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The Blog of Historic Deerfield
If you are visiting Historic Deerfield in December and the beginning of January, we encourage you to take the Deerfield Wreath Walk! Each year, we create a guide to all of the wreaths on each house, giving visitors the opportunity to explore the Street and learn about the wreaths, the unique materials, and the volunteers who made them.
The 1704 raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, during Queen Anne’s War resulted in the death of 57 settlers and militia, the captivity of 112 more, and the destruction of nearly half of the frontier settlement. Yet beyond tragedy and havoc, the raid created lasting ties between the small village and Native communities in Canada and northern New England who participated in the attack.
Shoes tell stories. They reflect the tastes of their owners, and reveal the wear and tear of daily life. Arguably, shoes receive more use than other items of clothing, offering challenges to their preservation in museums. This summer, I embarked on a project to rehouse Historic Deerfield’s shoe collection.
Her name sounds like the punchline of a bad joke, but at one time, it really was her name. Meet Della Ware, of Deerfield.
Clothing can often be a vessel for some of our most vivid memories. Garments can recall specific moments and important life events. Like the memories we cherish, saved clothing or its emblems preserves memory through tactile and visual senses. Martha Anna Abercrombie (1839-1923) of Lunenburg, Massachusetts, certainly tapped into this aspect of human nature when she assembled a swatch book of fabrics worn by her and her mother during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Earthenware figures made by the Leeds Pottery in the 18th century are extremely rare today. Collectors of English earthenware figures would be naturally drawn to these scarce objects. But buyer beware! Reproductions of these figures (along with a wide variety of tablewares) were made in creamware in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the Senior family.
Benedict Arnold, the infamous traitor of the Revolutionary War, came to Deerfield twice. The first time Arnold made an entrance, not as a traitor, but as an ambitious Connecticut patriot on his way to war. The second time Arnold arrived quietly, with his reputation preceding him.
