One way that Stenton reaches beyond its site at 18th Street and Windrim Avenue in Philadelphia is by lending objects to other institutions. Although this has always been part of Stenton’s outreach, more frequent requests for loans in recent years can be attributed to the profile-raising This Glorious House: Stenton loan exhibition at the 2002 Philadelphia Antiques Show. During the last year, we have shared collections with a number of institutions regionally and nationally. This has also led to several incoming loans and gifts of objects, for which we are most grateful. The “Ins and Outs of the Stenton Collection” involve a number of people and institutions: donors, conservators, collectors, curators, exhibit designers, and so on. The ongoing process of learning from objects is a vital part of what we do.
In May 2007, The NSCDA/PA lent five of its seven samplers to the exhibition Stitched Together – Early American Samplers from the Collections of The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America and Friends, a joint exhibition at The Clarke House Museum, an NSCDA museum property in Chicago and the Chicago Cultural Center. In preparation, Pennsylvania Dame Virginia Jarvis Whelan, who is a Textile Conservator specializing in needlework, cleaned and remounted the samplers in her Merion Studio. Mark Palermo built new frames in his Germantown studio for all but the Caroline Stokes sampler, which was in its original frame. For the stabilization, preservation and improved presentation of our samplers we gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Gina Whelan along with Hannah Henderson and Alice Lea Tasman, who together funded the new frames. Click here to read complete story
Wing Thing Grant from Keystone
Stenton is delighted to be the recipient of a Keystone Historic Preservation grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. This $85,000 grant, combined with the generous support of the McLean Contributionship, will allow critical preservation work to begin in 2008 led by Historical Architect John Bowie. The failing roof on the Wing and Piazza will be replaced, and deteriorated wood elements such as framing, dormers and cornices will be repaired. The project will also provide accessibility to the Wing and Mansion, and we will undertake critical upgrades to the fire and security system that protects the mansion. Look for work to get underway later in 2008, making Stenton a busy – but well-preserved - construction zone.
Stenton by Isaac Williams. Courtesy of the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia.
Stenton Curator Teaches Historic Interiors Course
Curator Laura Keim will be bringing her curatorial expertise to the classroom. For the Spring 2008 semester, Laura will be teaching “Rehabilitation and Restoration of Historic Interiors,” at Philadelphia University. The course will cover American interiors from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Utilizing Stenton and other Germantown sites as historic interiors laboratories, the students will examine how decisions are made about restoring interiors and the historic basis for these choices.
This 1733 painting by Robert West suggests the sort of entertaining that one might have experienced in the Stenton Parlour.
NEH Matching Grant Report
Stenton is off to a good start in matching the $300,000 challenge grant from The National Endowment for the Humanities. The NSCDA/PA and Stenton was one of only five recipients nationwide of an NEH We the People Challenge Grant in its July 2007 grant round. The challenge grant funds will be used to build Stenton’s endowment and support our programs, principally the national award-winning History Hunters Youth Reporter Program.
We are well on our way to matching the NEH Challenge Grant. The NEH requires a 3 to 1 match ($3 dollars raised for every $1 from NEH). Since an October 2007 solicitation asking for support, nearly eighty donors have pledged or contributed to the match, raising over $60,000. These funds, when combined with earlier fundraising efforts, puts us about two-thirds of the way to our goal. Additional matching funds will be raised from a range of sources in response to the NEH challenge.
This We the People challenge grant, “is an extraordinary instance in which a small institution is an industry leader, at a moment in time when historic houses need some exemplars,” as one panelist said. History Hunters has provided the humanities-based framework on which to build other programs and initiatives, and this grant will help to achieve other positive outcomes in Historic Germantown, such as enhanced cooperation and outstanding educational curricula.
Left: October through December saw over fifteen hundred school visitors to Stenton as part of the National award-winning History Hunters program.
Right: Stenton Chair Jane Foster Willson and Program Director Anne Burnett accepted the S. K. Stevens Award for History Hunters from Barbara Franco, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, at an awards luncheon in October.
The Seedier Side of 18th-Century Life at Stenton
Speaker “Bares All” on the 18th Century Subject of Prostitution
Clarissa Dillon, a living historian whose expertise includes cooking, medicine, daily life, economics, culture, morals, gardening and the women of the eighteenth century, visited Stenton on November 17 to speak about the “scandalous” subject of prostitution in the eighteenth century. Dillon discussed the lives of harlots during this period in detail, including the way in which many of these women became prostitutes, the wages they earned and the myriad challenges they faced, such as disease. Sprinkled with humor, the talk nevertheless reinforced the serious plight of the many eighteenth-century women who had little recourse but to sell their bodies. One of the most interesting visual aids that Dillon brought with her was a reproduction condom. Dillon explained that the condom, made of linen, would have been coated in linseed oil to waterproof it. Overall, Dillon’s presentation proved to be a hit, attracting 40 visitors, and her talk was covered by several papers, including the Germantown Courier and The Metro.
Bending the Elbow: Drinking Culture at Stenton
Despite the title, this is not about the lively Stenton Garden Party. Rather, this spring, Stenton will once again be the focus of serious scholarly inquiry, this time about the material culture of drinking. Amanda Rosner, a graduate student in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture at the University of Delaware has been studying the glass in Stenton’s extensive archaeological collection. Her Master’s Thesis, tentatively titled, “Imported Glassware in Philadelphia: A Study of the Importation of Eighteenth-Century Drinking Vessels, 1720-1770,” will identify and attempt to quantify the types of imported wares into Philadelphia. Her focus will be the examination of imported drinking vessels, such as wine glasses, tumblers, wine bottles, and decanters. She will incorporate archaeological and documentary evidence into this study, relying heavily on Stenton’s collection and specifically Feature 14 as a case study. Its surviving glassware will be evidence of the imported glassware available to wealthy colonial American consumers. She plans to present information on types, distribution, and uses of imported glasswares in upper class domestic settings and hopes to better understand what types of imported wares were appearing in Philadelphia and considered most desirable.
Above: A sampling of the leaded glass stemware from Stenton’s archaeological collection.
Ghost Tours Haunt Stenton Visitors
Stenton hosted its first “Ghost Tours” this past fall on October 27th from 1-4 p.m. Despite nasty weather to begin the day, about 30 visitors turned out to see the spooky side of James Logan’s Stenton. Visitors were guided through the mansion’s haunts by Stenton Witch/Curator Laura Keim and Stenton Witch Doctor/Chair Jane Foster Willson. “Candlelight” tours of the darkened house followed, with visitors frightened by strange sounds, a rocking chair with no occupant, dismembered body parts, and visits with the ghosts of Deborah Norris Logan and James Logan himself, who died on Halloween. Visitors were also invited to make their way through the cobwebs of Stenton’s basement, eerily darkened with red light bulbs. This year’s 2008 ghost tours are scheduled for October 25th and 26th, from noon to four each day. Visit if you dare!
Photo: Stenton’s spooky cast of characters, left to right: David Wallace, Evan Barr, Kaelyn Barr, Laura Keim, Dennis Pickeral, Jane Foster Willson, and Anne Burnett
Timeline and Genealogy Project
With Stenton a bit quieter for the winter, two new research projects are underway. The first is the creation of a timeline, focused on Stenton and the Logans but encompassing other occurrences taking place over the same time period, from 1674 – 1839. Timeline events include important happenings in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, other colonies, and Europe; and these events help to place Stenton and the Logans in a larger historical context. The second project is to update the genealogical system for the Logan family. We are in the process of buying an updated genealogical software program that will help to organize the Logan family data and thus also make the data easier to access and use. In the process, newly discovered Logan descendants will be added to our records.
Stenton and Historic Germantown:
HGP Collaboration brings joint program coordination and guide corps
Stenton has continued to move toward closer collaboration with its partners in Historic Germantown Preserved (HGP), the consortium of fourteen historic sites, museums and an arboretum in Germantown, as an innovative way to sustain these historic places and play a more vibrant role in the community. The HGP sites have operating budgets totaling nearly $2.5 million, employ over 100 paid and unpaid staff (including many key volunteers), have 2,500 members, and welcome more than 60,000 visitors, including nearly 20,000 schoolchildren, each year.
One immediate outcome of this year’s HGP collaboration grant project has been to bring program planning and scheduling under one HGP umbrella, creating an HGP 2008 master calendar. The calendar, coordinated by HGP Program Director Anne Burnett, allows all of the historic sites and museums in Historic Germantown to see other events that are scheduled at sister sites, as well as many of the larger scheduled events in the community at large. HGP program planning is significantly enhanced by this collaborative approach, giving sites an opportunity during the planning process to see what regular events are offered each year and where there are open dates for adding new programs, while finding ways to partner with community groups on program ideas.
HGP also organized a Guide Training workshop in early February, providing guiding techniques and interpretive content to a growing pool of cross trained HGP guides available to conduct tours, and handle visitor services at multiple HGP sites.
