Please Welcome our New Executive Director
Stephen
Hague joined us on April 2, 2001, as our new Executive Director. Stephen
comes to us from Linacre College in Oxford, England, where he has been
responsible for the College development program. His past experience
includes four years as Executive Director of The Highlands Historical
Society here in Philadelphia and two years as Director and Instructor
of History at The Abraham Lincoln Museum in Tennessee. His degrees include
a BA in history from SUNY-Binghamton, NY, a MA in History from the University
of Virginia, and most recently a MA from the University of Oxford. His
background includes a number of publications and invited lectures. Stephen's
background in fundraising and grantwriting will be most valuable to
Stenton as we move into the next phase of development. On his way back
to the U. S. from the U.K., Stephen visited Logan descendants Cory and
Kate Luxmoore and since his return, he joined the Education Committee
meetings before his official start date; we love his enthusiasm.
Farewell to Margo Burnette
In December, Margo Burnette announced that she planned to retire so
that she will have more time to travel with her husband, Charles. Margo
has served as Executive Director of Stenton for over five years during
a critical time in our development. She has positioned Stenton to be
able to compete with other well-respected museum properties. During
her tenure,the NSCDA granted accreditation, a demanding process in which
every aspect of professional museum management was reviewed. Policies
were developed including an emergency plan, a collections policy, organizational
structure and management. Numerous projects were undertaken under her
guidance such as collections documentation, archival organization, historic
paint analysis, historic landscape inventory and re-design of the barn
and old kitchen exhibit and many others. Margo has been successful not
only in raising funding for these projects and managing them, but taking
care of the day-to-day management of the site. She brought to Stenton
the professionalism and background required to position Stenton for
the future. Thank you, Margo.
Recent Acquisitions
One of the most exciting things that has happened this past year is
the gift to Stenton of a Pennsylvania walnut commode chair by Deborah
Lutman Paul (in memory of her son, Christopher Greene Lutman, who died
May 10, 2000) and her sister, Sally Smith, now of Jamestown, Rhode Island.
Both ladies are "old Stenton hands." Deborah Paul ran the Stenton gift
shop, and Sally Smith's endless toil on Stenton's history and the Logan
family genealogy created a resource of knowledge which serves a foundation
for the current interpretation of the house.
The early Queen Anne commode chair is a rare form, having a wide, solid,
vasiform splat and a yoke-shaped crest rail. Inscribed vasiform baluster
turnings support the ogee-shaped arms. The diminutive cabriole legs
terminate in slipper feet, which have a tongue motif up to the ankle.
The feet are the same type as those found on James Logan's easy chair,
now privately owned (See Lindsey, Worldly Goods, PMA, 1999, figure 105.)
The deeply scalloped skirt once hid a probably pewter chamber pot, no
longer part of the chair.
The
chair has a Logan/Smith provenance, having descended in the Smithfamily
line, and could very well have belonged to James Logan. James recorded
in a letter, "Because of my infirmities, my wife and I are now lodged
in the first floor bedchamber." Thus, the first floor lodging room is
the perfect place for the commode chair. It is exhibited in front of
the fireplace, a spot it could have occupied in the eighteenth century.
This beautiful and sculptural chair certainly adds to the interpretation
of the first floor lodging room. Stenton and the NSCDA/PA will be forever
grateful to the Smith family for their generosity.
In consultation with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the NSCDA/PA commissioned
a reproduction photograph on canvas of the portrait of George Logan
by Gilbert Stuart. The original, painted in 1800, is part of the collection
of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, from whom Stenton must renew
display privileges every ten years. The copy hangs over the fireplace
in the Blue Lodging Room, which greatly enhances the interpretation
of Deborah Logan's "apartment in the library," where she would have
gazed affectionately at the husband she adored.
The NSCDA/PA also purchased an English eighteenth-century flute to
represent the Logan family interest in music to which Deborah Logan
so often alludes in her diary. Money from the Mary Ann Bridger Fund
made the purchase of the flute possible, and thus the flute is a gift
to the NSCDA/PA collection at Stenton in her memory.
Stenton is Prepared!
There is an old scouting motto, "Be prepared." With the generous assistance
of the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts and the William
Penn Foundation, Stenton has been taking this advice at face value.
Over the last several months, staff and consultants have been collecting
and organizing information for an Emergency Preparedness Manual, which
will help to ensure that should anything unfortunate happen on site,
we are prepared to deal with it as effectively as possible.
Former Stenton Director, Margo Burnette, Committee member Jane Foster
Willson, Sally Congdon and her assistant Kierstin Zetterberg, as well
assecond year Penn Historic Preservation student, Kathleen Forrest,
worked on the project. The team reviewed many issues. Whom should we
call if the heating plant goes out? Who is the Philadelphia expert on
salvaging 18th-century furniture? What objects should be salvaged as
the highest priority? All of these questions need to be answered beforehand
so that in the event of an emergency valuable time is spent on salvaging
the collection and the house.
While we hope that the Emergency Plan is never put into action, friends
and supporters of Stenton should be pleased that although unexpected
events do happen, good preparation often allows the mitigation of their
worst aspects.
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