Winter Antiques Show 2010 Loan Exibition Lecture "The Meaning of Things:Historic New England's Collection"

January 25th,2010

Winter Antiques Show 2010

Loan Exhibition Lecture #2:
"The Meaning of Things: Historic New England's Collection"

Presented by: Nancy Carlisle, curator at Historic New England

Sponsored by: Chubb Personal Insurance


Orginally founded as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities,or SPNEA, in 1910, now under its new name Historic New England, has collected vast amount of artifactsin various mediums. These items can be found in the various thirty-six properties run by Historic New England and the the Historic New England Study Center.

Personal everyday objects are perhaps some of the most interesting items we can examine. Objects that we have and care about are a reflection of ourselves. For historic purposes,these items serve as tangible ties to the past, connecting us with the previous owners and the respective time peroid they came from. The stories these objects tell are as varied as the pieces themselves.

In New England, there have been multiple reasons that lead to collecting. The most common was the following: 1) personal, 2)novelty, & 3) craftsmanship. This serves to indicate that the reason for collecting then and now have not changes much,if not at all. Like today's contemporary collector, the collector the past cared for and tended to the pieces, or things, that spoke to them.

(entry will be completed on Jan.26th)