Historic Deerfield

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Old Deerfield Historic District
Dwight House, Historic Deerfield.jpg
Dwight House, Historic Deerfield
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Location Deerfield, Massachusetts
Built1650
ArchitectBenjamin, Asher; et al.
Architectural styleGreek Revival, Federal
NRHP reference No. 66000774 [1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPOctober 15, 1966
Designated NHLDOctober 9, 1960, see
Dwight House Dwight House.jpg
Dwight House
Barnard Tavern Barnard Tavern, Deerfield MA.jpg
Barnard Tavern
The Deerfield Inn Deerfield Inn, November 2008, Deerfield MA.jpg
The Deerfield Inn
Old Main Street Old Main Street, November 2008, Deerfield MA.jpg
Old Main Street

Historic Deerfield is a museum dedicated to the heritage and preservation of Deerfield, Massachusetts, and history of the Connecticut River Valley. Its historic houses, museums, and programs provide visitors with an understanding of New England's historic villages and countryside. It is located in the village of Old Deerfield which has been designated a National Historic Landmark District (as the Old Deerfield Historic District), and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The museum also hosts the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife.

Contents

Sites

Eleven historic house museums are located in Historic Deerfield. Most are viewed on guided tours. A modern museum and a visitors center are part of the complex. The museum offers special exhibitions, family activities, workshops and seminars on historic subjects, and a gift shop. The Deerfield Inn is available for visitors.

History

Historic Deerfield was founded by Henry and Helen Flynt, who had visited Deerfield in 1936 when their son attended Deerfield Academy. It was originally called "The Heritage Foundation" (not to be confused with The Heritage Foundation), but was changed to Historic Deerfield after Flynt's death in 1970. [3]

Local geography

Historic Deerfield is based on a 330-year-old, mile-long street situated along the Deerfield River in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts.

Deerfield history

At the time of European contact, the area now known as Deerfield was inhabited by the indigenous Pocumtuck nation. The town was originally established as a grant of land to the residents of Dedham, Massachusetts, who had given land to the Massachusetts Bay Colony for the purpose of settling Christianized Indians.

For much of the colonial period Deerfield was one of New England's frontier villages. Briefly abandoned during King Philip's War in the 1670s, it was subjected to French and Indian raids during King William's War in the 1690s. In Queen Anne's War the village was subjected to a major raid, in which 40 percent of the population was taken prisoner. French and allied Abenaki, Mohawk, and other warriors breached the palisade and raided the village. They killed numerous settlers and took more than 100 residents captive. Before leaving for Canada, the raiding party burned the village.

Almost all of those who survived the attack and the march to Canada eventually were ransomed and returned to New England. Eunice Williams, captured at age eight, was adopted by a Mohawk family and became totally assimilated. She married a Mohawk man and had a family with him, choosing not to return to New England. In 1741 she visited surviving siblings for the first time, and she made two more visits later.

Deerfield survived the raid, and the frontier was pushed farther north and west. Settlers eventually moved into present-day Vermont and established settlements farther up the Connecticut River in New Hampshire.

Art From Deerfield

The town of Deerfield is home to a particular group of needlework samplers that share several defining features, known as the "White Dove" school. Popular in the area from 1790–1830, this style of sampler is named for the embroidered depiction of white doves outlined in black. Along with the doves, the style was typically characterized by an arrangement of baskets holding fruits and flowers, usually in a pyramid shape, sewn underneath an alphabet or verse, and surrounded by a three sided border. [4] The uniformity in the works created from 1798–1826 suggests that the girls who created them studied under one instructor, but who they were and where they taught is unknown. [5]

A well known example of the White Dove style was created by a girl named Esther Slate, at the age of ten years old in 1824. There are no less than three alphabets stitched into four separate rows, the first two alphabets are in a cursive font in both upper and lowercase letters, and the third alphabet is a block type font. The sampler is bordered by green vine motives on three sides, with a geometric triangle pattern on the bottom edge. Below the alphabets, Esther embroidered a garden scene, with a blue house in the center, flanked by two trees on either side, and a white picket fence surrounding them. Underneath the fence, the titular two white doves outlined in black stand with their wings spread. The picture is symmetrical up to the second tree on either side. On the left hand side, birds perch on sunflowers and crops, while an elephant and a monkey reside underneath. To the right, a fruit tree stands next to two of the popular white dove style fruit baskets.

Esther Slate's White Dove Sewing Sampler, 1824.jpg

Though the instructor who taught this style is unknown, the surviving pieces of the White Dove school were created by the children of prominent families in the area, and are in the collection of Historic Deerfield. Other examples of the style include the other sampler pictured on this page, made by Katy Bernard in 1793.

Katy Bernard's White Dove Sewing Sampler, 1793.jpg

Collection database

Historic Deerfield's collections can be searched on the database maintained by the Five College Museums/Historic Deerfield. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sampler (needlework)</span> Textile artwork used to display skills and techniques

A needlework sampler is a piece of embroidery or cross-stitching produced as a 'specimen of achievement', demonstration or a test of skill in needlework. It often includes the alphabet, figures, motifs, decorative borders and sometimes the name of the person who embroidered it and the date. The word sampler is derived from the Latin exemplum, which means 'example'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crewel embroidery</span> Type of embroidery using wool

Crewel embroidery, or crewelwork, is a type of surface embroidery using wool. A wide variety of different embroidery stitches are used to follow a design outline applied to the fabric. The technique is at least a thousand years old.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deerfield, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Deerfield is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. Settled near the Connecticut River in the 17th century during the colonial era, the population was 5,090 as of the 2020 census. Deerfield is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area in western Massachusetts, lying 30 miles (48 km) north of the city of Springfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pioneer Valley</span> Massachusetts portion of the Connecticut River Valley, US

The Pioneer Valley is the colloquial and promotional name for the portion of the Connecticut River Valley that is in Massachusetts in the United States. It is generally taken to comprise the three counties of Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin. The lower Pioneer Valley corresponds to the Springfield, Massachusetts metropolitan area, the region's urban center, and the seat of Hampden County. The upper Pioneer Valley region includes the smaller cities of Northampton and Greenfield, the county seats of Hampshire and Franklin counties, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raid on Deerfield</span> 1704 raid during Queen Annes War

The Raid on Deerfield, also known as the Deerfield Massacre, occurred during Queen Anne's War on February 29, 1704, when French and Native American raiders under the command of Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville attacked the English colonial settlement of Deerfield, Massachusetts Bay, just before dawn. They burned parts of the town and killed 47 colonists. The raiders left with 112 colonists as captives, whom they took overland the nearly 300 miles to Montreal; some died or were killed along the way because they were unable to keep up. Roughly 60 colonists were later ransomed by their associates, while others were adopted by Mohawk families at Kahnawake and became assimilated into the tribe. In this period, English colonists and their Indian allies were involved in similar raids against French villages along the northern area between the spheres of influence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asher Benjamin</span> American architect

Asher Benjamin was an American architect and author whose work transitioned between Federal architecture and the later Greek Revival architecture. His seven handbooks on design deeply influenced the look of cities and towns throughout New England until the Civil War. Builders also copied his plans in the Midwest and in the South.

Frank Learoyd Boyden was headmaster of Deerfield Academy from 1902 to 1968.

Eunice Williams, also known as Marguerite Kanenstenhawi Arosen, was an English colonist taken captive by French and Mohawk warriors from Deerfield, Massachusetts in 1704. Taken to Canada with more than 100 other captives, the seven-year-old girl was adopted by a recently converted Mohawk family at Kahnawake and fully assimilated into Mohawk society. She was baptized as the Catholic "Marguerite" and renamed A'ongonte, meaning "she who has been planted as an ash tree." She eventually married a Mohawk man, François-Xavier Arosen, having several children and remaining with the Mohawk for the rest of her life. While choosing not to return to her natal family, she, along with her children, repeatedly made the trek to Deerfield to visit with her Puritan siblings over the course of her life. Her father, Rev. John Williams and her brother Samuel made numerous efforts to ransom her to no avail. Moreover, they failed to persuade her to return to Massachusetts and her birth family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English embroidery</span> Embroidery worked in England or by English people abroad

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge</span> Natural conservation area in the northeastern United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Williams (New England minister)</span> New England Puritan minister

John Williams was a New England Puritan minister who was the noted pastor of Deerfield from 1688 to his death. He and most of his family were taken captive in the Raid on Deerfield in 1704 during Queen Anne's War. He was held by the French in Montreal for more than two years, who wanted a high-ranking French pirate in exchange. After being released in late 1706, Williams became even more notable for The Redeemed Captive (1707), his account of his captivity. It became a well-known work in the genre of captivity narratives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Bloody Brook</span> 1675 battle of King Philips War

The Battle of Bloody Brook was fought on September 28, 1675 between an indigenous war party primarily composed of Pocumtuc warriors and other local indigenous people from the central Connecticut River valley, and the English colonial militia of the New England Confederation and their Mohegan allies during King Philip's War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Twain House</span> Historic house in Connecticut, United States

The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut, was the home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens and his family from 1874 to 1891. It was designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter and built in the American High Gothic style. Clemens biographer Justin Kaplan has called it "part steamboat, part medieval fortress and part cuckoo clock."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework</span> American arts and crafts society, 1896-1926

The Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework was founded in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1896 by Margaret C. Whiting and Ellen Miller. They formed the society in 1896 as a way to help residents boost the town's economy by reviving American needlework from the 1700s. It was inspired by the crewel embroidery of 18th-century women who had lived in the Deerfield, Massachusetts, area. Members of the Blue and White Society initially used the patterns and stitches from these earlier works, but because these new embroideries were not meant to replicate the earlier works, the embroidery soon deviated from the original versions with new patterns and stitches, and even the use of linen, rather than wool, thread. The society disbanded in 1926 for several reasons. Ellen Miller was in declining health; the trained stitchers were getting old and could not continue; Margaret C. Whiting's sight was fading; and, the design and quality of commercially produced items was increasing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Electa Allen</span> American photographer

Mary Electa Allen (1858–1941) was an American photographer and co-founder of the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework. She worked alongside her sister as a photographer from 1885 until 1920 capturing the life and landscape of Old Deerfield, among other subjects and paid commissions.

Memorial Hall Museum is a museum dedicated to preserving the history, art, and culture of the Deerfield, Massachusetts region as well as New England generally. Overseen by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association (PVMA), it opened in 1880.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret C. Whiting</span>

Margaret C. Whiting (1860-1946), was born in Chester, Massachusetts but lived much of her adult life in Deerfield, Massachusetts. She trained as an artist, and published an illustrated book with Ellen Miller on wild flowers. She ad Miller co-founded the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework, where she contributed her skills as a designer and teacher, and provided leadership for the organization. She won a gold medal for her needlework from the 1915 Worlds Fair in San Francisco for its design and color.

Ellen Miller (1854-1929) was one of the founders of the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework, with Margaret C. Whiting. She was a painter, designer, author, and needleworker. She was particularly skilled with dyeing, a talent she developed and practiced in her work for the Deerfield Society.

Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement and the concept, organization, work and success of the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework, citizens of Deerfield, Massachusetts began to create, show, and sell their craft and art works. Success in the 1899 Summer Exhibition in Deerfield, as well as two subsequent exhibitions, encouraged Madeline Yale Wynne, a founding member of the Chicago Arts and Crafts Society, to organize the Deerfield Society of Arts and Crafts in 1901, and to serve as its president. The Society changed its name in 1906 to the Society of Deerfield Industries.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. Historic-deerfield.org
  3. Greenfield, Brian (2009). Out of the attic : inventing antiques in twentieth-century New England. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press. pp. 131–166. ISBN   978-1-55849-710-8.
  4. Ring, Betty (1993). Girlhopd Embroidery: American Samplers and Pictorial Needlework 1650–1850. Alfred A. Knopf Inc.
  5. Huber, Stephen (2011). With Needle and Brush : Schoolgirl Embroidery from the Connecticut River Valley, 1740–1840. Wesleyan University Press.
  6. Museums.fivecolleges.edu

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