Update: Bump Tavern

Since I last updated you on progress in Bump Tavern, many changes have taken place in the first floor rooms in Bump Tavern. They have slowly transformed from a dining room and bedroom/office into a sitting room and best bedroom.  Here's a pictorial update.

In the new sitting room, we've made this the long-term guests and Bump family's social hub. While overnight guests and village patrons looking for gossip and a quick beer used the tap room for those purposes, the Bump family and their summer-long vacationing guests from New York City used the sitting room for, well, sitting. However, it was also the place to catch a quick meal, a cup of tea or lemonade, darn socks, read a book, play the piano, sing, have a party or take a nap. 

Most curators can be real royal pains when it comes to moving objects for exhibition.  I try very hard not to be "that" curator. However, on this particular project, I failed miserably at planning ahead in the egress and logistics department. I decided to add a piano to the room AFTER the new, and immobile, railings were installed.  Here's an image of our wonderful collections and facilities staff gently assembling the piano in its new home after they had lifted it over the railing.

And here is preparator Stephen Loughman re-hanging some of the artwork. Notice the fully assembled piano in the background.

The adjoining room has been transformed from a bedroom/office for the tavern keeper into a best bedroom for favored or frequent guests.  New research has shown that the tavern owner most likely kept all of his cash and books in the bar area, rather than have two office locations.  And, since the Bump family lived in the tavern all year long, they may have had a more private room on the upper floors. We know from letters that by the 1860s, this room was used by guests and today it has been slightly re-furnished to represent two women travelling to the Catskills for the summer.  The dresser is part of the tavern's original furnishings was donated to us recently by ancestors.

We've refreshed the bed with a newly acquired coverlet woven by David Johnson in orleans county for Rhoda C. Dix.  Maybe Rhoda was the youngest child in a large family.  She had Johnson weave "Property of Rhoda C. Dix" into the corner block. Although not unheard of, this language is very rare. I can only envision a young woman who must constantly protect her belongings from pillaging older sisters.

The Syrup Dispute of 1956: Maple Festival and Taste-Off

By: Kajsa Sabatke, Manager of Public Programs
I’m not sure how The Farmers’ Museum became the site of the taste-off to settle an international maple syrup dispute in 1956. I do know that staff had already been preparing for the museum’s first maple festival as a way to support contemporary agriculture. The festival was originally planned to be simple and to last just one day. As a result of the syrup dispute, however, the staff expanded the festival to two days and added more activities, including contests for maple-related recipes and products, as well as an essay contest for schoolchildren. Governor Harriman also crowned the Maple Festival Queen.

Of all the states invited by Governor Harriman, all but one (New Hampshire) and Quebec submitted entries for the taste-off. The governors of both New York and Vermont attended the first day of the festival. Three taste-offs were held that weekend: Governor Harriman sponsored a cup for the official taste-off judged by five newspaper food editors; New York maple producers offered a Producer’s Cup to be awarded from a vote taken by producers; and a final tasting of the general public pulled from the day’s attendees was provided by The Farmers’ Museum, who donated the Consumers’ Cup.

As a sign of goodwill, the two governors exchanged maple trees from their respective states. Governor Harriman accepted the gift of the Vermont tree and both governors ceremoniously planted that tree on the tavern green at the museum where you can still see it today. Our farmers use that tree for a portion of the sap that we use to boil down to syrup during Sugaring Off Sundays at the museum. A tree from New York was also sent back to Vermont with Governor Johnson.

I think I’ve kept you in suspense long enough. Which state/province won? The governor-sponsored taste off of the unmarked syrup ended in a tie for first between Vermont and Michigan samples. (New York placed a respectable 3rd.) New York also made a comeback the second day of the festival, when producers from New York won both the Consumers’ and the Producer’s Cups.

All images are from The Daily Star (Oneonta, NY), April 7, 1956.

Sappy Puns + the Syrup Dispute of 1956

By: Kajsa Sabatke, Manager of Public Programs

Until last week, I had no idea that in 1956, a multi-state (and multi-nation) dispute over maple syrup was settled at a maple festival in Cooperstown at The Farmers’ Museum. I also hadn’t realized just how many puns could be created by the journalists who documented the story during its four-month duration. I heard about the festival from a coworker who saw it mentioned in a Director’s Report for the New York State Historical Association and quickly began uncovering the details through the New York Times archives, a couple of local newspapers (the Cooperstown Freeman’s Journal and the Oneonta Daily Star), and the Nashua Telegraph in New Hampshire. My favorite article title came from the Times: “Syrup Tiff Oozes Into Sweet Talk: New York, Vermont Get Off Limb but Maine and Canada Hack Away Over Maple.” Are you intrigued yet? Here’s the boiled down version of the story, at least as much as I’ve been able to piece together in the last week:

In January of1956, Governor William Averell Harriman asked the New York Legislature to officially adopt the sugar maple as the state tree, thereby formally accepting the votes of New York schoolchildren who had chosen the tree to represent the state on Arbor Day in 1889. The sugar maple was already the state tree of Wisconsin, West Virginia, and neighboring Vermont. Upon hearing about the proposal, Vermont’s Governor Joseph B. Johnson sent Harriman a telegram poking fun at New York syrup and offering to share the state tree if New York could prove that its syrup was even half as good as Vermont’s. In response, Harriman challenged Johnson to a “free and fair” taste-off of syrups.

After the initial exchange between the two states, other officials jumped into the dispute. The governor of New Hampshire claimed that the state produced better syrup than both Vermont and New York, argued that the two states “wouldn’t dare to match sweetness with New Hampshire.” A Canadian syrup exporter, in response, declared that 75% of Quebec’s annual syrup crop was exported to New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont (hinting, I assume – although I didn’t see the original statement – that the U.S. syrup must not be that great if they were buying so much syrup from Canada). Maine then jumped into the action when a State Development Department official pointed out that 750,000 pounds of that 25,000,000 the Canadians claimed to export came from Maine, where Canadian crews came to tap and cook the sap.

In the end, as a result of all the claims to syrup superiority, Governor Harriman invited the governors of nine other states (Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota) along with the premier of Quebec to attend the New York State Maple Festival in April, the first such festival organized by The Farmers’ Museum, and bring samples of their best syrup for a taste-off.

And who won this competition? I’ll tell you next week in my next post. In the meantime, please stop by The Farmers’ Museum this Sunday for the first of our Sugaring Off Sundays. (Facebook fans will get a free token to ride the carousel!)

2010 - Lift Off!

By: Erin Crissman, Curator

This year will mark my second full year as Curator at TFM. Since I arrived in May of 2008, I’ve been completing projects scheduled before I arrived, assessing what needs to be done and making priority lists for the future. This year, though, I feel more at home (partly due the house my fiancée and I purchased right in the Village of Cooperstown) more a part of the team, rather than the “new curator.” Here are a few things I’ll be working on in 2010: Historic Village

Pharmacy Restoration. Like Dr. Jackson’s Office last year, the Pharmacy will receive some TLC from the curatorial and facilities departments. We emptied the pharmacy of its collection objects, herbs and glassware to ready it for the plaster-repair crew to begin next week. This project is slightly less intense than Dr. Jackson’s office. The Pharmacy is just receiving an interior face-lift rather than a complete overhaul and new exhibition. Stay tuned for photographic updates! Bump Tavern: This is often considered to be the gem of our building collection at the museum. Bump was one of the first non-craft buildings to come to the museum (in 13 pieces!) and although it receives a lot of maintenance, it hasn’t had serious attention in about 10 years. In a multi-year project, Bump’s exhibition rooms will get a face lift, some new printed interpretation and new paint. Come out to see our newly polished gem Memorial Day weekend. New collection initiatives

Thanks to a very supportive donor, TFM will undertake two major collections projects in 2010.

The first is to create a new collection of rural photography that will document changes in agricultural practice and farm family life in Central New York from 1840 to the present. Think you have some photographs in your family’s collection that might fit into this new initiative? Stay tuned for further updates! Above: Dagerreotype of Patience Clark Armstrong, Plainfield Center, Otsego County, NY ca 1850-1875. The Farmers' Museum Collection, Museum Purchase, F0003.2006(02)

We’ll also be launching a new collections website, an on-line database, in conjunction with the New York State Historical Association Research Library. This new project will provide incredible access to many of our 20,000 objects with contextual information from the NYSHA Research Library’s collection. Over the next 12 months, you’ll be able to explore our collection of woodworking tools, for example, and also find related library materials like trade catalogs, cabinetmaker account books, business records and other manuscript material. I can’t wait for these exciting projects! Share

2009 Young Interpreters

Gwen Miner, Supervisor of Domestic Arts Congratulations to this year’s group of Young Interpreters! On Thursday, September 17, we held the annual Young Interpreter potluck dinner in Bump Tavern. This dinner concludes the summer-long program for the Young Interpreters. Nine of the eleven participants were present. The Young Interpreters and their immediate families join their mentors for a meal, conversation, a show and tell of the Interpreters’ summer work, and the presentation of certificates.

2009 was a successful season for both the Young Interpreters and the museum staff who mentored these amazing young folks. Our seasoned senior staff members were continuously impressed with the depth of interest that these young folks had in the areas where they were apprenticed and the skills that they developed over the summer.

We hope to continue to see these fantastic young folks as volunteers and even future staff members.

Busy week!

By: Erin Crissman, Curator

This was one my my busiest and most diverse weeks in recent memory and I was only in the office for three days! Here's a snapshot of some of what I did.

Monday. I serve on the Upstate History Alliance Board of Trustees. UHA is a museum service organization in New York State. The board meets quatertly and the September meeting is always at Great Camp Sagamore in the Adirondacks, so I took the day off to travel north.

Tuesday, Part 1. The Farmers' Museum is undergoing the American Association of Museum's reaccreditation process. Only a handful of museums in the United States are accredited by AAM. The process is quite involved starting with a self study we completed last year. Then, a team of peer reviewers (museum professionals from other museums) spends the day (or days) at the museum getting an overview of operations, collections, staffing, etc. The reviewers then submit a report to AAM who will grant an additional ten years of accreditation if they think we're meeting the field's standards. I spent all day Tuesday touring the visiting team around TFM.

Tuesday, Part 2. After lunch, I participated in Museum Teacher Training. Museum Teachers at TFM are the staff who lead school group tours during the fall and spring. I gave them a tour of the Wild Times! exhibition and answered their questions about the show's 11 New York State animals. Then, I spent a few minutes chatting with my fall intern Jennie Davy, a student at the Cooperstown Graduate Program. Her project this semester is to suggest revisions to TFM's Scope of Collections statement. These few sentances help to guide what objects the museum accepts into its collection. She'll be looking at other museums with similar collections to see what their Scope of Collections statements include and exlcude.

Wednesday, Part 1. I finished up the series of meetings with reaccreditation reviewers then got some soup from Bump Tavern for lunch. It was tasty! I highly recommend the soup. It is warm and a great value. If you're a visitor, you can lounge in the tap room enjoying your soup. If you're a busy curator, like me, you might choose to eat in your office and catch up on emails.

Wendesday, Part 2 I attended an AAM webinar on Audience Evaluation. It is great to work at a place the provides these types of professional development opportunities.

Thursday, Part 1 I helped a TFM visitor identify an object he brought over. It turned out to be a leg vise for a cabinet maker's workbench. We're about to acquire, through donation, a local cabinet maker's 19th century workbench with a similar vise.

This bench, from a the cabinet makers' original workshop, dates to about the mid-19th century. The visitor today brought in a vise similar to the one in the foreground of this photograph. More on this next week, when we go to pick it up. (Note that some of the best museum collections look like this before they arrive at the museum. It isn't a negative, by any means; this is an excellent piece!)

Thursday, Part 2. I rehearsed a presentation about agriculture in the 1870s that I'll be presenting on Saturday at Syracuse University. The symposium and exhibition are about Winslow Homer's work in New York, primarily while he was staying with friends on a farm in Oragne County. You can see the presenation here. I learned how to use a new program called Prezi. It is very cool!

Tomorrow, I'm off to Syracuse. Then, I'll be taking a well-deserved nap!

Rainy Days: Best Museum Visits Ever

By: Erin Crissman, Curator I've spent a lot of my life visiting and working at outdoor living history museums. It took me a little while to understand that rainy days are real treasures in the museum season. At first, it might seem like a terrible idea to trek to an outdoor museum in the rain. Most of them have unpaved roads, and since they're outdoor museums, you will probably be outside.

Not so fast! Venturing out in the rain may be one of your most rewarding museum visits. Here are a few reasons why visiting The Farmers' Museum (or working here!) on a rainy day is a privilege.

1) Most people don't want to visit in the rain. But, if YOU visit, you'll benefit from the slower pace and thin crowds.
2) Talking to interpretive staff can be even more fun. With fewer visitors, they're usually able to spend more time with you, sit down and chat, and even help you try out a few new things. 3) In the early fall, and sometimes on these rainy summer days, historic fireplaces are glowing with a toasty-warm fire. 4) Although technically outside, the buildings are very close together, so if you're willing to run between the raindrops you won't even get wet! Stay and play games in the country fair tent for as long as you like. Remember to wear rain boots and bring an umbrella and an extra jacket. I've acquired cute pink rain boots, and more recenty, some rainy-day shoes. If you have a family with small children, bring some extra clothes and hot chocolate for the ride home in case they're a little damp and chilly. Rainy days were, and still are, some of my favorite days at work. Hope you'll venture out to a living history museum on a rainy day, too!

Bump Tavern: Social Hub, Then and Now

Kajsa Sabatke, Interpretive Projects Coordinator Fancy a drink, a game, or just a bit of gossip? Then the local tavern is the place for you, and has been for many years. Taverns provided a place for both travelers and locals to gather for informal socializing. They also served as locations for court hearings, business meetings, dances, and church services. Bump Tavern, now located at The Farmers’ Museum, has been a hub of social activity for most of its 214-year existence. Today, the tavern continues to serve as a gathering place for staff and visitors. Jehiel Tuttle built the tavern in 1795 to serve cattle drovers, and in 1842 Ephraim Bump purchased the tavern and expanded it to its current size and appearance. Over the years, the building also served as a family residence, a boarding house for summer tourists in the Catskills, and even an antique store. Today, even though Bump Tavern no longer houses overnight guests, it still serves many of its original roles. Museum staff use the staff break room - in the back of the building - to enjoy a morning cup of coffee, eat lunch, and catch up with our coworkers. People also rent out the tavern for meetings, weddings, and other events. As a visitor, you can also join in on the social aspect of the tavern. Play a game of checkers, chat with the other visitors and staff as they stop by, enjoy some refreshments, or even experience dinner and entertainment at our program, Evening at the Tavern. Though you may wear sneakers instead of boots, and baseball caps instead of bonnets, the tavern still has a great many things to enjoy. Stop in and say hello during your next visit to the museum.