Abby Epplett, Historian

On the same street as Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme Historical Society wrote a self-guided walking tour available on their website . This tour provided brief histories and custom watercolor illustrations of buildings. While an audio tour would have been easier to follow, the tour was straightforward and gave plenty of information without requiring too much reading. Sidewalks for most of the route allowed visitors to safely traverse the fairly quiet center of town.

A few weeks ago, I went on adventure to the Mystic / Lyme area of Connecticut. One of my stops was Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT. This is the third of three posts about the experience. After discussing the house and the grounds, I move inside to the exhibits at Krieble Gallery. The exhibits held during my visit were “Impressionism 150: From to Paris to Connecticut & Beyond”, “From Art Colony to Connecticut Collection: Highlights from the Florence Griswold Museum”, and “At First Glance: Highlights from the Westerly Museum of American Impressionism”.

The Men in my illustrations for Part 2 look drastically different from the Men of Part 1. While the first group of Men is perceived as white or European-coded by modern readers, the second group is perceived as non-white or people of color. A major concern, even controversy, for critics of Tolkien’s work is that the text contains racist material, to which I agree, or that the text itself is inherently racist, which I would argue against. This ground has been trod over multiple times with a plethora of essays arguing for both sides. Many of these arguments struggle to separate the perspectives of fictional, in-universe characters from the perspective of the fictional version of Tolkien acting as a translator from the perspective of real-world Tolkien writing the book, and after writing that convoluted sentence, I can see why. While I do not have a PhD in Tolkien studies, I have completed plenty of research in related fields where I do have higher level degrees.

During my adventure to the Mystic / Lyme area of Connecticut a few weeks ago, I visited Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT. This is the second post in a three-part series about my trip. In my first post , I described the experience inside the house itself. In this post, I cover the buildings and gardens on the grounds, including an education center, landscape center, studio, and several self-guided walks.

During my adventure to the Mystic / Lyme area of Connecticut a few weeks ago, I visited Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT. This expansive property along the river preserves the boarding house of Florence Ann Griswold where the American Impressionist art movement began. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993. Like Mystic Seaport Museum , the full experience cannot be fit into a single post, so this will be a three-part mini series. Today, I will cover the tour of the house itself, with the house restored to its original form on the first floor and galleries on the second floor. The other parts of this series will cover the grounds and Krieble Gallery.

As someone who typically will not read a book or watch a movie with too many men — one reason I dislike Chariots of Fire while acknowledging that it deserves to be considered a technically and culturally significant film — The Lord of the Rings is a notable exception. The main cast of Nine Walkers have all been assigned male pronouns in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “translation” into English from Westron, and more on the technicalities of gendered language will appear in upcoming posts for the Appendixes on languages in Middle-earth. Yet female characters regularly have greater magical power or preternatural ability than their male counterparts: Galadriel was the greatest of the Ñoldor Elves, Arwen influenced Aragorn to reunite an empire, Eowyn killed the Witch-King, and even Rosie Cotton implied she could predict the future, telling Sam upon his return to the Shire, “I’ve been expecting you since the Spring” ( The Return of the King , 312).

I recently had an adventure in the Mystic / Lyme region of Connecticut and spent about a day and a half at Mystic Seaport Museum . This is the sixth post in a six-part miniseries about my visit. My last four posts covered Part 1 and Part 2 of “Seaport Village” along with the “Preservation Shipyard” , “Galleries” , and “Boats, Signs, & Shows” . In “Bonus Houses”, I look at four properties owned by the museum and visible from the street, and then give my conclusion to the series.

I recently had an adventure in the Mystic / Lyme region of Connecticut and spent about a day and a half at Mystic Seaport Museum . This is the fifth post in a six-part miniseries about my visit. My last four posts covered Part 1 and Part 2 of “Seaport Village” along with the “Preservation Shipyard” and “Galleries” . This post includes “Boats, Signs, & Shows” such as the Charles W. Morgan , the Joseph Conrad  and Little Vigilant , many other antique boats, the opportunity to operate small boats, signage, and shows about maritime life in 19 th century New England. The final upcoming post will feature “Bonus Houses”.

I recently had an adventure in the Mystic / Lyme region of Connecticut and spent about a day and a half at Mystic Seaport Museum . This is the fourth post in a six-part miniseries about my visit. My last three posts covered Part 1 and Part 2 of “Seaport Village” along with the “Preservation Shipyard” . Today’s post features the “Galleries”, which hosted exhibits on ship figureheads, glass reproductions of sea creatures, art and diversity in maritime New England, the history of shipping, and a large model of Mystic. Upcoming posts will include “Boats, Signs, & Shows” and “Bonus Houses”.

I recently had an adventure in the Mystic / Lyme region of Connecticut and spent about a day and a half at Mystic Seaport Museum . This is the third post in a six-part miniseries about my visit. My last two posts covered Part 1 and Part 2 of “Seaport Village”. Today’s post focuses on the “Preservation Shipyard”, where I saw the ongoing restoration of several boats along with an exhibit on the materials used to build these boats. Upcoming posts include “Galleries”, “Boats, Signs, & Shows”, and “Bonus Houses”.