Ready for a fall road trip?

By Christine Olsen, Registrar

For the last few weeks I have been preparing for an outgoing loan to an institution that to even those of us in upstate New York seems “way up yonder.” Fenimore Art Museum is lending Crucifix by Veronica Terrillion to the Traditional Arts of Upstate New York, which is located in Canton, for their exhibition Kindred Pursuits: Folk Art in North Country Life. The exhibition runs from September 16, 2011 – May 5, 2012. The loan has gone through all of the traditional steps that are required: the request went to committee for approval, a loan agreement was signed by both parties, insurance coverage was established, the object was condition reported and packed. All that is left is for the object to be delivered. Since it is somewhat fragile, I have taken special care to pack it well and have informed TAUNY that it should be displayed on the wall, at a 40 degree angle. It has been in storage here for some time, and it is nice to know that it will be seen by new eyes; I wonder how many visitors this exhibition will reach? If you are going to be out leaf peeping this fall, you should take a drive up to the North Country to see this show!

Lord Jeffrey Takes Manhattan

By Douglas Kendall, Curator of Collections

Many of my posts focus on rarely-seen objects in the Fenimore Art Museum collections. All museums have great objects in storage, but today I’m writing about a desk-and-bookcase in our collection that’s almost always on exhibition, just 3 hours away from our Museum.

Desk-and-Bookcase

Wood, brass.

Made for W. & J. Sloane, New York, NY, 1926.

Museum Purchase, acquired with funds given by Horace Moses., N0003.1994. Photo: Douglas Kendall

It could be a long story, but suffice it to say that our parent organization, the New York State Historical Association, was headquartered in Ticonderoga, New York from 1926 through 1939, in a building commissioned for the purpose by Horace Moses, a paper company executive who had grown up in Ticonderoga. The building was an exact replica of the Thomas Hancock House, which was built in Boston in 1737 but was demolished in 1863 after the failure of an early attempt at historic preservation. Moses furnished the building with reproductions of colonial and Federal period American furniture, acquired from W. & J. Sloane of New York City.

Today, the building is still owned by NYSHA but is operated as a museum and research center by the Ticonderoga Historical Society. Although THS exhibits its own collections, NYSHA still owns many objects in the building, including the Colonial Revival furniture by the Sloane firm. The gem of this collection is a monumental desk-and-bookcase that features a bust of the British general Lord Jeffery Amherst on the pediment. Amherst was a prominent and controversial British general. His forces captured Fort Ticonderoga in 1759 during the French and Indian Wars.

When the Sloane furniture was acquired for Hancock House, it was intended to be used. But now, over 80 years later, the Colonial Revival is a subject of historical study and Colonial Revival furniture is sought after by museums and collectors. This month, the Museum of the City of New York is opening an exhibition called The American Style: Colonial Revival and the Modern Metropolis and NYSHA’s desk-and-bookcase is a key element in the show. This week I drove to Ticonderoga to meet the THS curator, Bill Dolback and oversee the packing and shipping of the desk by Chad and Josh of Bonsai Fine Arts. It is no mean feat to dismantle a piece like this and then wrap it safely for the 5-hour drive to Manhattan. We discovered some interesting construction details in the process of packing. For example, the interior cubby holes in the upper section are actually an insert that can be fully removed to allow the top and bottom to be separated.

Lord Jeffery will be on exhibition in New York from June 14 through October 30. After that he will once again be on view at Hancock House in Ticonderoga. In either location, he’s well worth a visit.

The American Hen

By: Doug Kendall, Curator of Collections

One of the advantages of working in the Museum’s storage facility is that almost every day I may see interesting artifacts for the first time—or I should say, really see them for the first time. I may have walked by a certain shelf dozens of times but for some reason on a particular day I had a reason to notice the items stored there.

Recently, I was helping inventory and photograph our collection of dolls with Erin Richardson, the Curator of The Farmers’ Museum. On one of the shelves below the dolls we saw a group of white glass objects—table or dresser accessories but in rather unusual shapes: a cannon, a hen, a battleship and another ship topped with a man’s figure.

The objects were made of milk glass or lattimo, which is “opaque white glass, usually opacified by tin oxide or arsenic” according to the Glass Dictionary of the Corning Museum of Glass.

A closer look reveals that these household objects all commemorate an event I’ve blogged about previously: the United States’ victories in the Spanish-American War. And it turns out the donor was the same man who gave the USS Olympia pitcher noted in that post as well as the “Bathing Beauties” stoneware jug I discussed way back in 2009—Preston Bassett of Ridgefield, Connecticut.

In these six objects one finds encapsulated much of the popular feeling about the brief and successful war against Spain: one is molded in the shape of a battleship with the name Maine on the prow, representing the ship that exploded in Havana harbor and precipitated the conflict. Another battleship is ridden by the figure of Uncle Sam, while a third dish has a battleship-form base but is surmounted by a bust of Admiral Dewey, the commander of the US squadron at the Battle of Manila Bay. There’s also a round dish with a drum-like base and a cannon-shaped lid and a cup covered by an eagle.

USS Maine

Westmoreland Glass or McKee Glass, Grapeville or Jeannette, PA, 1898-1910. Gift of Preston Bassett, N0103.1976

Photo: Douglas Kendall

Uncle Sam Rides With the Navy

Westmoreland Glass or McKee Glass, Grapeville or Jeannette, PA, 1898-1910. Gift of Preston Bassett, N0102.1976

Photo: Douglas Kendall

Cannon on a Drum

Westmoreland Glass or McKee Glass, Grapeville or Jeannette, PA, 1898-1910. Gift of Preston Bassett, N0101.1976

Photo: Douglas Kendall

Perhaps most interesting, though, is another oval dish with a base textured to look like a nest and marked “The American Hen.” The lid of this piece is in the form of a bird (more like an eagle than a hen, if you ask me) with wings outstretched, sitting on three eggs marked “Porto Rico,” “Cuba,” and “Phillipines.” This piece indicates the result of the war: the acquisition (for varying periods of time) of these far-flung parts of the declining Spanish empire and the rise of the United States as an international power.

The American Hen

Westmoreland Glass or McKee Glass, Grapeville or Jeannette, PA, 1898-1910. Gift of Preston Bassett, N0104.1976. 

Photo: Douglas Kendall

These commemorative items were made in western Pennsylvania by either the Westmoreland Glass Company or the McKee Glass Company. Although some have old breaks that have been repaired with an adhesive that left stains, these remain instructive artifacts of the pride many Americans felt in their country’s arrival on the world scene back in 1898.

Chinese Wall Gun in Central New York

By: John Hart, Assistant Curator of Collections

As I walked upstairs to the second level of Fenimore Art Museum's storage facility for the very first time, turning the corner the first words out of my mouth were something to the effect of “What the heck is that?” Resting against a shelving unit, reaching nearly 9’ in the air was something I had never once thought would be in the collection of a historical society in the middle of New York State, let alone in Cooperstown. That was the winter of 2006 when I interviewed as a candidate for the Cooperstown Graduate Program; the thing that astonished me: a Taiqiang, or in its anglicized spelling, a jingal, commonly called a Chinese Wall Gun.

Hearsay at the museum led me to believe the gun was probably used to hunt waterfowl from a boat or at least a similar use. For years I never bought that explanation. Sure, something that big could certainly take down geese or ducks or even a small tree for that matter, but so could a shotgun; this thing needed two people to manage it!

I finally decided to do a bit of digging around and turned to my best friend in situations like this: Google. What I learned was actually pretty interesting. These types of weapons are unique to China and were in use around the time of the Opium War (since there were two I’m guessing it’s probably the earlier of them, ca. 1839). They could be used in a variety of different ways, from two people holding it and firing it from the shoulder, to using a stand to stabilize it for one person, and of course, firing from a wall-mounted position. This website shows the first two ways the Taiqiang was used.

Even the history of our object is strange. Brigadier General Morris Foote is listed in the provenance, which is interesting given the other objects I’ve found over the past two years related to the Foote family, but that’s another story. This particular Foote served in the Civil War and later served in Asia, where he no doubt acquired this wall gun and somehow managed to bring it back to the United States with him. It’s certainly a well-traveled object!

Even if the folklore of the wall gun might be a little far-fetched, it has certainly seen its fair share of action, though I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the receiving end of what came out.


All images: Chinese Wall Gun, ca. 1900, Artist Unknown, Metal and Wood, H: 8 ½” x
L: 106" x W: 3. N0296.1963. New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, NY. N0296.1963

Little Love for Woodchucks: the Case of the Naturalist’s Coat

By: Douglas Kendall, Curator of Collections

This morning the thermometer at my office read 15 degrees below zero Fahrenheit at 8 AM. It’s hard to remember that we observe Groundhog Day next week in the hopes that Punxsutawney Phil, Wiarton Willy or any number of other competing rodents will usher in an early spring by failing to see their shadows.

Marmota monax standing Photo: April King, used by permission under the GNU Free Documentation License.

A handful of celebrity groundhogs bask in their brief moment in the spotlight (but not the sun, the observers sincerely hope each year), but their species doesn’t generally get a lot of love from humans the rest of the year. Also known as woodchucks, the Marmota monax are found from Alabama to Alaska and are very common here in the Northeastern United States. They will eat grubs, grasshoppers and wild grasses, but in my personal experience they especially love garden vegetables.

John Burroughs at Edison’s House. Photo: Hunt, Fort Myers, Florida, 1914. This image is in the public domain.

The great American naturalist John Burroughs (1837-1921) named one of his homes Woodchuck Lodge, but it apparently wasn’t due to his fondness for the creatures. Rather, when Burroughs built a cabin on land purchased for him in Roxbury, New York by Henry Ford in 1913, he found the land already inhabited by a large population of woodchucks. Though in his 80s when he lived at Woodchuck Lodge, Burroughs was still a crack shot. One visitor wrote in his diary just a year before Burroughs passed away, “before standing for the picture, he called my attention to a fur coat made entirely of woodchuck skins. Mr. B. despite he is 84 years old, is a good marksman and said that last year he killed more than 100 woodchucks and nearly as many this season. He hastened to add that the woodchuck was the only animal he will shoot. He declared them a nuisance about the place." (see here for more on the naturalist’s thoughts on Marmota monax)

Coat. (N0200.1993) Woodchuck-fur, 1913-1920. Museum Purchase. Photo: Douglas Kendall.

Woodchuck-fur coats are not common and the one owned by John Burroughs now resides in the collections of the Fenimore Art Museum. It looks as if it would help keep one warm on cold January mornings. If we take the coat outside next Wednesday and it casts no shadow, I wonder whether spring will come sooner. We can only hope…

A Face to a Name

By John Hart, Assistant Curator of Collections

A while ago I wrote about Brevet Brigadier General T. Ellery Lord and the collections of objects at the museum that he once owned. Well, as luck would have it, one of his distant relatives – actually the daughter of the donor who gave us Lord’s swords – contacted us recently and sent along a copy of the Deed of Gift from 1988. I was shocked when I looked at it and saw not just the three swords, but a daguerreotype listed on the form. I had looked at this form before in our files and can’t believe I missed the photo! Needless to say it took some digging and detective work, but I found the image in storage and it’s absolutely fantastic.

[Captain] T. Ellery Lord (1841-1886), Daguerreotype, Artist Unknown. ca. March 21, 1863- June 1, 1865.

N0030.1988. New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, New York.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that we have the frock coat pictured in the daguerreotype. I examined Lord’s two frocks that we have and both show evidence of having shoulder boards but never were equipped with the catch and latch for epaulettes. The coats are correct for the rank of Captain, but they are certainly not the one he’s wearing in our image. We do have the epaulettes though, so we are still able to interpret the differences in uniforms. Sadly, too, we don’t have the shoulder boards for the rank of Captain.

Frock Coat, Maker unknown, Wool and brass. N0262.1941.

New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, NY

Frock Coat, Maker unknown, Wool and brass. N0263.1941.

New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, NY

The collection of T. Ellery Lord’s objects is still one of the most comprehensive of its kind at the New York State Historical Association, and it certainly provides a wonderful look into the life, ranks, and promotions he received.

"Pot, Cup, Lamp, Lid, Milk Warmer" or, Crazy Object Names

By: John Hart, Assistant Curator of Collections

“Cow, Horn, Tip, Brass”

"Pot, Cup, Lamp, Lid, Milk Warmer"

To most people those lists probably sound like gibberish and sometimes even curators have to take a second look to figure out what they are. If we’re lucky, there’s an old image to look up or at least a good enough description to decipher an earlier curator’s naming structure.

Truth be told, most of us are accustomed to finding odd object names in a database, or the names so non-descript you have to scratch your head to figure out what they are, like “Tool.” Thankfully, there is a guide that helps avoid most of this confusion, but at the same time is confusing to use if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. It’s called Chenhall's Revised Nomenclature for Museum Cataloguing.

Bourcier, Paul and Ruby Rogers and the AASLH Nomenclature Committee.

Chenhall's Revised Nomenclature for Museum Cataloguing. AltaMira Press, 2010.

As collections curators and database administrators, Doug Kendall and I normally don’t need to consult this book all too often because we can look at an object and know the proper name. For example, a teacup and a tea bowl are completely different things, even though they serve the same purpose; one has a handle the other doesn’t. Thankfully, the database we use, PastPerfect, assigns the correct category as soon as we enter the object name or at least gives us an option to categorize it (sometimes we know a hammer was used for blacksmithing and not carpentry and can modify the category). Once in a while we’ll get an object and scratch our heads a little to figure out the correct name since the everyday name might not be the correct name. That’s where Chenhall’s comes in.

As an example, “Teacup” is categorized as Category: T&E for Materials / Sub-Category: Food Service T&E (T&E stands for Tools & Equipment). And did I mention that objects with two separate words in the name are reversed in the database! So “Tea Bowl” is entered into the database as “Bowl, Tea” and falls under the same categorical breakdown as “teacup.”

So why do we confuse ourselves with backwards names, categories and sub-categories? Well, it makes finding certain types of objects quicker and easier when you have the electronic database to work with because you can search for just a part or the entire object name and see all of the results. Is it confusing to someone just starting to work for museums? Absolutely! During my first internship at Saratoga National Historical Park, I often questioned the collections curator why this was done and as often as she tried to explain it to me I never really understood, and sometimes still don’t, even though I can sort of grasp the logic behind the lexicon.

So if you ever see a collections manager wandering around an antiques shop mumbling something that you can’t decipher, there’s a fair chance they’re thinking of the database name and categories. Either that or they’ve gone crazy from working with backwards names all the time.

The Milk Warmer formerly known as “Pot, Cup, Lamp, Lid, Milk Warmer,” Artist unidentified, Painted tin [Toleware].

The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, NY, F0285.1948a-d.

Fashion and Philanthropy

By Chris Rossi, Associate Curator of Exhibitions

One of the highlights of our Empire Waists, Bustles and Lace: A Century of New York Fashion exhibition here at the Fenimore Art Museum is the pale green damask Worth gown owned by Miss Angelica Livingston Gerry. Mr. Worth, of Paris, was the “designer to the stars” of his day, with his dresses expertly pieced and fitted in sumptuous fabrics. His clothing was a “must have” for the rich and famous of the 1890s.

Angelica's Worth gown, photo by Richard Walker

Miss Angelica certainly was part of that crowd. Descended from New York’s and New England’s finest, the Gerry line went back to a signer of the Declaration of Independence, whose name is now infamously linked to the term gerrymandering. Her mother’s Livingston family was one of the best known and affluent in New York.

Angelica’s father, Elbridge T. Gerry, was a successful New York lawyer and active philanthropist. The president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), Mr. Gerry expanded his legal attention from protecting animals to protecting children. In 1877 he intervened in the landmark case of abused child “Mary Ellen.” The incident inspired the creation of the United States’ first child welfare group - The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, of which he was president.

Elbridge T. Gerry, photo courtesy of New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children

Her father’s good works must have inspired Angelica. Much of the family’s time was spent on their large estate on Lake Delaware near Delhi, New York. Angelica did not marry, but instead mentored and encouraged the youth of the area. In 1963, SUNY Delhi honored Miss Gerry by naming a dormitory in her honor for her help “to many young men and women in attending the agricultural and home economics studies in the early years of Delhi.”

Gerry Hall at SUNY Delhi

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

By John Hart, Assistant Curator of Collections

It’s June, the CGP students have graduated or have left for their internships, the museums are open, the weather is nice (albeit a little hot); now it’s Inventory Season for the collections staff!

Some of you might not think that inventorying a collection is so wonderful, but it really is, at least for me. I don’t always get the chance to wander through the collections areas and see what we have, let alone get a chance to see what things look like. But now that I have a bit more free time on my hands, I can start working on our Inventory Plan. If you don’t speak museum-ese, this is our way of saying “Schedule”, in our case, on a five-year rotation. This year happens to focus on our two second floor wing spaces at Iroquois Storage Facility, or at least we’ll attempt to get both done.

I decided to start on the wing that I thought would be the hardest, in part because as soon as you walk in you immediately see upwards of 500 or more wood planes. We have a pretty large collection of planes of all shapes, sizes, cut patterns, and makers and it’s pretty daunting at first to think about going through and checking each one for an accession number. I managed to get through them in a little over a day and a half. Now it’s on to the next dozen or so shelves, racks, eaves and overhangs, and miscellaneous spaces where objects have been living for years.

I don’t mind the work, it’s actually pretty fun, and it’s what I’ve been doing since I began interning or volunteering at museums. It really is a great way to know what you have in the collection in case someone ever asks “Do you have a…”

It really is a wonderful time of year, even if that means going through 3,803 objects, which happens to be our present count of objects in the wing….

Relive the Adventure Right in Your Own Home! A 19th Century Pop Culture Tie-In

By: Doug Kendall, Curator of Collections
Do you know anyone who’s bought a kids’ meal at a fast food place to get the special toy from the latest movie sensation? Are your children begging you for a Percy Jackson or Harry Potter action figure? Have you toyed with the idea of buying The One Ring™ - Sterling Edition from The Lord of the Rings for $129.00 and claiming absolute power for yourself?


Today, our culture abounds with “tie-ins” that maximize the money-making potential of popular novels, movies and television programs. These artifacts, which range from cheap plastic toys to finely-crafted “facsimiles,” seem the epitome of popular culture in the 21st century.

While the variety and number of such tie-ins may seem infinite today, the phenomenon goes back at least a couple of centuries. James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Last of the Mohicans, published in 1826, became the most popular English-language novel of its time. Although it would have to wait 80 years or so to receive its first movie treatment, tie-in products appeared much sooner.

One group of Cooper tie-ins was a series of girandoles featuring characters from The Last of the Mohicans. Girandoles are “figural candelabras or candlesticks of the mid- to late 19th century, made of cast brass with gilt finish, and having marble bases and cut prisms around the candle sockets, often used in sets consisting of a candelabrum flanked by two candlesticks.”[Art and Architecture Thesaurus] The central candelabrum in the set featured the hero, Hawkeye (also known as Natty Bumppo) together with two Native Americans, most likely Uncas and Chingachgook. Flanking them are two single candlesticks with the figure of an army officer, probably the British Major Heyward. Candlesticks featuring Cora Munro, the leading female character, were also made.

In an age in which candles still provided most artificial light, girandoles were especially showy. The light reflected off their gilt surface and glass pendants. Girandoles were often placed on a mantel in front of a mirror, which further accentuated their glittery surface.

The makers of the Last of the Mohicans girandoles, Cornelius and Company of Philadelphia, did not have an exclusive deal with a toy retailer or fast food chain, nor could patrons order these figures from their website. Nevertheless, they managed to tap into the public’s desire to prolong the experience of Cooper’s novel and to permanently display that connection in their homes—something that seems very much in tune with our own times.
Above: Cast brass, gilt, glass, marble, Cornelius and Company, Philadelphia, PA, ca. 1849, N0 N0067.1977(01) and N0101.1978(01)-(02)

Milo Stewart, Sr.

By: Michelle L. Murdock, Curator of Exhibitions
Those of us that have lived in Cooperstown for a while undoubtedly know Milo Stewart. Milo was Director of Education at Fenimore Art Museum and The Farmers’ Museum starting in the late 1950s. One of the many hats he wore was that of Curator of Photography. Makes sense since Stewart is widely recognized as one of our premier local photographers.

Stewart wasn’t always a local though. He grew up in the Buffalo area before coming here in the 1950s. “It didn’t take long for me to figure out that the village of Cooperstown and the surrounding countryside offered rich photographic opportunities,” Milo said. “Otsego Lake and the hilled vistas that frame it and the wide range of activities that take place upon it, from ice fishing to Flying Scots, were exciting. The splendid array of homes and businesses representing a variety of architectural styles were beautiful. And a host of seemingly unending creative community activities flourished, propelled by energetic, smart and friendly people.” Stewart’s other photographic projects include exhaustive surveys of New York’s courthouses, Greek Revival buildings, Route 20 and dying Main Streets – a project that was used by NYSHA for preservation efforts.

In 2006, Fenimore Art Museum had the long overdue opportunity to exhibit over 70 of Milo Stewart’s works. Both locals and friends from away enjoyed the celebration of one of Cooperstown’s favorite sons. After the exhibition, we were fortunate to be able to purchase three of those works for our collection.

Stewart’s sharp humor is reflected in this quote, which sums up his tenure at the museums - “A whole lot of serendipity put me on the road for projects that would lead me to all but six of New York’s 62 counties and use up most of my vacation time.” We were very fortunate that Milo was so dedicated and meticulous in his endeavors!

Scandal Behind the Image

By: Chris Rossi, Associate Curator of Exhibitions

Many older pieces of folk art are created on material that might not normally be called “archivally approved”. Some of these same materials are used to back works of art as well. So it shouldn’t have been surprising to find that our lovely needlework picture created by Sally S. Washburn in January of 1808 was backed and sewn to an 1807 edition of the Otsego Herald.

What did come as a revelation were two little advertisements listed in that paper. I have this crazy idea that bad public behavior is a phenomenon of the modern age. I stand corrected. What we have in the 1807 Otsego Herald, from Oxford New York is the public airing of a private spat. Move over Tiger and Elin, Jenny and Mark Sanford, the Sills are hard at it in the press.

The October 30 advertisement, posted by Mr. Andrew Sills warns neighbors against harboring or trusting his wife, as he “shall pay no debts of her contracting.” Mrs. Parnell Sills takes it one step further in her advertisement. There she warns the public, more particularly all females “….against trusting him in any respect, for fear he will deceive and abase them, as he has the subscriber.” This after a preamble where in she gives hints at the numerous imprudences of her husband, including some that seem rather risqué for print in a public paper of the period. What happened with the Sills?! The advertisements leave one speculating on what went so terribly wrong that it would lead to dueling personal ads in an 1807 local newspaper. Then in contrast we have the needlework picture–a lovely depiction of domestic bliss with lovers courting against the backdrop of a charmingly rendered house and gardens. Who would ever imagine the intrigue and scandal that lurks hidden on the flip side of that innocent image.


Above: Needlework Picture by Sally S. Washburn, 1808, Fenimore Art Museum Collection along with Otsego Herald backing and close-up of articles.

A Penny Saved ...

By: Doug Kendall, Curator of Collections

The holidays are over, it’s a new year and here at the Museum we are already working on preparing for the opening of the 2010 exhibitions in April. The days are getting longer day by day and it seems like time for a fresh start. Undoubtedly that’s one reason many people make Resolutions to do something new, something better, or something different on New Year’s Day.
Many people resolve to be more careful with their money in the New Year, perhaps to save more than they did during the previous year. This idea may seem especially appropriate these days, but it’s an idea with a long history and it’s one that’s tangibly represented in the collections of the Fenimore Art Museum.

“Still banks” or what are commonly called “Piggy Banks” date to antiquity, but in the 19th century new forms were introduced to encourage children to save their pennies. In addition, new mechanical banks appeared in the late 19th century that combined the serious business of saving money with the fun of a toy.
At the same time, the modern celebration of Christmas was developing a special emphasis on children, with wrapped presents under indoor trees delivered by the intrepid Saint Nicholas. So this ceramic bank is particularly appropriate—a snowball topped by the old, thinner model of Santa Claus. Parents could give their children a bank like this on Christmas and encourage them to save their pennies in the coming year.
Or the message could be more direct, as in this still bank in the form of…a bank. A sturdy metal model, this bank was undoubtedly intended to remind one of the full-sized variety, a safe place to deposit one’s funds.

Mechanical and semi-mechanical banks gained in popularity from the end of the 19th century into the 20th. These banks required one to do more than simply drop a coin in a slot. First a coin was placed, then a lever was pulled or a switch turned and the device shot, dropped or slid the coin into the bank.
Mechanical banks reached the height of their popularity in the first half of the 20th century but persisted much longer. The Mercury Rocket Bank shown here brought the concept into the space age—or at least the Buck Rodgers era. To make a deposit in the Rocket Bank, one placed the coin in the slot on top, then pulled back the spring-loaded “spaceman” to fire the coin into the bank. These rocket banks were often bought by banks and given away to customers’ children as promotional items.

With banks like these, maybe keeping that New Year’s resolution to save would be easier!

top: Saint Nicholas Bank. Ceramic, Maker Unidentified, 19th century. N0127.1958

middle: Still Bank. Metal. Maker Unidentifed, 19th Century. N0200.1968

bottom: Semi Mechanical Bank. Metal. Duro Mold and Manufacturing Company, Detroit, Michigan, ca. 1950. N0307.1956a-b.

All in the Family and soon to be All in the Exhibit

By: Chris Rossi, Associate Curator of Exhibitions

One of the best parts of doing an exhibit based on our own collections is the possibility of discovering or rediscovering something wonderful. I knew we had a fabulous clothing collection but was not aware how many family stories were woven throughout it.

We are fortunate in having Sue Friedlander working with us on the Empire Waists, Bustles and Lace exhibit for Fenimore Art Museum in 2010. Sue, a historian/museum consultant, knows the collections well so I should not have been surprised when she started linking objects and revealing a wonderful family story that goes back to a needlepoint, a wedding dress, a quilt, and a travel dress.

Our story begins with Sally Washburn, a resident of Oxford, NY, who, in 1808, stitches a lovely needlepoint of a country scene. A year later Sally marries Henry Mygatt and soon after gives birth to Sarah Eliza Mygatt.

Sarah grows-up and marries William G. Sands in 1837. For her wedding she wears a dress that becomes one of the stars of our collection. The Sands wedding dress is exquisite – white floral satin with numerous hand-stitched tucks and pleats. In addition to being in great shape and drop-dead gorgeous it is the earliest known example of a dress with a label in it (and we have it here in the NYSHA collection!).
The saga continues. In 1884 Catherine Odessa Sands Packard, daughter of William and Sarah makes a crazy quilt. In the quilt is a patch of fabric contributed by Catherine’s mother Sarah, and stitched with the dates 1837 and 1882. The fabric is from our very own Sands wedding dress (Sarah’s) and the dates commemorate Sarah and William’s 45th wedding anniversary (1837) and the 1882 wedding of their daughter Catherine.

One more piece from the family puzzle – a beautiful travel dress and jacket that was likely part of Catherine’s wardrobe. The burgundy velvet dress and matching jacket have molded glass buttons and are in stellar condition. The color and fabric resemble other patches on the quilt. Did Catherine work it in, as she had done with a patch from her mother’s wedding dress? It is hard for us to be certain. You will have an opportunity to decide for yourself when all 4 items go on display for the first time in 2010 as part of Empire Waists, Bustles & Lace.

Top: Needlework picture by Sally Washburn, 1808. Fenimore Art Museum Collection, Museum Purchase, N0161.1955

Center: Dress made by Warncock Fashionable Milliner, ca 1837. Silk, Fenimore Art Museum Collection, Gift of Mrs. Ruben Crispell, N0023.1962(01).

Bottom: Quilt by Catherine Odessa Sands Packard, ca 1882. Fenimore Art Museum Collection, Gift of Mrs. Ruben Crispell, N0022.1962.

‘Cause I’m Leaving, On a Je…No, Wait, Wrong Century

By: John Hart, Assistant Cuator of Collections

Ah the holidays, the joy of seeing family (or going abroad and avoiding them entirely), delicious food (at least in my family), and travelling. There are three main ways of getting somewhere nowadays for the holidays, planes, train, and automobiles.

Imagine if you will, a time when automobiles didn’t exist and the closest thing to a plane was a wood-working plane. Your land travel consisted of a train, wagon, carriage, or sleigh. You might be able to travel by canal or sea if the canal isn’t iced over and the weather holds. The 19th-century is certainly different in many ways when it comes to travelling, but one thing remains the same: the need for clothing and other odds and ends.
When I travel, I try to go as light as I can and try to only pack one bag and maybe my backpack. One of our newest objects is perfect for this task. This small suitcase has two separate sections for different pieces of clothing, and even has some pockets inside for small things. It even locks in case someone thought they wanted to play dress-up in the owners’ clothes!


Not big enough you say? Have to pack for yourself and maybe your spouse or kids? Or maybe you tend to pack too much to begin with? Well then, what about a trunk? This trunk was used by Harold Hollis to hold his World War II service uniforms, but is certainly large enough for at least an adult or two or a combination of adults and kids. You could probably fit a kid in it to be honest. It even has an area where you can keep clothing hung on a hanger and pull out drawers for other articles of clothing!

No matter how you get where you’re going for the holidays, one thing is for sure, a suitcase will likely be at your side.

Happy Holidays and Safe Travels to All!

top: “Suitcase,” Made in the shop of George Story, Cooperstown, New York, H 12 ½” x W 20" x D 11", F0010.2009. The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, New York.

bottom: “Trunk,” Unknown maker, 20th century, H 21 ¼” x L 40 ¼” N0001.2001(01). New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, New York.

"I saw it in the window …”

By: Chris Rossi, Associate Curator of Exhibitions

When I was a teen the days would be spent at school, then sports, then homework and finally some down time with the TV and chatting on the phone with friends. My best buddy Sheila and I would even watch TV together while on the phone. Our favorite show was Carol Burnett. Her spoofs on famous films and stars were legendary.

The crème de la crème for us was the Gone with the Wind routine. Carol as “Starlet O’Hara” tripping (literally) down the big staircase in her over-the-top southern bell dresses. The climax being a send-up of the famous scene from the original Gone with the Wind when a down but never beaten Scarlet makes a dress from the window curtains. Of course, in the Carol Burnett version the dress still has the curtain rod in it. A brilliant touch topped by her comment that she “saw it in the window and just couldn’t resist it!”

Carol Burnett as “Starlet O’Hara”

Dress, Fenimore Art Museum Collection

This little vignette has been tucked at the back of my mind since those halcyon days of endless phone chats with Sheila. So, I should not have been surprised when some of the dresses for our upcoming Empire Waists, Bustles and Lace exhibit brought it all back for me. We have one dress with such an accumulation of fringe and eye-popping colors that I could hear Miss Burnett’s dialogue as if it were yesterday. By the late 1870’s women were not just considered the light of the home, their dresses often resembled a decorative accessory for the home. With gathered drapes of fabric, tassels, and sculpted silhouettes, women’s fashion might have been worn, or, one could imagine it working equally well as household drapery or a throw for the couch. Wouldn’t “Starlet” be delighted!

Portrait of Miss Grady by Smith and Telfer, Fenimore Art Museum Collection

Godey's Fashions, Fenimore Art Museum Collection

Planes, Trains and .... Nope, Just a Train

By: John Hart, Assistant Curator of Collections

How many of you had electric train when you grew up? I had my little Lionel setup with a steam engine (which could actually throw off “steam”), a “diesel” locomotive, and my oldest train, a late 19th-early 20th century wind-up train that my Great-Great Uncle Fonz (short for Alphonso) gave me. I learned very quickly that the wind-up wasn’t really a toy, or at least that’s what my dad told me, so I played with my Lionel set mostly. I spent hours in the basement running those trains, and even went so far as to take old cracker or cookie boxes and make “houses” or “skyscrapers.”

Above: Charles Lemaire Zabriskie and his grandson, John Lippincott.

Charles Lemaire Zabriskie, from Cooperstown, took his love affair with trains one step further; he built a scale model he could ride. I’m not talking about the little trains you find at some amusement parks, no, in fact, think much, much smaller. He even built a coal tender, a caboose, and three flat bed cars so that he could carry passengers. Lemaire, as Mr. Zabriskie preferred to be called, built this train by hand, and up until 1972, it worked (he built it in the early 20th century) and was ridden. Though he may not have been the first to do so, there are groups all over the country that create scale models they can ride and even built intricate track layouts they can use. One in particular, the Adirondack Live Steamers, is from Saratoga County, New York, and run 7 ¼” gauge (1.5”:1”) locomotives. Check out their webpage for images, history of the club, and projects their members have undertaken.

Above: “Train,” made by Charles Lemaire Zabriskie, Early 20th century, Fenimore Art Museum Collection, Cooperstown, NY. N00012.2008

In 2008 Walter Poor, the grandson of Lemaire, donated this train to the New York State Historical Association, and we are certainly proud to have it. With its local provenance, uniqueness, and all around attention to detail, this train certainly has a place in the collection, and even though it sits on its carrying tray, you can still imagine the years of fun it gave Lemaire and his family.