Representing Family Life in a Grand Federal Mansion

Originally constructed in 1730, the Hinsdale and Anna Williams House was extensively renovated to its present appearance in 1816. Ebenezer Hinsdale Williams, a landowner and farmer, was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, educated at Harvard College, and later moved to Deerfield, his mother’s native village. Williams, his wife Anna, and their two teenage children lived in a splendid Federal-style house until his death in 1838. French scenic wallpaper depicting Venetian scenes survives from the Williamses’ time, and other wallpapers have been reproduced from original evidence in the house. Furnishings listed in the probate inventory of Hinsdale Williams include a cooking stove, a washing machine, and 16 “flagg-bottomed” chairs.