The Afro-Semitic Experience (jazz, spiritual, funk) on July 26th, and Evelyn Harris with Giving Voice (gospel, spiritual, rock 'n' roll, jazz) on August 2nd, and Viva Quetzal on Sunday, October 8. Tickets are available at the door, $12 for adults, $2 for children 16 and under, and free for Card to Culture participants. Cash only please. Picnickers are welcome on the museum’s grounds starting at 5:00 pm. We are a smoke-free, carry in/carry out site.  Wednesday Folk Traditions is funded, in part, by grants from: the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, through its Festivals and Programs Grants; the Amherst and Hadley Cultural Councils, local agencies funded by Massachusetts Cultural Council;  Robinson and Cole; Easthampton Savings Bank; Gage-Wiley and Company,  and with generous support from many local businesses. Up next! “Historic Places & Open Spaces” a Book talk and signing with Alain Munkittrick on July 30th, 2023 at 2:00 pm. Save the date! On August 6th we will host a talk and walking tour with Brian Whetstone to celebrate Hadley's newest listing on the National Register of Historic Places historic district:  "Forty Acres and Its Skirts". On September 28th, we will offer a program of Reading Frederick Douglass, and Stopping Stones with Ancestral Bridges. Get Involved We are building a new gardening group at PPH! The historic north garden was first planted during the late 18th century.  It is beautiful, in bloom and overgrown! We hope you will join us on Saturday (and Sunday?) afternoons as we begin the restoration of this gorgeous plot. You can learn more about the garden and it's original steward, Scotsman and Revolutionary War captive, John Morrison, here. Suggestions or questions about what to expect? Email pphmuseumassistant@gmail.com! Making Connections Over the past few weeks, the PPH staff has visited the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, MA, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, CT, and Historic Northampton.    We've initiated a conversation with other local museum staff about "how we do history".  These visits have been a wonderful way to share knowledge and make connections! Top left: In the archives at Historic Northampton, Bottom right: Saying goodbye to the staff at The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. PPH in the archives The University of Massachusetts Amherst's Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) is a magical place. We recently visited with board member and SCUA Director Aaron Rubinstein while we explored the PPH family's papers. This collection continues to grow as new records are donated. Highlights from the visit included a memorandum book of Elizabeth Porter Phelps, the scrapbooks of museum founder James Lincoln Huntington, and the newly acquired shipping receipts belonging to Charles Porter Phelps from the turn of the 19th-century. Left: Exploring James L Huntington's scrapbook at SCUA Right: Elizabeth Porter Phelps's memorandum book Visit the museum The Porter Phelps Huntington Museum is open for tours June through October, from 1:00pm-4:00pm, or by appointment. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 under 16, and free for participants in the Card to Culture program. Picnickers are welcome, the site is smoke-free and carry in/carry out. Visitors can walk a portion of the original 1752 farm land on a  trail system that includes 350 acres of preserved land. Built by Conservation Works, the trails were created with a grant to the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission from the Mass Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation in cooperation with the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, Kestrel Land Trust, the Trustees of Reservations, the Mass Department of Conservation & Recreation, and Private Landowners. Copyright © 2023 Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation, All rights reserved. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation preserves over 300 years of history in Hadley, MA. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum contains a collection of the belongings of several generations of one extended Hadley family, dating back to the house’s establishment in 1752. The farmstead, known as “Forty Acres and its Skirts,” was a year-round home for generations before becoming a rural retreat for the family in the 19th century. The house and its activities include the labor and livelihood of many artisans, servants, and enslaved people. Their lived experiences are being brought to the forefront at the museum in the form of a new tour and reinterpretation initiative funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The new tour foregrounds the lives of six enslaved men and women at the house: Zebulon Prutt, Cesar, Peg, Phillis, Rose, and Phillis. Additionally, the tour highlights the role of “pastkeeping” by exploring the home’s transition into a museum in the twentieth century. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum acknowledges that it occupies the unceded land of the Nonotuck people. Visit our website: pphmuseum.org Our mailing address is: 130 River Drive Hadley, MA 01035 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

PPH June 2023 Newsletter

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THE PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON MUSEUM 130 River Drive, Hadley, MA 01075 2023 Newsletter Commemorating Juneteenth Peg Bowen (1742-1792) Zebulon Prutt (1731-1802) Rose (1761-1781) Cesar Phelps (1752-date unknown) Phillis (1765-1775) Phillis (1775-1783). This Monday we commemorate Juneteenth. As we celebrate the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the fight for American equality, we reflect on the history of displacement, enslavement, and emancipation at Forty Acres. We honor the six African women and men enslaved at the Porter Phelps homestead between 1753 and 1783: Zebulon Prutt, Cesar Phelps, Peg Bowen and her daughters Phillis and Rose and Rose's daughter, Phillis, and acknowledge our responsibility to repair the harms committed on these grounds.   While Peg died well before the federal government abolished American chattel slavery in 1863, her actions and experiences contributed to the end of slavery in Massachusetts. From Elizabeth Porter Phelps’s memorandum book, a daily account spanning 1766-1817, we know Peg worked for wages outside the Porter Phelps home, occasionally spending nights in Amherst as part of this paid labor. Peg participated in a network of working free and enslaved Black folks in Hadley, Shutesbury and Amherst during the years leading up to the "the Quock Walker cases" which abolished slavery in Massachusetts in 1781-1782.  Reading with and against the grain of Elizabeth's record of Peg's attempts to negotiate her own sale to a man in Vermont, we can see an enslaved woman exercising desire and creativity within a system designed to eradicate her individuality and autonomy. Like her contemporary in Stockbridge, MA, Elizabeth Freeman, Peg leveraged the legal system to exercise autonomy by securing a life for herself with her romantic companion, Pomp Morgan. This plan required sacrifice, as she could not take her daughters Rose and Phillis with her to Vermont. However, with each sacrifice and successful expression of agency, Peg perforated the social and economic underpinnings of slavery in New England.   The Museum will be open on Juneteenth to share Peg's story and the stories of Zebulon, Cesar, Rose, Phillis and Phillis. Our new tour, developed over the last two years as part of a major reinterpretation effort and funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, foregrounds the stories of these six men and women as an important first step in our efforts to establish an anti-racist practice. Objects in our collection, such as the chest outfitted as a sickbed for Phillis in 1775, attest to the lived experiences of these enslaved women and men. Additionally, the tour highlights the role of “pastkeeping” by exploring the home’s transition into a museum in the twentieth century, thereby connecting the past to the present and acknowledging the responsibility we each carry to right historical wrongs.  This chest outfitted as a sickbed for Philis helps tell the story of enslaved women and men at Forty Acres. Wednesday Folk Traditions The Wednesday Folk Traditions concert series continues its 42nd season on June 21st  at 6:30 pm with ReBelle. Conceived in love, rebellion, and the musical vigor of collaborators Manou Africa and Kalpana Devi, ReBelle demonstrates musicianship and vocals that are contemporary, vital, and spell-binding. Founded by collaborators Kalpana Devi and Manou Africa, ReBelle are musicians, composers, activists, parents, and upholders of love and justice who perform eloquent compositions of pulsing rhythms and multi-instrumental arrangements combining Rasta, soul, folk, and poetic insurgence elements. Devi is the founding director of One Earth Drum Dance Company and the creator of Tuning Mastery Programs. In Devi’s words, “Black Lives innovate, lead, teach, empower, create, make everything better, glow, inspire, contribute, matter.” Admission is $12, $2 for children 16 and under. Payment is cash only. Picnickers are welcome on the museum’s grounds starting at 5:00 pm. In the event of rain, performances will be held at Wesley United Methodist Church in Hadley. The museum and its grounds are a smoke-free, carry in/carry out site.  Concerts will continue at PPH every Wednesday through July. Visit our website for more information. Wednesday Folk Traditions is funded, in part, by grants from: the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, through its Festivals and Programs Grants; the Amherst and Hadley Cultural Councils, local agencies funded by Massachusetts Cultural Council;  Robinson and Cole; Easthampton Savings Bank; Gage-Wiley and Company,  and with generous support from many local businesses. Forty Acres and Its Skirts Historic District We are pleased to announce that a new National Register historic district, “Forty Acres And Its Skirts,”  has been designated encompassing the museum property, the associated Phelps Farm complex across River Drive, and other historic resources and agricultural land in the vicinity. The goal of the district nomination was to update and expand the existing National Register documentation for the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Historic House, listed individually in 1973, incorporating the associated historic resources and focusing discussion on the importance of groups and individuals underrepresented in the historical record. This includes enslaved and Native people, indentured servants, free Blacks, and Polish agricultural workers. The new district encompasses about 114 acres on both sides of River Drive and extends the period of significance to 1978. The National Register of Historic Places is the nation’s official list of buildings, structures, sites, and objects that retain integrity and are worthy of preservation. The project was supported through a National Park Service Underrepresented Communities Grant to the Massachusetts Historical Commission. The Underrepresented Communities Grant awarded for this project was one of only eighteen awarded nationwide by the National Park Service in 2020.  Conversations in the Corn Barn Sunday, June 25th at 2:00 pm Book talk and signing with Alain Munkittrick “Historic Places and Open Spaces” Architect and author Alain Munkittrick will present and sign copies of his new book Historic Houses of the Connecticut River Valley (Arcadia Publishing, 2023) on Sunday, June 25th at 2:00 pm in the Museum’s Corn Barn. The author’s presentation, entitled “Historic Places and Open Spaces”, details the contributions made by Hadley’s 18th and 19th century family farmsteads to the evolution of the Connecticut River Valley’s historical and geographical landscape, and features previously unpublished photos of Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum taken by Clifton Johnson between 1920-1940. Following the presentation, guests will be able to purchase a signed copy of Mr. Munkittrick’s newly published book.  Meet Our Summer Staff Top row: Lex Bryan, Elizabeth Pangburn, Brian Whetstone; Bottom Row: Emily Butler and Benjamin Smith This summer we're joined by six graduate, undergraduate, and high school students to lead our summer tours and programs! University of Massachusetts Amherst PhD students Elizabeth Pangburn and Brian Whetstone are jointly managing the museum's internship offerings by training interns in the museum's new tour, leading field trips to local historical sites, and running the museum's programs. Undergraduate students Lex Bryan, Emily Butler, and Benjamin Smith are joining us from Wesleyan University, Yale University, and Western Michigan University, respectively. Hopkins Academy student Aurora Donta-Veman is returning this year to help lead tours as well! Copyright © 2022 Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation, All rights reserved. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House, known as Forty Acres, is an 18th-century farm on the banks of the Connecticut River that today interprets life in rural New England over three centuries.  Through the words, spaces and possessions of the women and men who lived here, the Museum portrays the activities of a prosperous and productive 18th-century farmstead. Members of this household along with numerous artisans, servants and slaves made "Forty Acres" an important social and commercial link in local, regional and national cultural and economic networks.  Through the 19th century the generations transformed the estate into a rural retreat. In the 20th-century the house was preserved as a museum by family members and now contains the possessions of six generations of this extended family.    The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum acknowledges that it occupies the unceded land of the Nonotuck people. Visit our website: pphmuseum.org Our mailing address is: 130 River Drive Hadley, MA 01035 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

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PPH May 2023 Newsletter

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THE PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON MUSEUM 130 River Drive, Hadley, MA 01075 2023 Newsletter The 2023 Season begins June 3rd! Welcome to the 74th season at the Porter Phelps Huntington House! The Museum opens to the public on Saturday, June 3rd. This summer we are pleased to offer a newly revised tour which introduces visitors to the family and the people who worked for them through an examination of the Museum's rich collection. The Wednesday Folk Traditions concerts begin on June 14th with our 11th annual Horace Clarence Boyer Memorial Gospel Performance. The multi-talented Evelyn Harris will lead Giving Voice in singing gospel and historical spirituals.  Concerts begin at 6:30 pm,  and we invite you to picnic on the grounds before the concert! We are pleased to announce the return of Community Days! We will offer free admission to local residents on selected weekends in June. Come experience 300 years of history with us! We hope you will join us for tours, picnics, music and more this season. Follow us on Facebook for news and updates, and read on for more information about our 2023 offerings! Emily Whitted discusses textile preservation with Brian Whetstone and our new interns, Emily Butler and Ben Smith in the Barrett Room. A New Tour! PPH is engaged in a widespread reinterpretation project that aims to emphasize the impact that laborers, both free and enslaved, have had on the history of the site. Our new tour was developed with historian Professor Marla R. Miller, and crafted by Emily Whitted and Brian Whetstone to reflect the lives and artifacts that made life possible at 40 Acres. In doing so, we celebrate those that lived and worked on our grounds over the past 300 years. The tour is 45 minutes long, and the route includes multiple staircases.  While the house is not accessible by mobility assistive devices, our tour guides do offer the same information (and more!) in conversation on the grounds and in the Corn Barn.  Tours are $5 for adults, and $1 for children 12 and under. Cash only. Food and beverages are not allowed in the house. Audience members often picnic on the grounds before the concert, and then move to the Sunken Garden for the 6:30 performance. Wednesday Folk Traditions The 42nd season of our concert series, Wednesday Folk Traditions, kicks off on June 14th with our 11th Annual Horace Clarence Boyer Memorial Gospel Concert featuring Grammy-nominated composer Evelyn Harris with giving Voice performing traditional African-American song cannon. Concerts begin at 6:30 and are hosted in the Sunken Garden. Admission is $12 for adults and $2 for children under 16. Tickets are available for purchase in the Corn Barn during Museum hours, and before the show on Wednesdays. Cash only please. We invite you to bring a picnic and enjoy the grounds before the show. Parking is available beginning at 5:00pm. We are a smoke-free, carry in/carry out site. The Wednesday Folk Traditions concert series is funded in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Scroll down to see the full lineup, or visit our website for more information. Save the date for Community Days!   Every year we invite residents from our neighboring towns to enjoy free guided tours on select weekends in June.  Afterwards, guests can relax on the back veranda with complimentary lemonade and cookies. Members of the community are encouraged to explore the homestead and grounds of one of the founding families of Hadley, and learn about the lives of those who lived and worked here.   Saturday, June 17 Amherst/Shutesbury/Leverett   Sunday, June 18 Hadley/South Hadley/Sunderland   Saturday, June 24 Northampton/Florence/Hatfield Copyright © 2022 Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation, All rights reserved. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House, known as Forty Acres, is an 18th-century farm on the banks of the Connecticut River that today interprets life in rural New England over three centuries.  Through the words, spaces and possessions of the women and men who lived here, the Museum portrays the activities of a prosperous and productive 18th-century farmstead. Members of this household along with numerous artisans, servants and slaves made "Forty Acres" an important social and commercial link in local, regional and national cultural and economic networks.  Through the 19th century the generations transformed the estate into a rural retreat. In the 20th-century the house was preserved as a museum by family members and now contains the possessions of six generations of this extended family.    The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum acknowledges that it occupies the unceded land of the Nonotuck people. Visit our website: pphmuseum.org Our mailing address is: 130 River Drive Hadley, MA 01035 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

May 2022 PPH Member Letter

2022 Re-opening

PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON MUSEUM OPENS FOR 2022 SEASON 

After two summers of pandemic closure, the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, a historic house dating to 1752 in Hadley, Massachusetts, re-opens to the public on Wednesday, June 1st, 2022 for its 73rd season. The Museum will be offering a new tour that tells a more complete story of the many different lives lived in this place, drawn from extensive research made possible by grant support from MassHumanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Guided tours will be available Saturday through Wednesday from 1:00 to 4:00 P.M. The museum is closed on Thursdays and Fridays. Admission is $5 for adults and $1 for children. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  

This land was cultivated by Nonotuck and other Indigenous people for millennia. It was claimed as common acreage by householders in the stockaded town of Hadley when the town was laid out in 1659. In 1752, Moses and Elizabeth Pitkin Porter erected a farmstead known as “Forty Acres” on the banks of the Connecticut River. Today, the Museum at “Forty Acres” uncovers life in rural New England over three centuries. The new guided tours introduce visitors to a wide range of individuals, from Quanquan, one of the Native leaders whose name is on the earliest Hadley deeds, to James Lincoln Huntington, who founded the museum. Some are members of the family who owned this property; others are people enslaved by them. The tour provides insight into the lives of domestic servants who lived in the house and raised their own families here, craftspeople who plied their trades here, and finally the family’s generation of “past keepers” who recreated this site as a museum. Through their words, spaces, and possessions, the Museum portrays the activities and diverse histories of the many people who lived and worked on this farmstead.

In the 18th century, “Forty Acres” was an important social and commercial link in local, regional and national cultural and economic networks. During the 19th century, the property became a rural retreat for descendants of the original owners. In the 20th century, family members preserved the site as an historic house museum. So many very different lives have unfolded on this ground; now in the 21st century the Museum strives to tell all their stories.

Go to the “Events” tab to view the various programs we will be holding this summer, and their times and dates.

Year End Letters from the Board of Directors

June 2021 PPH Membership Letter

Porter-Phelps-Huntington Member Letter May 2019

Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation, Inc.

130 River Drive   Hadley MA 01035 

May 2019

Dear Family and Friends of the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum,

The daffodils are barely out and so you may think it too early to plan your summer – but we want to get on your calendar!  Please look at the Wednesday Folk Traditions brochure for the June and July concerts at the Museum and post it on your fridge for easy reference.

You have supported these programs in past years, and we hope you will do so again this year.

I enjoy these concerts because they encourage me to listen to voices I don't hear very often.  I live in a city where hardly anyone is like me, and I work with people whose backgrounds are very different from mine.  Occasionally we talk of important things, things we need to know about each other if we are to live together respectfully.  Music is the way we say things that words cannot.  It is visceral; it touches those important things that polite society doesn’t handle very well.

With singer Evelyn Harris we hear the story of the African-American struggle and liberation.  With Fusion Nomads we hear the yearning of the young for world peace.  With “Songs of My Family” we hear the singer searching for her identity.

Wednesday Folk Traditions concerts encourage me to add my voice to the mix.  I know identity politics gets a bad rap, but people secure in their heritage do not fear the beautiful voices of others who are secure in theirs.  Rather we are enriched and enlarged.  You can hear that from the Wednesday Folk Traditions performers.  They have social and community goals as well as personal and artistic ones. 

So put Wednesday Folk Traditions at the Huntington House on your calendar for a summer evening’s concert and bring the kids!  You may even want to talk with them about why you support these programs with your financial contribution.  You and your family’s loyalty to the Museum is important to us, and we look forward to seeing you this summer.

Thank you,

Elizabeth H. Wheeler

Board of Directors

www.pphmuseum.org

PPH Year end Member Letter December 2018. Thank you for your contributions.

Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation, Inc.

130 River Drive Hadley MA 01035

December 2018

Dear Friends and Family of the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum,

When we get old it dawns on us how strange and utterly unique our lives have been, how vividly our favorite things encapsulate our times and exhibit who we are. Each of us deserves a museum. Like the Huntington House but maybe a little more zany.

When James Lincoln Huntington turned the Huntington House into a museum in 1955 he preserved what he thought were the best of its furnishings and objects to tell the story of a whole family. And indeed when you walk through the house you can feel the aura of the ancestors. But their personalities are a bit misty. What we’re lacking are the things Jimmy Huntington discarded, which is not surprising because none were of museum quality. He might even have thought of them as detritus.

But something was lost. If he could have preserved a “cabinet of curiosities” for individual family members, they would have come more clearly into focus and come alive for us.”

Think about your own personal museum. What would you put in it? How would you curate your life? I see in my place an upside down snathe, a silver baby spoon, a pink pussy cap from the 2017 Women’s March, a piece of Manhattan schist, a small lucite pillar commemorating the opening day of Hampshire College, a Ralph Waldo Emerson monograph, an African fertility doll, an Eastern Orthodox icon, a chenille stole, a pork-pie hat with a stained sweat band, a pewter hip flask with my name on it. You get the idea.

This particular collection is unique to me. No one else could have imagined it, let alone want to replicate it. It’s eccentric, a little weird but wonderful too. It has personality. The place would be anonymous without these things. The Huntington House is fortunate in having extensive archives at Amherst College that flesh out the individuals who lived here. We know, for instance, that “nothing was as slippery as money” in the hands of Dan and Elizabeth Huntington’s eldest daughter and that her father’s “army of jokes” embarrassed her. But we have none of her favorite things, a toy, a scarf, a spoon. Our glimpses of her would have been fuller had we also been able to see the things she chose to be her daily companions.

I hope that as future family donations come to the Museum each donor will include a “cabinet of curiosities” of his or her favorite things. And I hope too that you will collect your own treasures for the fun of it, just to see what comes up. Meanwhile thank you for your support of the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum and for your interest in these questions. And if you do create your own “cabinet of curiosities,” perhaps you would share its contents with us.

Cordially,

Elizabeth H. Wheeler,

Board of Directors

www.pphmuseum.org

May 2018 Membership Letter