Peacefield: a shrine, a home, a legacy of the Adams family.

  Photo Courtesy of Lorenzo Deagle

“It is but the farm of a patriot,” are the words inscribed at the main gate of Peacefield at Quincy, Massachusetts, as spoken by the owner of the property John Adams, Founding Father, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and second president of the United States.[1]  The Adams National Park, integrated into the National Park Service at the behest of the descendants of John Adams in 1946 serves not just as a site of historical significance, but also as an open-air and architectural based museum to the ancestral home of John Adams, his son John Quincy Adams and their descendants.   A property which has also served as a Mecca for many Americans on pilgrimages to this site which is not only viewed as historically relevant directly or indirectly to the building of the United States, but also as hallow ground where several historical figures were born, would live and would die.[2]

The Adams National Park is comprised of fours buildings, the birthplace of John Adams, the birthplace of his son John Quincy Adams, Peacefield, and the Stone Library which houses the combined book collections of John Adams and John Quincy Adams.  Located at the base of Penn’s Hill on the coastal road to between Plymouth and Boston, the birthplace of John Adams is a Cape Cod-style saltbox structure, a five-room building “of hand-hewn oak, its inner walls of brick, these finished on the inside with lath and plaster an faced on the exterior with pine clapboard.”[3] Constructed in 1681 as one of two saltbox styled structures, the second building is located forty paces from the first and served as the marital home of John Adams and Abigail Smith following their marriage in October of 1764 and is the birthplace of their first child John Quincy.[4]

In terms of the historical interpretation of the birthplaces of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, both houses are presented in a more traditional manner as house museums frozen in time, the first representing the humble upbringing of John Adams as one of three sons of a shoemaker, and the second as that of a family and household on the rise as John Adams pursued a career as an attorney and politician.  

The Birthplace of John Adams: Photo courtesy of Lorenzo Deagle

However, the Vassall-Borland House, also known as Peacefield, acquired by John and Abigail Adams following their return to the United States from Great Britain in 1788, is a house museum that is multi-generational in its presentation and interpretation of the history of the Adams family.  As a house museum, this building is not only interpreted as the location of John and Abigail Adams’s retirement, but also serves as a museum representing a total of four generations of the Adams family who resided at Peacefield from 1788 until 1927.[5] 

Peacefield: Photo courtesy of Lorenzo Deagle

As property formally owned by Loyalists during the American Revolution, the ownership of Vassall-Borland house was forfeited during the war and purchased by John Adams following the completion of a diplomatic mission to London during which he had served as the first American ambassador to Great Britain.  Today the National Park Services hosts tours of the twenty-seven room mansion in which each room is left exactly how it looked when it was used by a certain member of the Adams family, such as the study where John Adams posed for several portraits, and the bedroom where he would read, write and eventually pass away on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the United States.  In addition the house contains several additions, including a wing added by Abigail Adams following the home’s purchase, which contains guest rooms, the bedroom where John and Abigail’s daughter Abigail “Nabby” Adams would die of cancer in 1813, and also the childhood room of Henry Adams, the great-grandson of John Adams.[6]   

Overall, the ranger tours offered by the National Park Services are both thorough and detailed oriented, and most importantly the site is still home to a center for historic research and study, the Stone Library located in the gardens of Peacefield.  Constructed in 1870 by Charles Francis Adams, John Adams’s grandson, to house the combined book collections of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, the Stone Library is where Charles Francis’s son, Henry Adams would construct a series of multivolume historiographies and sources relating to his family’s history.[7]  Perhaps most importantly the library is still open for use by appointment for historians and researchers who may find use of the over twelve thousand books in the collection, one of many unique opportunities that can be found at the Adams National Park.  Furthermore, under the guardianship of the National Park Service it is clear that this location is of vital historical significance to the United States and as such the Park Service has made it their mission to, ‘preserve, and protect the grounds, homes, and personal property of four generations of the Adams family and to use these resources to interpret the history they represent and to educate and inspire current and future generations.”[8]

Stone Library: Photo courtesy of Lorenzo Deagle

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[1] National Park Service: U.S. Department of the Interior, “Adams National Historical Park Massachusetts: The Birthplace of John Adams, John Quincy Adams,” (National Park Ranger Tour. Quincy, MA, October 2, 2015).

[2] The National Park Service, “Learn About the Park:,” The Adams National Park, http://www.nps.gov/adam/learn/index.htm (accessed October 1, 2015).

[3] David McCullough, John Adams. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001.

[4] The National Park Service, “History and Culture: People, Places, and Birthplaces,” The Adams National Park, http://www.nps.gov/adam/learn/index.htm (accessed October 1, 2015).

[5] Ibid,.

[6] Ranger Tour, October 2, 2015.

[7] National Park Service: U.S. Department of the Interior, “Adams National Historical Park Massachusetts: The Birthplace of John Adams, John Quincy Adams,” (National Park Visitor Center Introductory Video). Quincy, MA, October 2, 2015). 

[8] The National Park Service, “History and Culture: Park Mission,” The Adams National Park, http://www.nps.gov/adam/learn/index.htm (accessed October 1, 2015).

Historical Figures Come Alive At The Old State House Museum

Jay Anderson stated in his first volume of A Living History Reader that the use of living history, or the use of costumed interpreters employing first-person performance for educational purposes, not only breathed life into a museum setting but also served as, “an antidote to museum fatigue.”[1]  In this instance the practice of living history is alive and well within the historic halls of Boston’s own Old State House Museum.  Built in 1713 at the intersection of modern-day Congress and State Street, then known as King Street, the Old State House served not only as the center of British colonial power in the city of Boston from 1713 to 1776, but also as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’s statehouse following the outbreak of the American Revolution.[2]  As a result, following nearly two centuries as a center for political and commercial functions for the city of Boston, the Boston Antiquarian Club, reorganized into the Bostonian Society in 1881 was established in an effort to preserve the architectural and historical integrity of the building.   Following its inception, the Bostonian Society would oversee the renovation and conversion of the Old state House into a museum where various historical exhibits and programs are employed by the museum to educate museum guests in the political, colonial and early American history of Boston and the role the Old State House had in the forming of this history.[3]

The Old State House Museum today has at its disposal a plethora of historical artifacts, which have been used to create both stimulating and intriguing exhibits and programs, including an exhibit containing the inaugural suit worn by John Hancock to the Old State House where he was sworn in as the first governor of Massachusetts in 1780.[4]

  Photo Courtesy of Lorenzo Deagle

Yet, in an effort to complement these exhibits the current museum staff and interpreters also employ a series of museum tours and talks which consist of a variety of themes including the political environment of Boston proceeding and following the outbreak of the American Revolution.  However, the use of living history and first-person immersive techniques, where guests have encounters with a costumed docents portraying historical figures, are utilized by the Old State House Museum through an interactive museum program known as Revolutionary Characters Live, a seasonal program that is currently in its fifth year of use.[5] 

It was early afternoon on the day of September 21, 2015 when guests to the Old State House Museum, were greeted in the Council Chamber by a gentleman in full eighteenth century attire named John Rowe, a prominent merchant and British émigré to Boston.  During this encounter Mr. Rowe, portrayed by museum docent Tim Corbett, maintained a first-person persona and gave no indication to his audience that he was aware that it was the twentieth-first century.[6]  For Mr. Rowe the day was September 21, 1765, and he began to confide with the museum guests that his mind was great consumed by current political, economic, and social conflicts that seemed to be consuming the city of Boston.   

While still in recovery from a long and arduous winter which according to Mr. Rowe had frozen the Boston Harbor solid for two weeks, he explained to the guests that the recent bankruptcies of a prominent merchant named Nathaniel Wheelright and his promissory notes business was having a ripple affect on the merchants and working-class members of the community who have invested in his notes.  In addition, Mr. Rowe expressed a genuine level of apprehension regarding the current political environment of the city, and the rising anger of citizens against the governorship of Francis Bernard and his lieutenant governor Thomas Hutchinson.  These political protests against the government, according to Mr. Rowe, can be traced back to a series of taxes implemented in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which were having an adverse affect on the printing and rum industries of Boston as the result of a tax established on paper and molasses, two major commodities in the city.[7]  

Furthermore, according to Revolutionary Characters Manager Daud Alzayer, the Revolutionary Characters Live program has not only been successful as a source of entertainment, but also as a tool for historic education.  As a museum program built around the use of living history and first-person theatrical performance Mr. Alzayer explained that from a historical perspective living history allows, “people to connect on a topic usually drained of emotion.”[8]  Thus it is clear that in the field of museum education the Old State House Museum is not only employing living-history and first-person portrayals of historical figures to compliment their museums exhibits, but also to show museums guests that the historical study and interpretation of persons and historical events are multi-dimensional.   A level of complexity, which can often make historic information appear dry and uninteresting, a problem  Mr. Alzayer explains that can be countered through the use of living history, which allows guests to see history, “less in black and white and really how people dealt with these situations.”[9]

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[1] Jay Anderson, A Living History Reader. (Nashville: American Association for State and Local History, 1991), 6.

[2] The Bostonian Society and Old State House Museum, “History of the Old State House Building,” http://www.bostonhistory.org/ (accessed September 25, 2015).

[3] Ibid., The Bostonian Society and Old State House Museum.

[4] Ibid., “Old State House Chronology.”

[5] Daud Alzayer, interview by Lorenzo Deagle, Boston, MA, September 21, 2015.

[6] Tim Corbett, “Revolutionary Characters Live: John Rowe, September 21, 1765,” (museum program, Old State House Museum. Boston, MA, September 21, 2015).

[7] Ibid., “Revolutionary Characters Live.”

[8] Daud Alzayer, interview by Lorenzo Deagle, Boston, MA, September 21, 2015.

[9] Ibid.

Old Sturbridge Village: Using Living History to Solve Social Problems in 1830s New England

While the term “living history” at first glance appears to be a contradictory term suggesting that the past might exist in the present, in actuality living history is an educational tool which, when properly executed in a museum setting, is a form of historic interpretation that is of great value to the field of history as a whole.  The Old Sturbridge Village (OSV), an open-air and living history museum serves as an archetypical example of a New England museum, which has utilized living history as a form of historic interpretation for nearly seven decades.  Since OSV opened its grounds to the public on June 8, 1946, it has experienced success as well as setbacks in its undertakings to champion alternative forms of historic interpretation.[1] As a result of these trials and tribulations the mission, governance, and programs of OSV have evolved in response to an evolution within the current scholarship of New England history, by utilizing living history to “dispel the myth of stable, conflict-free communities”.[2] 

The establishment of OSV in 1946 was the end result of a series of acts initiated by the Wells family of Southbridge Massachusetts.  Following the examples set by Greenfield Village, Winterthur and Colonial Williamsburg museums, the inception of Old Sturbridge Village can be credited to the Wells brothers, Albert B., and J. Cheney, and their personal collection of historical artifacts, oddities and “primitives,” as they were referred to by A.B. Wells who took pride in his seemingly endless collection of handcrafted trinkets and baubles.[3]  Heirs to the highly successful and profitable American Optical Company of Southbridge, established by their father George Washington Wells, brothers Albert B. and J. Cheney, being captains of early 20^th century industry, would still remain devoted enthusiasts to the art of handcrafted items of a bygone era, a enthusiasm which resulted in their collection of handcrafted clocks, furniture, tools, and utensils representative of early 18^th century New England industrial and economic history.[4]  

Furthermore, A.B.’s son George and his wife Ruth Wells campaigned for the purchase of the David Wight Farm, a parcel of land comprising 153 acres along the Quinebaug River in Central Massachusetts, and the relocation of the Wells family collection to this location in order to promote the history and educational value of the collection in an open-air museum setting. A shift in the interpretation of the Wells Family collection which, according to historian Laura E. Abing, would best utilize this collection of historic artifacts to illustrate that, “a satisfying, fruitful, and well-balanced existence can still be lived by the humblest of us even in a world of change and confusion.”[5]  

  Photo Courtesy of Lorenzo Deagle

It has been seven decades since this mission was undertaken and OSV continues its mission as, “a museum and learning resource of New England life, [which] invites each visitor to find meaning, pleasure, relevance and inspiration through the exploration of history.”[6]  In addition to portraying agricultural and industrial practices prominent in 1830s New England, OSV has more recently created and executed interactive educational programs such as, “A Warrant for A Town Meeting on the Poor Farm Issue.” Like many of the hands-on educational programs employed by OSV, this activity is directed towards visiting school groups who are instructed, while visiting the village, to seek the advice of the costumed museums interpreters in an effort to solve a real-life social problem experienced in early nineteenth century New England.  In the case of the Poor Farm Issue, students must determine the best manner in which the community of Sturbridge should take care of the poor and disabled members of the community, by determining whether the community should employ one of two social welfare programs, the Vendue System, or the Poor Farm System.  While the Vendue System involves auctioning the care of a pauper to a family in the community, the poor farm is a public funded program in which paupers are made to work for their keep. While both programs contain a variety of pros and cons, it is but to the museum guest to seek out the opinions of the costumed museums interpreters, as they are “members” of this 1830s community and are responsible for the welfare of the paupers in their community.  
 As a result, museums guests learn that while the Vendue program is the most cost-effective way to divide the care for a community's paupers among its citizenry, such a system is prone to abuses on the part the families who take on these paupers almost as wards.   Furthermore, the poor farm program also exhibits an equal number of advantages and disadvantages, while this system would requires a substantial amount of tax payers' money in order for land to be purchased, and a farm to be established, in time this system would allow Sturbridge's paupers to support themselves rather than having them rely on assistance from the community.[7]  This program has proven to be an extremely beneficial as educational tool that employs first-person interpretation, in which museums guests interact with museums interpreters, who in this case are not museums employees, but are members of an early nineteenth century New England community who are concerned for the welfare of the poor, disabled, and paupers in the community, and have a vast array of opinions regarding the best ways in which these members of the community should be cared for. 

           

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[1] Old Sturbridge Village: “History of Old Sturbridge Village.” https://www.osv.org/ (accessed March 1, 2015). 

[2] Scott Magelssen, Living History Museums: Undoing History Through Performance. (Lanham: The Scarecorw Press, Inc., 2007), 39. 

[3] Ibid., “The Wells Family.”

[4] Ibid., “The Wells Family.”

[5] Magelssen, Living History Museums, 13.

[6] Tom Kelleher, “An Overview Of Old Sturbridge Village: Early History of OSV” (lecture, Staff Training, Sturbridge, MA, May 4, 2015).

[7] Tom Kelleher, “An Overview Of Old Sturbridge Village: Options for Care of the Poor” (lecture, Staff Training, Sturbridge, MA, May 4, 2015).