Abby Epplett, Historian

Several weeks ago, I went on a three-day adventure to the Mystic / Lyme area of Connecticut and visited many historic stops. During this trip, I went to Brookside Farm Museum in Niantic, CT, a village of East Lyme. Formerly called Smith-Harris House, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Thomas Avery House , some reasons behind its many names will be explained in this post. The route the house getting its complex name was likewise complex. In 1845, local carpenter John Clark built the Greek Revival style house for well-off merchant Thomas Avery and his new wife Elizabeth Brace Griswold Avery . The land on which it was built had been in the family for many years, with Thomas being in the seventh generation, and the new house included parts of an older house. Elizabeth died young in 1852 at age 29, so Thomas’ childless sister, Elizabeth Avery Henderson , moved into the house to care for their two surviving children. While older

After weeks of anticipation, we finally arrive at everyone’s favorite section, “Appendix A, II Durin’s Folk”, where readers receive a taste of Dwarf history and culture. While many readers gravitate towards Elves or Hobbits when choosing their favorite fantasy Race of Middle-earth, I have always preferred the Dwarves. What was not to love about the murder munchkins, who were as prepared to make jewelry or go spelunking as hack up their enemies with an ax? More Dwarf stories are found in The Silmarillion , as alluded to in the opening paragraph of this section, but here the reader finds context for the events in The Hobbit along with stories from the Line of Durin, or Dwarves descended from the first Dwarf awakened, and accordingly considered the most politically powerful group. Dwarves in European literature have not always taken on the sometimes delightful, sometimes tragic tone of Dwarves in Tolkien’s books. Historically, their stories have contained antisemitic underton

Several weeks ago, I had an adventure in the Lyme / Mystic area of Connecticut. In the village of Niantic in East Lyme, CT is Niantic Bay Boardwalk stretching 6000 feet from Niantic Bay Beach to Hole-in-the-Wall Beach. Fun yellow seashell location markers installed by Eagle Scout Joshua Miller of Troop 240 indicate how far a walker has traveled along the boardwalk and provide information for emergency services should something go amiss. Besides this excellent signage, the boardwalk boasts plenty of informational signs about the history and ecology of the area. As an added bonus, trains regularly run down the railroad tracks beside the boardwalk and cross the drawbridge on the Niantic Bay Beach end of the path. The Niantic River had been a challenge to cross since people settled in the area several thousand years ago, but the first known Niantic River Bridge was built in 1796 to replace a rope ferry, a pulley system that had brought passengers and goods

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.