Historic New England: Summit 2022, Day 1

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A light blue, black, and white striped header image with the words Historic New England Summit 2022 Day 1

October 13 was Day 1 of Historic New England Summit 2022 held at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. The theme for the conference is “Recovering New England’s Voices”, after HNE’s multi-phase initiative to research the histories of marginalized people and communities. In the words of Dr. Alissa Butler, Study Center Manager at HNE, the organization seeks to “shift and recenter the learning experience to cover all these incredible stories”.

Below are highlights from the summit with links to learn more. There was so much great conversation, and I could not include it all!


Forging a New Lens

The first speaker in this section were Dr. Alissa Butler, whose quote appears in the opening paragraph. She described the process of hiring experts in Indigenous, Black, LGBTQ, and women’s history. Two of her stories were familiar to me, as I had visited the associated HNE houses in September (Those blog posts are coming soon!). The organization recenters the story of Henry Davis Sleeper, first owner and designer of Beauport Sleeper-McCann House in Gloucester, Massachusetts, as a gay man living in the early 20th century. Another story was of fabulously dressed Cyrus Bruce, an emancipated Black man who worked at Governor John Langdon House in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and whose portrait was recently painted by local artist Richard Haynes Jr.

The second speaker was Leo Lovemore, Ph.D., the Librarian for History, Society, and Culture at Brown University and a Research Scholar for Recovering New England’s Voices. Lovemore described the importance of recovering history, comparing the process to recovering from addiction, saying it is “not a simple or easy or straightforward process. It’s not even linear.” They demonstrated several methods of recovering history, from analyzing ship logs held at the Peabody Essex Museum to reading documents stored at Otis House. They also recovered contradictory papers on HNE’s founder William Sumner Appleton, Jr., whose “backroom deals” allowed him to prevent Otis House from becoming a home for elderly Jewish women.


Obliterating the Old Lens on Social History?

This portion of the program was a panel discussion on “What does it really mean to share inclusive history?”

Catherine Allgor described the work done by Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). A voluntary committee at MHS assesses all processes at the society, from hiring to collections to use of space. The society gives fellowships to historians, along with providing talks, seminars, and other presentations. Allgor emphasized that academics have long found ways to respectfully and productively talk about DEI, which leads to them making assumptions about what the public knows or understands.

Byron Rushing of Roxbury Historical Society was lovingly described by Allgor as an “historical artifact” due to his many years of experience as a community organizer, museum director, and politician. He described how he aided in the restoration of the African Meeting House in Boston, served as president of the Museum of African American History, and helped to create of the Black Heritage Trail of Beacon Hill, which isBoston African American National Historic Site. He also talked about attending an historic administrators conference held at Colonial Williamsburg in 1973. While there, he witnessed segregation among the interpreters, along with them not being allowed to use the word “slave”, even though the organization had created the book The Negro in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg back in 1957.

Bethany Groff Doreau of the Museum of Old Newbury believed having a specific location gives focus to historical interpretation, saying “If you are geographically bound, you don’t pick the stories. They’re all there.” She starts her tours at the Caleb Cushing House Museum with the uncomfortable backstory of Cushing, a States’ Rights Democrat who visited Jefferson Davis and served as U.S. Attorney General during the Dred Scott case.

Kyera Singleton of Royall House and Slave Quarters spoke of her experience as executive director at a site first preserved by the Daughters of the American Revolution. She began her talk by listing the many enslaved people who lived on the property and reminded the audience that the Slave Quarters are now the organizations gift shop. She describes speaking with protesters who visited the site after the death of George Floyd, as they wanted to burn down the slave quarters. The public often does not understand the intentions of a museum, but programming can be used to relate the past to current issues, like housing inequality and mass incarceration.


Institutional Renewal

As someone who previously assisted in the daily operations of a church, this was among my favorite talks. Moderator Candelaria Silva-Collins of the George B. Henderson Foundation lead the conversation.

Rev. Mary Margaret Earl of UU Urban Ministry spoke on leading a faith-based nonprofit organization in the historic Black community of Roxbury, Massachusetts. She described the importance of preserving the building, First Church of Roxbury, along with telling the history of the area through signage and walking tours. She believes, “Historic preservation can be a powerful lever for working for social justice if we really lean into it.”

Emily Kahn of the National Fund for Sacred Places explained the mission of the National Fund for Sacred Places, a branch of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which currently has 97 historic sacred places in the program. Projects include a church in Tulsa, Oklahoma with portions of the building surviving the Tulsa Race Riots. The fund has become better known in recent years, with an increase by 20% in the number of applicants.


Toward an Inclusive Collection

Moderator Michelle Finamore, who curated Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour for the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas and Gender Bending Fashion for MFA Boston, led a discussion around clothing, identity, and material culture.

Rebecca Kelly of RISD described a project she curated in collaboration with the Newport Historical Society, The World in Motion: Fashion, Modernity, and the Automobile, which featured a rare example of preserved servant’s clothing. She also worked with undergraduates at URI to interpret quilts in their collection and create the exhibit One American Family: A Tale of North and South.

Doneeca Thurston, Executive Director of LynnMuseum & Historical Society and LynnArts, talked about the way young people become engaged with historical objects when their voices are reflected in the exhibits. The exhibits History of Black People in Lynn and Khmer Identity: Shadows echo the diverse community. (I visited the LynnMuseum in mid-September and will describe its exhibits in more detail in a future blog post.)


Technology and Globalizing Cultural Heritage

Samantha Koslow of Christie’s described “Digital Transformation in the Auction Market". Since 2011 with its first online auction of an Elizabeth Taylor collection, Christie’s has looked for ways to expand and diversify its audience on the internet. Other highlights of Christie’s online legacy include:

Dr. Carl Skelton took a different approach to technology, rapidly describing his work on iCity: Urban Informatics for Sustainable Metropolitan Growth, the history of icons as found at Wirtschaftsmuseum in Vienna, and building a projector with ethical provenance for his ISOLUX project.


Mechanics Hall: Anchoring Community Through Culture

After a fun performance on the Mechanics Hall's Historic Hook Organ by Peter Krasinski, the Hall's Executive Director Kathleen Gagne gave a lightning talk on the history of the building and organ. Dedicated by the Worcester County Mechanics Association in 1857, Mechanics Hall has served as a center for arts and music, along with a stint as a sporting events venue. During the start of its restoration period in the 1970s, experts described the building as “The finest pre Civil War performance hall in the nation… One of the world’s finest concert spaces.”

Today, musicians from around the world perform at Mechanics Hall. (I played at the Hall four times in high school as part of the Central Massachusetts District Orchestra.) Portraits around the hall honor important figures in local and national history. The Hall plans to install the portraits of  Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and local leaders William & Martha Brown in Winter 2024.


Culture as Catalyst

Kate Lear, Board Chair of New York City based dance company Ballet Hispánico and daughter of film director Norman Lear, spoke on the history of the ballet company. Its founder, Tina Ramirez, created the company in the Upper West Side of Manhattan during the 1970s and led the organization for forty years. The company emphasizes inclusivity, in contrast to the strict rules and conformity of traditional ballet.

Lear made compelling comparisons between supporting cultural organizations and restoring historic buildings, as Ballet Hispánico does both, with a short timeline below:

  • 1983: Ballet Hispánico purchased a pair of carriage houses on the National Register of Historic Places to serve as the first space.
  • 2003: The company invested in the top three floors of a new ten-story public school building.
  • 2006: Carriage houses were expanded, creating the Arnhold Center.
  • 2016: Carriage houses were renovated.

The Historic New England Center for Preservation and Collections

Historic New England is in the early stages of planning renovations for its property holdings in Haverhill, Massachusetts. After an overview of the ways that museums are changing the way they interact with the public, which was given by HNE's Carissa Demore, three architectural firms described their plans for creating new spaces in Haverhill.

Deborah Berke and Arthi Krishnamoorthy of Deborah Berke Partners worked together to share their vision. Burke described the “care, creativity, conviction, and inventiveness” of Yankee ingenuity evident from the way traditional skills and modern technology are used to create New England products. Krishnamoorthy made comparisons to other beautifully designed buildings and spaces that the Haverhill facilities might emulate, including the Peranakan Museum in Singapore, Berke Museum in Seattle, Industrial City in Brooklyn, Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, and the entrance to Chinatown in Boston. Berke used her experience creating the 21c Museum Hotel chain to demonstrate the firm's ability to meld commerce, living space, and fine art.

Brandon Haw of Brandon Haw Architecture focused on the history of Haverhill, using maps to show how the area has industrialized since the early 19th century. Factories and parking lots have hidden the waterfront. Haw compared Haverhill to Glasgow, Scotland as an example of reviving a post-industrial city, along with showing Mass MoCA of North Adams, Massachusetts and DIA Beacon in Beacon, New York as destination museums that create new opportunities for the community.

Eric Höweler of Höweler + Yoon recently renovated the MIT Museum, along with work on the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia, and many other buildings in the Greater Boston area. He praised Burke's 21 c Museum Hotel and the Study Hotel @ Yale University. Other sources of inspiration were the makerspaces and conservation areas at Harvard's Fogg Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum. For open and shareable spaces, he drew inspiration from PMQ Hong Kong and the public stair at Downtown Crossing in Boston.


Reimagining Post-Industrial New England

In this panel, Gregory Lombardi of Gregory Lombardi Design moderated a discussion on finding new purposes for structures related to factories and production.

Julian Wade of Davis Publications and a Trustee of the Printers Building in Worcester gave the history of his family's business. In 1953, Davis Publications bought the Printers Building, which was originally completed in 1923 and later revitalized from 2014 to 2019. While the press was sold in 1989, it continued to be housed in the building, with heavy industrial equipment taking its toll on the space. With the use of state and federal tax credits, the building was restored while tenants remained in the building. Popular Worcester organizations like WICN, Technocopia, WorcLab, and an art gallery of ArtsWorcester are current occupants.

Liz Hitchcock, President of Orbit Group and 2002 graduate of WPI, transformed a derelict shoe factory into The Factory on Willow. This "Community for Creators, Innovators, & Entrepreneurs" provides housing, artist residencies, and event spaces for Greater Manchester. It joins another of Hitchcock's businesses, the Bookery, as a culture-focused businesses in the area.

Barnaby Evans is founder and Director of WaterFire, an arts organization based in Providence, Rhode Island that has put flaming braziers in the water since 1994. He described the early efforts as “We tried the seek forgiveness approach… [the authorities said] well, that’s against the law… there was no such law.” Around 20 million people have seen WaterFire, which are based on themes such as HP Lovecraft, the Dragon Boat Festival, and Breast Cancer Survivor Day.

Evans bases his project on six principles:

  1. Build the entire thing from scratch in a single day.
  2. Turn off all the lights, including streetlights.
  3. Set everything on fire.
  4. Do the same thing every night.
  5. Invite everyone for free.
  6. Break it down so there is nothing the next morning.

Living Archives

The first speaker of this section was John Childs, Director of Collections at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM). He used the opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark to show the overstuffed museum storage area with precious artifacts kept in dusty boxes. The self-portrait The Artist in His Museum by Charles Willson Peale made its second appearance, as it was used by Eric Höweler in his presentation. Other museums used a Cabinet of Curiosity model with many artifacts stuffed into wooden and glass cases, while the popular Blockbuster model “packed the people in” with few artifacts on display.

In the 1980s, Henry Robinson Luce III designed “Luce Centers”, a system for visible storage, which can be seen at the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, New York Historical Society, and The MET. However, these spaces were still overwhelming and even boring. Today, museums attempt to put collection storage on display. Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Netherlands and Schaulager in Basel, Switzerland are examples of storage open to the public. Some museums take an invite-only approach, integrating classrooms into the storage space.

PEM is in the process of building the PEM Collections Center in Rowley, MA. Currently, about 40% of the collections are stored there. The 120,000 square foot space has plenty of room for reading rooms, digitization, framing, and packing. The project has cost $17 million to date, with an additional $15 million of funding available.

The second speaker was Erica Lome, who described “The Past, Present, and Promise of Living Archives at HNE”. Recovering New England’s Voices Scholars and Mellon Conservation Fellows allow experts from the community to research their own material culture. Other projects, like the portrait of Cyrus Bruce first mentioned by Dr. Butler in the opening talk; the interpretation of the Kennebec river and its connection to the Wabanaki at Hamilton House in South Berwick, Maine; and costumed interpretation at Sarah Orne Jewett House, also in South Berwick, give increased awareness to marginalized voices. In additional to recent research, HNE commissioned Nipmuck, Wampanoag, and Penobscot artists to create jewelry for the collection.


Awards

During a ceremony held in Washburn Hall after a full day of great presentations, HNE granted many awards to deserving professionals in historic preservation and collections management. Awardees will tell their stories at a virtual presentation in December, with more details to come.

Location: 321 Main St, Worcester, MA 01608, USA