Barbie visits the Storrs House Museum

The dolls of the Storrs House Museum were thrilled to receive a visit this week from the most celebrated doll in the land right now … Barbie! A vintage 1960 Barbie in her prized black and white stripe swimsuit spent a very busy afternoon among our friends doing exactly what dolls do best - playing!

We hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we enjoyed taking them!

Barbie Turns the Pages for Piano Practice

Toast Time for this Sweet Handmade Dolly Family

Relaxing in a Bubble-wrap Spa in Our Old Tin Hat Tub

Having a Chat with this Lovely Friend

A Game of Cards Among Friends

Admiring the Craftsmanship on Rev. Storrs' Secretary Desk

Barbie and the Twins, Betty and Beulah

Photo Session with an old Brownie Camera

Unwinding with some Handiwork

-Contributed by Melissa M. Cybulski and Betsy McKee. All photos were taken by Betsy McKee.

- Special thanks to Betsy's Barbie for spending the day with us

Tick Tock -- Story of Time

Sometimes an object you have walked past a thousand times without a second glance suddenly takes on new meaning because of a chance encounter. This homely, somewhat battered patent timepiece (commonly called a “banjo clock”) is such an example.

This clock (19xx-11), which has been in the Storrs House Museum for decades, came from the Storrs family. This type of clock was made famous by Simon Willard of Roxbury and Grafton, MA, but was widely copied by other clockmakers. Called Banjo clocks because of the resemblance to the shape of a banjo, the design was patented in 1802 by Simon Willard. The glass panel was often decorated by an eglomise design, or reverse painting. While many of these paintings are completely imaginary scenes, occasionally the painting represented a real place.

The clock in the Longmeadow Historical Society’s collection has had a troubled past—it is currently not in running condition, and it was reportedly damaged in a break-in in 1970 (see History Note about the recovered Goldthwait gun). The Historical Society was fortunate to have a visiting curator from Historic Deerfield visit the museum recently. The goal of the visit was to obtain some information about several pieces of furniture in the collection. He walked into the south parlor, and immediately recognized the eglomise painting in the banjo clock! He pulled out his phone, and instantly located a photo of a Staffordshire plate with the same design!

The image on the clock’s glass panel turned out to represent the Mount Pleasant Institute, a school for boys once located in Amherst, MA. The school was founded in 1827 by an 1826 Amherst College graduate and Longmeadow native Chauncey Colton (1800-1876), along with his brother-in-law Francis Fellowes. The school was only in operation from 1827 to 1832, and had as its second enrollee, none other than Henry Ward Beecher!

The building depicted on the clock no longer exists in its entirety, but parts of the building still stand in Amherst.

-Contributed by Betsy McKee, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Sources:

Carpenter, Edward Wilton and Charles Frederick Morehouse. History of the Town of Amherst, Massachusetts.Amherst, Mass.: Press of Carpenter & Morehouse, 1896. 271.

"Mount Pleasant Classical Institute" from Digital Amherst. https://www.digitalamherst.org/exhibits/show/teaching/mount-pleasant-institute

Sousa, Dan, "The Mount Pleasant Classical Institution: A Rarity of American Historical Staffordshire." TCC Bulletin, 2021 Vol. XXII No. 1,7. https://www.transferwarecollectorsclub.org/sites/default/files/bulletins/21_tccxxii_no1-feature.pdf

Cats of Longmeadow

perhaps Tommy Cordis (b.1884) Cordis Family Collection

Upon hearing that the Dogs of Longmeadow were highlighted in a recent History Note, the cats of Longmeadow took umbrage, as they are inclined to do. So in an effort to be fair and just, this week the Longmeadow Historical Society brings you… The Cats of Old Longmeadow. Unlike their canine counterparts, cats are notoriously more private, and thus there are far fewer images of them in our archives. After all, it seems one can never find a cat that does not wish to be found. Make no mistake, though. Cats have been welcome and helpful members of Longmeadow households for generations.

"Mr. Comstock and cat" December 1913 Emerson Collection/ Longmeadow Historical Society

The Longmeadow Historical Society also has several 19th century children’s books in our collection, and within their pages are charming stories and illustrations of children and their cats. Cats have always made wonderful subjects for children’s books. The word “C-A-T” is a friendly one to an early reader, and the antics they can get into often spell humorous “T-R-O-U-B-L-E.” One charming little book titled “Ann and Ellen and the Little Kitten” tells a tale of the woe that falls upon little Ann who doesn’t heed her mother’s instructions to admire, but not pick up, the kitten. Inevitably, the girl disobeys her mother’s command. The kitten scratches the young Ann's face, and when she cries to her mother she is reminded that had she obeyed her mother in the first place the injury never would have happened. Exactly the moral lesson these books were made to impart.

A popular moral: Obey your parents or pay the price. Longmeadow Historical Society Collection

Grandmamma's Book of Rhymes, 1848

Longmeadow Historical Society Collection

The Child's Guide, 1849 Longmeadow Historical Society Collection

No doubt, the many farms in Longmeadow would have had cats around to keep the mice at bay, rather than for the companionship they are so prized for today. The Storrs House Museum could certainly benefit from a good cat or two these days to handle the mice. Alas, that task has fallen to our board president, Al McKee, who comes to check the traps on a regular basis. A fine mouser indeed!

Booth Family Photo Album

Longmeadow Historical Society Collection

Booth Family Photo Album

Longmeadow Historical Society Collection

Contributed by Melissa M. Cybulski, Board member, Longmeadow Historical Society

Originally published February 11, 2021