Are you attending the SAGA Retreat in Bedford Glen?
Maybe you are going to have a little extra time, either as
you travel to the site or on your way home? Maybe you can visit one or two places
nearby?
Here is one interesting place to visit- Historic Deerfield
Historic Deerfield Inc., founded in 1952, is an outdoor
history museum that focuses on the history and culture of the Connecticut River
Valley and early New England. It has a dual mission of educating the
public about the lifestyles of the diverse people who lived here long ago and
of preserving antique buildings and collections of regional furniture, silver,
textiles, and other decorative arts. First settled in 1669, Deerfield is one of
the few towns settled by English colonists along the eastern seaboard that
retains its original scale and town plan. Visitors are offered guided and
self-guided tours of 12
antique houses ranging in age from 1730 to
1850. Eleven of these houses are on their original sites.
This is one exhibition that might be of interest to SAGA
members:
Celebrating the Fiber Arts: The Helen Geier Flynt
Textile Gallery (2017)
January
01, 2017 - December 23, 2017 | 9:30 am - 4:30 pm
Historic Deerfield’s costume and
textile collection has long been considered one of the finest in America.
Begun by the museum’s founder, Helen Geier Flynt, the collection features a
vast array of costumes, needlework and domestic textiles which are displayed on
a rotating basis. Newly installed in this permanent gallery for the
season are 38 exciting examples of American and European clothing, accessories,
textiles and needlework from the 17th century through the mid-20th
century.
Some of the current highlights
featured include a dramatic, mid-18th-century gown, whose fabric was
woven in Lyon, France’s renowned center of silk-weaving. Yards of expensive
brocaded silk were draped and sewn to create a gown whose considerable width
was supported by panniers or side hoops worn under the garment itself and tied
around the wearer’s waist.
A man’s early 19th-century
wool coat is displayed in an unconventional, horizontal orientation for
visitors to get a better sense of the skills involved in tailoring the
garment. Padding, interfacing and stitching will all be seen to better
advantage from this diagrammatical presentation.
Also on view is a recent acquisition
by the museum, a modest pictorial needlework wrought by Violet Forward Scott
(1786-1853) of Belchertown, Massachusetts in the late 1790s (pictured).
This piece represents an important step in Scott’s education. It was
likely her first attempt at a pictorial needlework that required her to develop
the skill of composition, beyond the practice of count-stitching alphabets and
numbers in horizontal rows onto a grid of warp and weft. This example
also incorporates watercolor and gouache, probably executed by the instructress
or an outside professional.
A vibrant red whole cloth wool
quilt is just one of the new items on view in the gallery’s quilt and coverlet
rack. This example’s all-over uniform geometric quilting pattern is
indicative of styles from first half of the 19th century, while its
cut-out corners – a design feature seen on the bottom corners of some quilts to
accommodate its use on a four-poster bed – suggest a New England origin.
See these and other outstanding
textiles thematically arranged according to their natural fibers: silk, wool,
cotton and linen.
This exhibition is made
possible in part by a grant from The Coby Foundation, Ltd.
