Historic Cherry Hill
Contents -- November 2004
- Responding to Change
- Interest Bearing Loan
- Paper Chase
- That's a Lot of Doilies!
- Albany's Crime of the 19th Century Still Peaks Interest
- Shop Talk
- New Look, New Perks
- Spreading the Word
- Volunteer!
Responding to Change
Education Director Rebecca Watrous has begun working with a team of consultants to develop a new core school program for grades 3-5, that will focus on the Cherry Hill family's response to change during the development of democracy in America. The new program will help the museum better fulfill its interpretive mission of "focusing on one Albany family's search for order and stability in response to personal and social change, encouraging the public to establish an emotional connection and critical distance in order to gain perspective on their own history and lives."
Over the summer, Becky worked with consultants Patricia West McKay, a historian and Curator at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site, Tamara Plakins Thornton, chair of the History Department at SUNY-Buffalo, Donald Wheeler, a retired and innovative classroom teacher, and Wendy Aibel-weiss, Senior Educator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, to begin to identify the new program's major theme and ideas. The program will help teachers fulfill the fourth grade social studies curriculum, and will help students understand that in the past, people had different ideas and values than we have today, that people have different points of view that are influenced by circumstances of time and place, and that the Cherry Hill family responded to change by holding on to their past and their hereditary power in an increasingly democratic society.
The program will employ role-playing and theatrical techniques, as well as the use of a popular fairy tale to illustrate the major theme and ideas.
Funding for this program was provided by the Bay Foundation (announced in the most recent newsletter) and the Get Set! Program (technical assistance funding provided by the Museum Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by the Upstate History Alliance). The museum was notified in late August that it had received $2,500 in Get Set! funds to underwrite the consulting fees of Donald Wheeler and Wendy Aibelweiss. The Get Set! program is designed to provide museums with access to outside professional ideas and opinions, knowledge and expertise.
[contents]Interest Bearing Loan
The Board, staff and volunteers at Historic Cherry Hill are very pleased with a new loan from Crailo State Historic Site and the State of New York's Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The object, an oak desk-on-frame, was donated by Emily and Elmendorf Rankin to the State of New York for use at Crailo in 1959.
The desk's history is not completely known, although it was probably made in the 17th century in Holland. How it came to Cherry Hill is unknown, but it was present in the house when Solomon Van Rensselaer died in 1852, and was recorded in his probate inventory as "1 Old Holland Coss" (a kas is a traditional Dutch piece of furniture used for storing linens). While the object is clearly a desk, it easily could have been mistaken for a kas if closed. At some point between 1852 and the early 1880s, the desk was taken off of its frame. The top portion was stored in the Cherry Hill attic and the bottom portion was fitted with a marble top and used as a table in the formal parlor. In the early 20th century, Catherine Rankin re-united the two parts, had some restoration work done on it and used it as her desk in the family parlor.
The desk now appears where it was used regularly by Catherine, and is a focal point of the family parlor.
[contents]Paper Chase
Historic Cherry Hill's 30,000- piece manuscript collection will be the focus of another project funded by the Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS). The museum learned in September that it was awarded nearly $26,000 to develop a plan for the organization and documentation of the materials, conduct a detailed inventory, assess the important collection's rehousing needs, and conduct data entry and research.
Research has always been paramount at Historic Cherry Hill, and the museum has been praised as an institution committed to new scholarship in the development of its award-winning programs. The project is timely and a particularly high priority for the institution at this time because the manuscript collection was out of the organization's direct control for the 30 years that it was housed and cared for in the Manuscripts and Special Collections Department at the New York State Library. Establishing physical and intellectual control over the manuscripts is an important first step in re-introducing the collection to the site. And just as it undertook a major 20th century research initiative in the 1980s, which ultimately informed the development of the most recent site interpretation, the museum is ready to embark on new research that will help the institution fulfill its revised interpretive mission through new programmatic efforts.
Curator Erin Crissman will oversee the project. Phil McCray, an Archivist based in Ithaca, will serve as project consultant. Phil recently worked as Archivist and Manager of the Research Center at the Onondaga Historical Association in Syracuse, New York. He received an MFA from the University of Iowa and previously worked as the Technical Services Archivist in the Division of Rare and Manuscript collections as well as a Manuscripts Cataloger and Special Collections Assistant in the Department of Manuscripts and University Archives at the Cornell University Library. He has served on the Executive Board of the Upstate History Alliance, a regional museum service agency, and on the Advisory Committee for the New York State Documentary Heritage Program.
The grant will also enable the museum to continue to work with Researcher Mary Doehla on a contract basis. Mary first came to Cherry Hill as an undergraduate volunteer. She then completed an internship funded by the New York State Council on the Arts. Based on her experience at the museum, she won a graduate assistantship while working towards an M.A. degree in History with a Certificate in Archival Management at New York University. In this position, she handled research requests from independent researchers and university personnel. Mary will conduct research throughout the grant period which will inform the development of future programs and publications.
As part of the project, the museum will also recruit a small corps of special project volunteers and interns to assist with the inventory and data entry.
[contents]That's a Lot of Doilies!
Curator Erin Crissman, consulting Conservator Gwen Spicer and her Conservation Assistant Abby Zoldowski are off and running on the textile conservation project that was recently funded by the Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS). The team has already surveyed 427 objects as diverse as doilies, costumes, shawls, hats and furniture coverings (in total, they will assess more than 4,000 items over the course of the 2-year project). The project is part of a larger initiative to re-house and move the museum's stored collections to the Edward Frisbee Center for Collections & Research. To date, Erin has overseen the relocation of 40% of the accessioned collections to the center.
[contents]Albany's Crime of the 19th Century Still Peaks Interest
How did the Cherry Hill family respond to a violent, life-changing event which occurred in their home over 170 years ago? Many hearty souls found out during Behind-the-Scenes Tours to investigate a murder which occurred in 1827 at the Cherry Hill farm of the Van Rensselaers. On October 23 & 30, Betty Grimm, Volunteer Guide, and Becky Watrous, Education Director, brought the event to life through the words of the people who experienced it. The crime had a broad social impact as well. It aroused tremendous public interest throughout the Northeast and marked the last public hanging in the city. The murder and its circumstances also shed light on some important issues of the day such as women's roles and legal rights, social class, punishment and the law, and slavery in New York. This focus tour may be occasionally offered in future years, and the event is the subject of a 7th and 8th grade teaching unit, Different Voices, Different Truths: The 1827 Murder at Cherry Hill, as well as an on-site school program and the book written by Louis C. Jones, Murder at Cherry Hill, now in its third printing.
[contents]Shop Talk
If you haven't stopped by Cherry Hill's small museum shop lately, add it to your list of errands. There are several new items for sale, including bookmarks, coasters, mouse pads and change purses with beautiful oriental carpet designs, and several publications featuring Hudson River School art, World War I posters, and fashions of the 1950s. The shop is open during museum and office hours. For information, contact Shop Manager/Bookkeeper Lauren Mastin on Wednesdays or Fridays at (518) 434- 4791. Reminder: Cherry Hill members receive a 10% discount in the museum shop!
[contents]New Look, New Perks
Over the past several months, Historic Cherry Hill has been working extensively on restructuring its Friends program, and on designing eye catching, appealing membership and volunteer brochures.
With Nadya Lawson and Carmen Rau of Coyote Consulting Associates, the museum has developed a host of new membership benefits, redefined its giving categories, and developed a brochure and narrative that complements the museum's interpretive programs. Exciting new benefits include membership in Time Travelers, a national reciprocal museum admission and shop discount program (offered at the Iron level), waiver of research fees in the Edward Frisbee Center for Collections & Research, and gifts or publications from the museum gift shop (offered in the Copper through Gold levels), and behind-the-scenes tours with the Curator (offered at the Gold level).
The beautiful, four-color brochure was designed by Harold Lohner, and features photographs of Cherry Hill collections taken by Drew Harty.
Also hot off the press is a fun, new volunteer brochure. Developed by Volunteer Coordinator/Program Assistant Linda Dunkerley, this new publication also reflects the museum's interpretive programs and furnishing period, and includes new photographs of several Cherry Hill volunteers in action. Like the membership brochure, this piece was designed by Harold Lohner. Harold was also responsible for the design of the museum's rack card and staff business cards. With his artistic style, the museum has begun to "brand" itself with a unique identity.
[contents]Spreading the Word
Twenty-year Cherry Hill volunteer Betty Grimm was featured in the September 28 edition of the Times Union. Highlighted in the regular feature, "Caring Community" Betty talked about her love of Cherry Hill and what makes it so special. She also noted that she will continue to give tours "until I can't make it up and down the stairs!" The column, which included a nice picture of Betty on the front porch of Cherry Hill, offered details and contact information to potential volunteers.
In an effort to introduce the museum to another new audience, Historic Cherry Hill was pleased to host the Albany County Convention & Visitors' Bureau's spring mixer. Held outdoors on a beautiful June evening, the mixer attracted more than 40 representatives from regional attractions, retailers, and the hospitality industry. Abbreviated tours were presented, and hors d'oeuvres were provided by the Patroon House of Glenmont.
[contents]Volunteer!
Historic Cherry Hill is offering an opportunity for volunteers to interpret its extensive and well-documented family collections through the dramatic tour, "The Rankins of Cherry Hill: Struggling with the Loss of Their World". Guides, who receive excellent training, lead tours/discussions for adult and family groups April through December. The museum will soon begin interviewing for weekend and combined weekday/weekend positions. The training program will begin in January 2005. After the training period, the time commitment for guides is approximately six hours per month. If interested, contact Volunteer Coordinator Linda Dunkerley at (518) 434-4791, or email her at Linda@historiccherryhill.org.
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