Frontispiece of the Isaac Norris almanac.

The Norris almanac and square of fabric from Deborah Norris Logan’s wedding.

Last November, when much of Jay T. Snider’s collection of Philadelphiana was to be sold at Bloomsbury Auctions in New York, Stenton expressed an interest in a number of lots with Logan and Norris provenances that would deepen our portrayal of the Logans and Norrises as closely allied Quaker families. With limited collections funds, Mrs. Hannah Henderson, a Stenton Committee member, generously stepped forward and offered to help acquire the document we were most interested in. Then, just before the auction, we were delighted to learn that Mr. David F. Hickok, a Logan descendant heretofore unknown to us, had it in mind to purchase and donate them to Stenton. After discussion with Mr. Hickok, we determined that his offer was indeed an exciting proposition! As with any auction, one never knows how it will proceed and whether the funds gathered in advance will be sufficient to secure the desired objects. With luck on our side, Mr. Hickok was entirely successful in obtaining the items he set out to acquire.

The items we have received are: a 1739 marriage certificate celebrating the marriage of James Logan’s daughter Sarah to Isaac Norris II; a 17th-century thirty-year almanac that belonged to Isaac Norris I, beginning when he was still in Jamaica prior to coming to Philadelphia; a 1699 letter from Richard Stafford to James Logan wishing him well as he departed for Pennsylvania at age 25 (the oldest known piece of correspondence related to James Logan); a register for the fitting out of a ship, Mary Galley, owned by James Logan and other investors; and several documents related to Jonathan Dickinson and the slave trade, cataloged by Deborah Logan at Stenton on the early 19th century.

The marriage certificate and the almanac are especially fascinating family artifacts as they were used beyond their original intended functions as places to record subsequent genealogical information. The almanac even includes a card onto which is stitched a square of Deborah Logan’s wedding dress, labeled in Fanny Armatt Logan’s hand. As a group, these documentary artifacts help to put the Logans of Stenton into context among their Quaker peers and in shipping and trade. And in Isaac Norris II’s recording the death of his wife onto their marriage certificate, noting the years they had spent “mutually happy in each other,” a very human picture of the Logans and Norrises emerges.

The NSCDA/PA has plans to reproduce the almanac and documents for display and study at Stenton and will deposit them at the Library Company of Philadelphia, where then can be properly stored and will be accessible to scholars. Until then, the originals remain on-view at Stenton, so please make a special trip to come and see them.

As a group, these additions to the Stenton collection serve as artifacts that speak to multiple generations of the Logan and Norris families—their business interests, their personal relationships, and their devotion to the preservation of their family heritage. These documents serve to illustrate components of the Stenton story and in so doing enrich our interpretation and presentation of the site and further bolster our already rich holdings of family objects. We are deeply grateful to David Hickok for making it possible to preserve these treasured elements of Stenton’s history.

Click here to read complete story

 

 

Germantown WORKS Project is off and Running with Pew Support

One of the first Germantown Speaks oral history sessions, with participants in the background and Germantown High School interviewers in the fore.

With high expectations, Historic Germantown launched the Freedom’s Backyard brand in 2008. Based on a year-long planning grant and dozens of conversations with community leaders, scholars, and institutions, Historic Germantown developed the Freedom’s Backyard brand with the goal of becoming more than the sum of its parts; each site bringing the power of place to help its surrounding community on broader and deeper levels as cultural institutions.

The Germantown WORKS initiative puts this planning into action. Supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Heritage Philadelphia Program, this year-long initiative helps our 15 historic attractions ‘work’ collaboratively to build a stronger community presence. The primary thrust of Germantown WORKS involves coordinated programs at the member sites using the interpretive theme of “An Industrious People: Creating Commerce and Culture.” Through partnerships with Germantown High School, Center in the Park, Temple University, and local churches, the project will also help an at-risk community that is defined by its history understand the important connections between the past and present, and expose newer generations to work in historic sites.

Germantown Speaks is a related program that exemplifies the commitment to training our youth about the rich history in their community. Germantown High School students will hold focus group interviews with older residents and seniors who will share their life and work experiences in Germantown. Germantown Speaks builds on partnerships with area churches and is supported by the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia.

Several public programs focusing on Germantown’s 20th century community history are the centerpiece of the Germantown WORKS project. These kick off November 19th with a program at Center in the Park celebrating the little known 1928 Negro Achievement Week. This forum will explore a week in 1928 when the Harlem Renaissance came to Germantown, for one of the most purposeful events in the community’s history. Negro Achievement Week represents a key moment when several community institutions presented programs based on a shared history. It was never repeated in Germantown, but the effort to promote this shared history is now in the hands of Freedom’s Backyard. Programs highlighting the Civil Rights movement in Germantown and the community’s historically strong African-American catering industry are planned for February and April. For more information, visit www.freedomsbackyard.com.

Lenape Chief Speaks on the Past and Present of Native Americans at Stenton

On July 18, Stenton hosted Chief Robert Red Hawk Ruth of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania and Shelly DePaul, Director of the Lenape Language Program for the Pennsylvania Lenape Nation at a symposium on Native Americans: Colonial Impact & Cultural Identity. The symposium included an afternoon of discussions and presentations focusing on local Native American peoples, with particular focus on the Lenape Nation, from pre-contact to the present day. In addition to Chief Red Hawk Ruth and Ms. Depaul, speakers included Douglas B. Mooney of the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum, Stenton Curator Laura Keim and Pennsbury Manor Director Doug Miller. The symposium capped off a program year filled with successful events, from family-oriented programming, such as Stenton’s spooky tours and Easter egg hunt, to Juneteenth storytelling and a range of fascinating Lunch and Learn topics, including a talk on Philadelphia’s early free Black community and colonial foodways at Stenton. Visit the Stenton website at www.stenton.org for information on upcoming programs. Chief Robert Red Hawk Ruth

Archaeology Workshops Breath New Life into Logan Ceramics

Volunteers work to mend porcelain sherds. The mended vessels installed in the buffet of Stenton’s best parlor.

In early 2009, a project to process and reconstruct more than 2,000 ceramic sherds excavated at Stenton was completed by Stenton staff and volunteers under the guidance of Archaeologist Debbie Miller. The collection of ceramics, which date between c.1720-1765, are part of a larger assemblage of more than 25,000 artifacts excavated in 1982 from a cistern associated with James Logan’s original line of outbuildings in the courtyard. The purpose of this project was to obtain a representative count of the number of individual vessels and sets in the assemblage, vessels that almost certainly were used in the mansion. Many of the mended vessels were then installed in exhibits in the house, a unique opportunity, as archaeological materials are rarely able to tell their stories in the settings of the buildings that they inhabited.

The ceramics represent an astonishing range of early to mid-eighteenth century ware types, including tin-glazed earthenware (often referred to delft), white salt-glazed stoneware, English earthenwares, Pennsylvania red earthenwares (redwares) and Chinese Export and English soft-paste porcelain. In all, 227 vessels were mended. They include teabowls, saucers, coffee cups, teapots, pitchers, creamers, tankards, plates, chargers, pans, jugs and garniture. The incredible quantities of teawares are most impressive, with the majority being blue and white Chinese Export Porcelain. A number of these could be identified as matching sets, a surprising find considering most ceramics were not purchased as sets in the eighteenth century. The ceramic tea wares, represented by the Chinese Porcelain teabowls, saucers, waste bowls along with numerous English stoneware and earthenware teapots, saucers, teabowls and other tablewares are currently on display in the shell buffet in Stenton’s parlor, quite possibly their original storage location.

Purchased and used by the Logan family during the residency of James (1730-51) and William (1753-59), these ceramics illustrate the restrained opulence of the formal and private spaces of the Logan household. Further research could establish how different types of ceramic wares, particularly the high style porcelains and stonewares, were used in the house.

 

In April, Historic Germantown (HG) hosted A Great Day on the Great Road, a community history festival located in Vernon Park in the center of Germantown. With generous support from State Representative John Myers and the Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corporation, HG organized an event that featured local jazz legend Tony Williams, living history performances, food and family activities highlighting the fourteen member attractions.

Now in its 7th year of full implementation, History Hunters has subsidized the participation of more than 10,000 underserved Philadelphia students! With a number of successful years behind us, we’re looking forward to a major expansion of this national award-winning program in the near future.

Major Gifts to Help Expand Educational Programs at Stenton

Over the last year, the NSCDA-PA has received several generous gifts that will help support and expand Stenton’s educational programs. Mr. and Mrs. H.F. Lenfest, known for their generous philanthropy in the Philadelphia region and in particular for their support of education, have given more than $75,000 in support of Stenton’s programs, especially History Hunters, our national award-winning educational program for underserved Philadelphia youth.

In November of 2008, the Society also received a remarkable contribution of $50,000 from Mrs. Hannah Henderson, an NSCDA-PA member, Stenton Committee member and long time supporter of our efforts. Mrs. Henderson’s contribution will also help support History Hunters. In addition, the Society received an anonymous gift of $10,000 over the summer.

These generous contributions help match a National Endowment for the Humanities We the People challenge grant that the Society received in 2007. The $300,000 grant requires a 3-1 match that will be used to create an endowment to sustain Stenton’s educational programs for the forseeable future. With these most recent gifts, the Society has raised all but $140,000 of this match.

 

Welcome and Farewell

Lisa Street

Ira Luke III

After four years of service, Jane Foster Willson has stepped down as Chair of the Stenton Committee. Jane oversaw one of the most successful periods in Stenton’s recent history. During her tenure Stenton enjoyed expanded and award-winning educational programs, additions to the collections and increased visitation. Though she is stepping down, Jane plans to remain an active Stenton Committee member and will continue to serve as the NSCDA-PA Museum Properties Vice-President.

Stepping into the role of Stenton Committee Chair is Lisa Street, who brings the energy and experience of her previous work at Gunston Hall, the home of George Mason, located in Northern Virginia. Welcome Lisa!

Over the summer, Stenton also bid farewell to Museum Assistant Kathryn Venzor, who accepted a grant-funded position as a Digital Camera Operator with the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image at University of Pennsylvania Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. We wish Kathryn all the best in her future endeavours. In August, Historic Germantown and Stenton hired Ira Luke III to fill the position of Program Assistant. Luke participated in AmeriCorps, and with experience in the college access program and public relations at the Magic Lantern Theatre, he is a welcome addition to our team. spring.

 

Von Hess Grant to Help Support Yellow Lodging Room Restoration Project

Handel House Bed

A $25,000 grant from the Richard C. Von Hess Foundation will help support the restoration of the Yellow Lodging Room on Stenton’s second floor. The funds will be used to recreate a flying tester bed in the room, a form that no longer survives in colonial American contexts. These beds, often draped in rich and expensive fabrics, rose from the floor to the ceiling, had no footposts, and at the far end of the canopy, were suspended by hooks in the ceiling. Such hooks remain in the ceilings of all of the lodging rooms on the second floor at Stenton. The new bed will be similar in form to the Handel House bed, seen in the inset image, and will create a dramatic new experience for visitors entering the Yellow Lodging Room. It also provides a unique opportunity to study the construction and fabrics of these rare furnishings.

Recreating the flying tester bed is just one recommendation of the recently completed Room Furnishings Study by Stenton Curator Laura Keim. Stenton staff hope to raise funds to implement additional recommendations, including paint analysis and improving the exhibits and interpretation of servitude in the house, in an adjoining room on the second floor and in one of the rooms of the garrett, where most of the servants were housed and a space which is not currently open to the public.

 

 

 

 

Von Hess Grant to Help Support Yellow Lodging Room Restoration Project

Honorees, left to right: David Hickok, Alice Lea Tasman, Jane Seddon Willson, Eleanor Peterson, Hannah Henderson; Stenton Director Dennis Pickeral

At the Garden Party in May, Stenton’s parent organization, the Pennsylvania Society of the Colonial Dames, celebrated the completion of its $2.2 million Capital Campaign: A Sense of History, A Sense of Place, A Vision for Tomorrow, reaching the target a year ahead of schedule. The Capital Campaign was undertaken with the goals of expanding our educational programs, increasing scholarships, restoring the headquarters garden, renovating the education space at Stenton, enhancing the Society’s collections, and ultimately ensuring a strong, vibrant Society for generations to come.

An unqualified success, the Campaign received contributions from nearly 400 individuals and more than 25 foundations and other organizations. During the Garden Party, the Society recognized the extraordinary contributions of five benefactors, Mrs. Jane Seddon Willson, Mrs. Hannah Henderson, Mrs. Eleanor Peterson, Mrs. Alice Lea Tasman and Mr. David Hickok. Unable to attend, but also recognized were Mr. and Mrs. H.F. Lenfest and Mrs. Samuel M.V. Hamilton. Many thanks to all of our supporters, who made the successful completion of Society’s Campaign possible, and especially to Alice Lea Tasman and Stephen Hague, who worked tirelessly to see it through.