FALL 2002
STENTON AND LOGAN: a Museum and its Community
Philadelphia's
Logan neighborhood takes its name from the Logan family and during
the past year several Logan community organizations have expressed
interest in Stenton as a focal point for community support and neighborhood
pride. Particularly active have been the Let's Love Logan campaign,
the Ad Hoc Committee for Logan, the Men of Logan, Inc. and the Stenton
Park Advisory Council.
Numerous meetings with these organizations resulted
in three outstandingly successful summer programs. The first, part
of the Sunoco Welcome America celebrations of July 4th in Philadelphia,
was a "Go 4th & Learn" reading program at Stenton on
July 5th organized with help from the Ad Hoc Committee for Logan.
"Go 4th & Learn", which attracted about
85 community members, highlighted the importance of reading for children
– a fitting activity given James Logan’s own interest in
books and learning. Radio personality Karen Warrington read from a
book entitled The Tusk Family Visits Philadelphia. The reading
was followed by a tour of the mansion and snacks in the courtyard.
Ongoing throughout the summer was Stenton's first summer
camp effort. Every Thursday in July and August, a group of students
from the Stenton Park Summer Program organized by the Men of Logan
and the Stenton Park Advisory Council made their way to Stenton for
tours and historical crafts. Campers marbleized paper, made books,
played colonial games, and did shellwork and weaving. The success
of this initial foray into summer activities left us looking forward
to continuing and even expanding the program next year.
The
culmination of these community events took place on September 7 with
the Let's Love Logan Day celebration. This event, a family day of
fun throughout the neighborhood, featured everything from face painting
to gospel choirs. Stenton, doing its part to recognize the day, hosted
a lecture sponsored by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council entitled
"African Practices of Colonial Pennsylvania Blacks," by
Donald Scott, Instructor at the Philadelphia Community College. Mr.
Scott explored customs from Africa that were brought to the North
American colonies, some of which continue to the present day.
A further highlight of Let's Love Logan Day at Stenton
was the presentation of a doll made by artist Doris McGillan. The
doll depicts Dinah, the enslaved African housekeeper credited with
saving Stenton from being burned during the American Revolution. NSCDA/PA
Board member Meade Jones introduced Ms. McGillan and President Alice
Lea Tasman was on hand to receive the gift, which will be displayed
at Stenton. The limited edition Dinah doll is available for sale by
special order.
The
Dinah doll presentation and Mr. Scott's lecture were a fitting end
to an exciting summer education season!
IMLS, PHMC and HIP support Stenton
The Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal
grant-making agency that promotes leadership, innovation, and a lifetime
of learning by supporting the nation's museums and libraries, has
awarded Stenton a prestigious General Operating Support grant. Museums
are evaluated in a rigorous peer review process that determines which
museums "demonstrate excellence in museum operations with the
resources available."
IMLS received 839 applications for funding this year
and awarded only 179 grants, with five of those going to Pennsylvania
museums. Stenton was the only museum in the Philadelphia area to receive
funds through the program. The grant is especially important because
it assists with general operations, funding that can often be difficult
to obtain. The IMLS GOS award is a mark that Stenton is fulfilling
its mission extremely well and making considerable use of its relatively
modest operating budget. It is also a tribute to The NSCDA/PA and
Friends of Stenton for their ongoing support of this historic site.
In other grant news, the Pennsylvania Historical &
Museum Commission has made two awards to Stenton, one for operating
support and the other for strategic planning. The strategic planning
grant will allow Stenton and The NSCDA/PA to work together to develop
a comprehensive strategic plan. Christopher Mekal, a planning consultant
from Boston who was formerly Director of Finance and Operations at
the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, will facilitate the process.
In addition, Stenton will receive support from the Heritage Investment
Program, a program of the Pew Charitable Trusts funded through the
Independence Visitor Center, to assist with the initial stages of
the planning process.
Stenton
and The NSCDA/PA are grateful to all of these funders for their generous
support of these important projects.
"Our loan exhibit was a first for us - a house!!
Who knew that Stenton would be such a star??? The presentation
of Stenton's treasures was spectacular!
We think that Stenton attracted many new people to the Antiques Show,
and we hope that those folks also decide to visit the magnificent
Stenton itself! Mega thanks to Sally Congdon (and the Dames)
for their enthusiastic help."
Penny Gerber,
Chair, 2002 Philadelphia Antiques Show,
on October 23, 2002, when presenting the Hospital of the University
of Pennsylvania with a check for $715,825, the proceeds of the Antiques
Show
COLLECTIONS UPDATE
James Logan's chairs have been added to the collection
this year. Objects with Logan family provenances remain in public
and private collections waiting for us to learn about them and their
possible past lives at Stenton. The frequency with which objects have
surfaced is amazing. This summer on Logan Family Reunion Day, three
more Logan family objects "came home" to Stenton. Cory and
Kate Luxmoore of Dorset, England presented two small purses, which
belonged to Deborah Logan. The first is a floral beaded example with
a silver frame and clasp, engraved "Deborah Logan." The
second is a smaller needlework purse with beaded drops containing
three coins dated, 1714, 1754, and 1810. The coins in combination
with the souvenir boxes previously given to Stenton by Cory and Kate
illustrate Deborah's interest in historical objects and souvenir culture.
Also at the reunion, former Pennsylvania State Senator Richard Tilghman
presented a 1911 scrapbook into which are mounted letters from Deborah
Logan of Stenton to "Cousin" Sarah (Sally) Linley Fisher
at Wakefield and Elizabeth Rodman Fisher from the 1820s and 1830s.
Loose in front is a scrap of Deborah Logan's hair folded into a six-sided
"envelope" by Mary R. Fisher.
Related to the Fishers and Wakefield, the house built
for Sarah Logan Fisher and Joshua Fisher on their parcel of the Stenton
lands, a number of items were sold at Freeman’s Auction House
in Philadelphia on Saturday, October 19. They included a plain, flat-top
Chippendale-style high chest, a Chippendale-style low chest of drawers
with ogee-bracket feet, an easy chair, Wedgwood creamware, and four
John Richard sketches of Stenton, including the graveyard, from the
19th century.
We were pleased that the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
was able to aquire parts of the Diary of Sarah Logan Fisher and a
Commonplace book of Deborah Logan. While not all the objects sold
directly pertain to Stenton, the Museum was interested in following
the auction and continues to track the whereabouts of these artifacts
of Logan family. Using a material culture approach to Stenton as a
historic house museum, any and all objects are evidence, bits of information
about the past left behind, which when reassembled into their original
context can begin to make sense and tell a story in relationship to
other objects and known history.
To read more about the history and aquisition of the
chairs, please read this issue's research article Stenton
Chairs.
Hunting For History: Germantown sites develop
exciting education program
Since the inception of Stenton's formal education program
in 2001 the Stenton Committee has placed a great deal of emphasis
on renewing Stenton's commitment to the educational component of its
mission. Earlier this year a group of four other historic organizations
in Germantown – Cliveden, Wyck, Johnson House and the Germantown
Historical Society - with Stenton serving as the lead organization,
applied to the Heritage Investment Program for the History Hunters
Youth Reporter Program.
This
project, which received $146,920 in funding, will be innovative in
several ways. First, it will bring together curriculum materials from
each of the five sites into a coherent project, allowing each site
to focus on its area of historical strength while contributing to
the whole of the project. Since students will be visiting four sites
during a school year, each visit will be designed to build upon the
last, and will allow students the chance to explore some of the rich
and varied history of Germantown. Introducing history to students
through these house museums will provide an exciting supplement to
classroom instruction, allowing them to see and experience historic
buildings and artifacts in a visceral and meaningful way.
While at the sites, students will play the role of reporters,
developing information that will allow them to return to the classroom
and write articles about their experiences. These might include a
feature article, an editorial about a specific topic, an entertainment
piece on how people occupied their time in the 18th or 19th centuries,
or a human-interest story about a key figure at one of the sites.
Throughout the summer the Museum Educator for the project,
Jacqueline Wiggins, has been working with site staff members, teachers
from the Philadelphia City Schools and four humanities consultants
to develop the curriculum. Later in the autumn, area schools will
begin the first of their site visits as part of a pilot project to
test the curriculum. We will also be assessing the long-term sustainability
of the project to ensure that once the program is designed that it
continues to benefit students from the Philadelphia Schools and beyond.
Stenton and all the Germantown sites look forward to the History Hunters
project serving as the basis for a new and engaging learning opportunity
for our school age visitors.
Stenton Revises Interpretation
As scholarship grows and changes, historic sites need
to incorporate new information into their public presentation and
bring ideas together in different ways. Over the last nine months
Stenton staff and volunteers have been involved in an exciting project
to re-evaluate how Stenton is interpreted to the public.
The project, funded by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council
and the Heritage Investment Program, has brought together a team of
six scholars who have worked to evaluate what we tell people about
Stenton and how we convey that information. Using a publication called
Standards and Practices for Historic Site Administration as a guide,
the project team set as a goal raising Stenton to "Best Practice"
for historic sites. This called for linking site-specific information
to "major historical themes and common human experiences."
We have also relied heavily on Great Tours!, a recent publication
co-authored by Sandy Lloyd, one of our consultants.
During the process the project team fully reviewed the
current interpretation. The team defined four main themes for the
site and then worked from those themes to refine and enhance what
is said on tours. We have also evaluated how other aspects of the
site, most notably the landscape, might be interpreted through the
use of signage or a self-guided program. One key component has been
to focus carefully on how we can better interpret the roles of comparatively
understudied groups, including slaves, servants and Native Americans
on the Stenton plantation.
All of this has resulted in a written interpretive plan,
which is now nearing its final draft stage. The plan is a careful
balance between adding new and important information and retaining
all the many outstanding aspects of Stenton’s interpretation
as it has developed over the one hundred years of NSCDA/PA administration.
The plan, which we hope to implement in 2003, will result in an improved
and more inclusive view of this important historic site. We will be
reporting further about our findings in future issues of this newsletter.
Logan Family Reunion
The
Logan Family Reunion on June 22 was marked by the first display of
the newly acquired Logan chairs. The weather was beautiful and we
were delighted to welcome over 70 guests, 45 of them Logan descendants.
Logan family members came from all over the United States as well
as the United Kingdom. Family members gave several other Logan-related
gifts. For more information on the additions to Stenton's collections,
please click here.
In Remembrance
We mourn the death of Deborah Paul on September 28th.
Although she had retired to Jamestown, Rhode Island in 1971 to Hull
Cove Farm, she and her sister Sally Smith remembered Stenton last
year when they gave a beautiful Logan chair to Stenton which had descended
in the Fisher family. Born in Philadelphia, she was the daughter of
the late Edward and Dorothea (Atwater) Smith.
Dames
Object Moves to Pittsburgh
A desk and bookcase made in western Pennsylvania but
long housed at Stenton will be returning to the western part of the
state. The desk, which was in the Yellow Lodging Room, was removed
to storage last year with the arrival of the Copeland high chest and
dressing table. Earlier this year, the Allegheny Committee of The
NSCDA/PA expressed their interest in having this fine piece at the
General John Neville House, Woodville, near Pittsburgh. Mr. J. Welles
Henderson, the original donor of the piece, gladly consented to the
move, The NSCDA/PA Board of Managers approved the transfer, and arrangements
were recently finalized with Allegheny County NSCDA/PA member Anne
Genter.
The desk and bookcase will be a handsome addition to
the Neville House, and it is wonderful to have this sort of cooperation
between Philadelphia and Pittsbugh!
DamesLines - Find out
what is happening with The Colonial Dames of America in The Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania.
Research
Article - for the Fall 2002 Newsletter - Stenton
Chairs
