History

An illustrated and annotated checklist of 220 historic doorways in Massachusetts and Connecticut, with special sections devoted to a discussion of joiners, design sources, and decorative motifs. 148 pp. Bibliography, index, maps, 60 halftone photographs.  Click here for Table of Contents.  Published by the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife.

Describes the daily rigors of 18th- and early 19th-century home and community life and the events that were shaping America.

The awesome burdens and considerable power of a New England housewife’s life, lively with scandal and homely detail.

A classic sourcebook, originally published in 1898, that covers food, clothing, travel and other aspects of colonial domestic life.

Examines the choices open to people living in an agrarian culture and how they adjusted to the coming of an industrial order.

by Barbara L. Covey

Anyone interested in the 1704 raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, by the French and Indians will want to add this unique account of the part-Indian children of captives Joanna and Rebecca Kellogg to their library. Rebecca Kellogg and her family lived in a world of many contrasts: New France vs. New England, Iroquois vs. Delaware, Presbyterians vs. Moravians. She was born in New England, grew up and had children in New France (Canada), returned to the English colonies as an adult in 1727 and lived in Massachusetts. Rebecca Kellogg Ashley, identified as the first white woman in Broome County, died in New York and was buried at Windsor (aka Onaquaga), New York. Her simple stone calls her “Wausaunia.” She was interpreter to missionaries in 1748 and 1753. Her five sons were born in Canada to a part-Indian father and four married Delaware Indians; the fifth married a Mohawk Indian. If you can trace your ancestors back to New England, you may find a relative among those killed or captured in the Deerfield 1704 raid. Among myriad Deerfield descendants are people descended from the well respected and highly visible brothers of Joanna and Rebecca (also 1704 captives): Captain Joseph Kellogg (who married Rachel Devotion) and Captain Martin Kellogg (who married Dorothy Chester). The mother of the captives was Sarah Dickinson Kellogg. The Dickinsons, Devotions, Chesters, and Ashleys were connections of the “Connecticut River Lords”-the Williamses, Edwardses and Stoddards. 2008, 5½x8½, paper, index, 178 pp.. ISBN: 0788446770

The evolution of legends and traditions of four major native American groups from early encounters with settlers to the present.

First published in 1828, it went through many editions and proved to be an extremely popular 19th century manual for homemakers. Interesting recipes and remedies, advice on parenting and the myriad of responsibilities of housekeeping are all put forth in straight-forward no-nonsense, Yankee prose.  Hardcover 130 pages.

Read about America’s intriguing beginnings. Explore the life and times of the earliest Americans. The Woodland Indians and their ancestors are North America’s “missing link”.  Learn how the bow and arrow became the weapon of choice. How did the “Red Paint People” come by their name. This book addresses some of these compelling questions. Softcover 102 pages