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.

Winter Work for Historic Clothing Staff

By: Kajsa Sabatke, Interpretive Projects CoordinatorAs our 2009 season draws to a close, one of the first tasks for our historic clothing staff is to collect and inventory the historic clothing from our interpreters. Kitty gathers all the clothing from the staff, checks for items in need of repair or replacement, updates her inventory list, and then stores the clothing for another winter. (She would like to remind those interpreters reading this to return their clothing now that it’s November.) Dorothy, our adept seamstress, repairs the clothes and sews new items when the old ones have worn out. Some of our interpreters – like our blacksmith – are harder on their clothing than others, in part because of the more physical tasks related to their jobs. By the time we prepare to begin the season in the spring, the clothing will be ready for another year of wear. This is not a small task with the large numbers of interpreters on our staff – thanks, ladies, for all your hard work keeping us in historically appropriate and well-mended clothes!

Great Saturday

By: Kajsa Sabatke, Interpretive Projects Coordinator

Autumn in central New York can mean nearly any variety of weather; last Saturday brought sunshine, warmer temperatures, and crisper autumn air. After several dreary days, the sun had clearly brightened the spirits of staff and visitors alike and I had one of the best days of the season in the More House. I saw smiles on nearly every visitor’s face and discussions of the weather entered into many of my conversations throughout the day. I had forgotten to bring my watch with me, but thanks to the many activities during the day I usually knew the approximate time. The morning flew by with quilting a pot holder and talking to visitors, and I didn’t think about the time until the noon whistle blew from downtown Cooperstown. The loud pounding from the Williams Carriage Shed (the only noise louder than the blacksmith during the day) signaled the 2:00 flax processing demonstration, and visitors began congregating in the More House a little before 3:00 to take a tour with me of the second floor. By about 3:20 the grounds quieted as visitors gathered at the farmstead to milk the cow, and the sun dipped below the nearby hill at 4:00 as it begins to do this time of year. What a great day! The museum will stay open through the end of October and changes to its reduced hours after Columbus Day weekend – so stop by and see us soon! We also have a few other programs running through the fall.

Above photograph of the Blacksmith Shop by Steve Kellogg who blogs here.

Scrap Quilting

By: Kajsa Sabatke, Interpretive Projects Coordinator

I’ve taken a break from the More family sampler to help out with some other textile projects. In the process I’ve re-learned how to sew in a straight line and grown to appreciate just how much work goes into any hand-sewn project (particularly a quilt). Several people on the interpretive staff are working together to make a log-cabin-patterned quilt. The quilt will be made up of seven sets of squares; each square is predominantly one color and we are making seven squares of each color. This is called scrap quilting because we use scraps of fabric that are left over from making clothing and other items. After Gwen gave me a brief introduction to the project, I began cautiously sewing together the rectangular pieces of fabric and slowly pieced together a completed square. I have gradually increased in speed and skill, and after a couple of weeks I could even continue to sew in a straight line while conversing with visitors as they watched me sew. Once we complete all 49 squares, we will sew them all together into a quilt that we’ll use on one of the beds in the historic village.

Sampling History at the More House: Sampler #1, Complete!

by: Kajsa Sabatke, Interpretive Projects Coordinator

This afternoon I completed the last stitches on my cross-stitched sampler project, based on the More family sampler in our collection. I have to say that I’m pretty excited about my work so far; to read more about the project, check here, here, and here. After weeks of counting, stitching, ripping out mistakes, and starting again, I’m finally done! As I’ve stitched in the More House, many visitors have asked what will happen to this sampler. It will stay in the More House for visitors to see. In the entire scope of the project, though, I still have far to go. My next step will be to go back to the original sampler to check against my first try, note my mistakes, and fix anything major on this sampler. Then I will start matching thread colors and material so I can start on an even bigger task: reproducing, as much as possible, the original sampler on linen cloth (without the benefits of the grid-like aida cloth). But after this one, I’m feeling much more ready for the challenge!

Sampling History at the More House: Learning the Basics

by: Kajsa Sabatke, Interpretive Projects Coordinator

Now that I have looked at Mary More’s sampler and learned more about her, I am beginning the process of actually making my own sampler based on hers. I worked with Gwen to collect the right supplies, assemble a sewing basket, and block out the first few rows of letters on graph paper. During my first day of cross stitching in the More House, I accomplished more than I expected as I talked to museum visitors about the house and the sampler project. I finished twelve letters and considered it a major victory every time I completed one without having to fix a mistake (that only happened a handful of times). Most of the letters required fixing after I counted incorrectly, got distracted, or pulled the thread through the wrong hole. I thought I was getting better as the day progressed, but then I had to rip out and restart the letter N three times. After finally getting it right, though, I practically jumped up and down in celebration. Yes, I really got that excited about the letter N. This is going to be a challenging and very fun project!

New Acquisitions - Deen Loom

By: Erin Crissman, Curator

Last week, John Hart (assistant curator of collections) and I travelled to Worcester, NY, to collect a unique loom from a donor. Unlike most of the looms in our collection, this one was made in the 20th century and is cast iron. This Deen Advance Fly Shuttle Loom, made in Harlan, Iowa, amazingly survived two or three changes of property ownership and remained set up exactly as it was left in the 1940s or 50s – in a barn, warped and ready to produce carpet. The extra-special feature of this loom is the custom warping system invented by the weaver. This modification allowed him (or her) to continually weave a very long length of carpet, rather than warping the loom with a finite length of warping cord (in this case a very sturdy cotton twine). So, instead of cutting a 10 foot length and warping the loom, the warp was continually pulled from the spools mounted on the ceiling. Where did he or she learn to make such a productive change? Did this weaver work in a textile factory? He or she was probably operating the loom in the 1930s. During the Great Depression, home production of carpet was encouraged by the US Government as an extra income source for rural families. We hope to learn much more about this loom in the coming months.

Sampling History at the More House

By: Kajsa Sabatke, Interpretive Projects Coordinator Mary More was the youngest child of Jonas and Deborah More; she grew up in the house that once stood in Roxbury, New York, and is now part of the museum. According to her family, Mary – nicknamed Polly in her youth – had a personality that combined the “jovial, fun-loving and happy disposition of her father, and the deep, earnest piety of her mother.” When Mary was 13 years old, she completed a sampler that showcased her needlework skills. Her sampler is one of the few family items in the museum’s collection. In order to better preserve the sampler, we store it in a climate-controlled storage area instead of the More House. I will study the sampler and create a pattern of it over the winter. We will use the pattern to make our own reproduction sampler for the More House, so visitors can see it in the same house where Mary first made her sampler 180 years ago. Along the way, I hope to learn more about samplers and try my own hand at the kind of needlework that Mary had already mastered by age 13. Stay tuned for more updates on this project! Sampler, 1829. By Mary More, The Farmers' Museum Collection, Gift of Jean More Porter. F0005.2000