New Talent Joins Zephyrs10!

Zephyrs10 is pleased to announce that during the holiday break, Wheaton College Senior, Bridget Swift will join the team as research assistant, working with the Preservation North Planning Group, TheBlueTree, the Amesbury Carriage Museum and two projects related to UNH Museum's Bowen Collection.  Bridget is a dual major in English Literature and European History.  She brings a number of key talents to Zephyrs, including exceptional communication and research skills, innovative approaches to material culture and an outgoing personality. Readers will be pleased to learn that Bridget will be a regular contributor to this blog. She will join Zephyrs in May as research associate. Welcome Bridget!

Architecture Addendum: Pearson Hall, c.1814-18

Addendum:

Following the first discussion meeting of Preservation North, the attendees spent considerable time combing through Pearson Hall. Jim Alexander, FAIA, James Garvin, NH State Architectural Historian (ret.) and John Page, Haverhill Historical Society, shared a number of key insights, based on their thorough examination of the structure.

^ The second floor apparently featured a dramatic unobstructed coved ceiling, appropriate for its use as a court house but certainly breathtaking to those visiting the court in the North County in the early years of the 19th century.

^ The paired elliptical stairs (from Asher Benjamin) while somewhat cramped, would have required a different configuration than the currently altered 2nd floor landing

^ The interior window surrounds have identical treatment to those at the Grafton Tavern (built roughly at the same time period) just a few houses  distant from Pearson Hall. Page and Garvin have identified the same hand at work in both structures, John Sinclair.

Grafton Tavern, c. 1814

Pearson Hall, c.1814-17

^ The modillion block cornice, with its drilled holes in imitation of carved gutae, is straight out of Benjamin's 1806 edition of the "The Country Builder....", once again confirming the rapidity of transmission of design ideas from urban to rural centers.

Shoe Files: Shoe of the Week, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Working with 18th century English shoes for the bulk of the week and thought readers might enjoy some Georgian fashion highlights while preparing for holiday events and festivities. Consider what it would be like to enter a soiree with your feet clad in these lovelies, every step sending out a glimmer of light reflected by the paste stones and silver buckle or the brocade.


Yellow brocaded shoe, Thomas Ridout and James Davis, London, England, worn in Maine, 1740-1750, silk brocade, leather, linen and paper; and buckle, possibly ca. 1790, silver, paste stones and steel. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Research Note: The Charleston Museum's Textile Tuesdays

Thos. Hose, Shoemaker, London, c. 1770s
Owned by Eliza Lucas Pinckney(1722–1793)

The Charleston Museum
Textile Tuesdays

http://charlestonmuseum.tumblr.com/page/8

This tumblr site is rich and includes curatorial
video "how to." Great virtual teaching and research
model.

Recent Find: "Pike Whetstones are the Best!"

Courtesy, Prock's Crocks and Antiques

 Recent find: 

Pike Whetstone display case for sale at Prock's Crocks and Antiques, Earl, Wisconsin.

Research Note: Pike Whetstone Feature System

Returning to research over a decade old is always a new adventure - changes in methodology, access to information and fresh perspectives brought to the topic by the author's intervening experience in the field- will frequently yield a more thorough study and stronger conclusions.

While in graduate school at Boston University, studying with Professor Mary Beaudry, I worked on a topic which has once again landed on the top of my "to do" list - the Pike Whetstone complex in Pike, NH.  Situated along the Oliverian (just a few miles distant from the industrial activities of Haverhill and of General Montgomery in particular, mentioned throughout this blog), Issac Pike began his first venture with production of scythe stones in 1823. He quarried the material for his sharpening stones from local mineral deposits. Much of the late 19th century complex--from the highly visible 30 foot smokestack and outbuildings including worker's housing and even the old quarry remnants-- still survives in Pike and the surrounding area.  A decade ago, the sluice gates were still operable and the spillway visible (inspection by the author).  Although at least one of the quarries was filled in with water, it was still possible to pull away a piece of the stone and actually use it in its raw form as a knife or tool sharpener.

The focus on this research was and is, the concept of the feature system as applied to the entire complex and its supporting structures, quarries, railroad spurs and even the altered landscape which made way for what was once a bustling site in what is now a quiet town. The opportunities for a cross disciplinary approach to the site are incredibly rich.

More to come....

Call for Papers: Society for Industrial Archeology, New England Chapters

Call for Papers!