Page 30 – Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library

Transformations Shows Winterthur’s Contemporary Side

A second round of installations at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library reinforces how its vast collections inspire the makers and creators of today. Maker-Creator Fellows watercolor painter Rob Finn and ceramicist Heather Oassandon join four other former Maker-Creator Fellows in Transformations: Contemporary Artists at Winterthur, which features lively, often surprising responses to the traditional forms and objects in the museum, library, and garden collections.

“Transformations is a way of looking at how the collections remain relevant and how objects from the past inspire important conversations today,” says Kim Collison, curator of exhibitions at Winterthur. Through its Maker-Creator Fellowship program, Winterthur invites artists, writers, filmmakers, horticulturalists, craftspeople, and other creative professionals to immerse themselves in Winterthur’s collections. Work resulting from these fellowships can now be seen in the Winterthur galleries and gardens.

Ongoing through 2024, projects featured in Transformations will change periodically. The first cycle of Transformations features works by artists who have reflected on nature at Winterthur. Transformations coincides with the new exhibition Outside In: Nature-Inspired Design at Winterthur, which shows the powerful connection between nature and the decorative arts. Several of the featured artists have created works that invite visitors to consider the human impact on the environment. The newest featured artists are:

Rob Finn, watercolor painter

Finn’s art is an investigation into the character of trees that shows how climate, geology, and human society affect the morphology of each species. A Maker-Creator Fellow at Winterthur in 2020–2021, Finn studied the grounds and created dozens of tree portraits. His watercolor tree portraits show a modern sensibility in landscape painting by focusing on individual arboreal models rather than the grand or expansive perspectives that have historically dominated the genre. Finn’s Browns Meadow Tree, which celebrates a 300-year-old white oak tree lost to a hurricane and tornado in August 2020, is featured in the entryway to the first-floor galleries.

Heather Ossandon, ceramicist

Having observed the techniques and traditions of classically functioning ceramic communities around the world, Ossandon spotlights time-honored practices in the creation of everyday objects that are vehicles in the conversation about art and its social applications. On a table in the Society of Winterthur Fellows Gallery, Ossandon’s ceramic still life. Still Life with Fruit, examines the connection between the landscape and the food prepared for the many tables of the people who once lived and worked at Winterthur. Ossandon was a Maker-Creator Fellow in 2018.

ABOUT WINTERTHUR MUSEUM, GARDEN & LIBRARY

Winterthur—known worldwide for its preeminent collection of American decorative arts, naturalistic garden, and research library for the study of American art and material culture—offers a variety of tours, exhibitions, programs, and activities throughout the year. Admission includes the Winterthur garden, galleries, and a museum tour (by reservation).

Winterthur, located on Route 52, six miles northwest of Wilmington, Delaware, and five miles south of U.S. Route 1, is closed on Mondays (except during Yuletide), Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Museum hours are 10:00 am–5:00 pm, Tuesday–Sunday. $20 for adults; $18 for students and seniors; $6 for ages 2–11. Memberships are available for free and discounted admission. Winterthur is committed to accessible programming for all. For information, including special services, call 800.448.3883, or visit winterthur.org. Winterthur is closed seasonally from early January through late February.

Winterthur follows state and national protocols for the health and safety of all visitors and staff. For the latest information, visit winterthur.org/faq.

Contact: Mark Nardone
Mnardone@winterthur.org
302.888.4803 O 302.500.2559 M

View the PDF press release online.

Winterthur Library on the Internet Archive

Explore more than 900 trade catalogs and other resources from Winterthur’s page on the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/winterthurlibrary

In Memoriam: Beloved Curator, Educator, and Friend Linda Eaton

Over more than 30 years at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Linda Eatons’s contributions to her workplace and the field of textile arts and history have been numerous and invaluable. Her impact and influence are immeasurable.

Linda was recognized around the world for her leadership in the field of interdisciplinary textile scholarship. A specialist in textile conservation as well as textile history, she advanced technical and scientific knowledge of textiles broadly. At Winterthur, Linda oversaw the acquisition, interpretation, care, and exhibition of the museum’s textile collections, which includes nearly 20,000 furnishings, articles of clothing, rugs, quilts, and needlework.

Sadly, Linda passed on August 18, 2021, after a courageous battle against a long-term illness.

“Linda was one of those rare individuals who could speak with authority on detailed and technical matters one moment and in the next could sweep you away with her profound appreciation for the artistry and craft of an item,” said Chris Strand, the interim CEO of Winterthur. “She shared this gift through her teaching, her mentoring of staff and students, and the creation of our most popular and engaging exhibitions. All of us will miss her passion and her friendship.”

Linda has shared her knowledge and expertise through teaching hundreds of graduate students in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture and the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. She inspired future curators by widely sharing her enthusiasm with everyone from kindergartners and her graduate students to serious quilters, stitchers, designers, embroiderers, and general audiences. Hundreds of loyal followers attended her regular needlework conferences at Winterthur.

Linda curated popular and scholarly exhibitions about embroidery such as Quilts in a Material World; Needles and Haystacks: Pastoral Imagery in American Needlework; With Cunning Needle: Four Centuries of Embroidery; The Diligent Needle: Instrument of Profit, Pleasure, and Ornament; and Embroidery: The Language of Art, as well as Betsy Ross: The Life Behind the Legend, co-curated with Dr. Marla Miller. Linda curated the popular Treasures on Trial: The Art and Science of Detecting Fakes, and she was an instrumental partner in one of Winterthur’s most memorable exhibitions, Costuming THE CROWN in 2019, the only exhibition of costumes from the popular Netflix series.

Her publications include Quilts in a Material World: Selections from the Winterthur Collection (2007), and Printed Textiles: British and American Cottons and Linens, 1700–1850 (2014), a revision of Florence Montgomery’s seminal 1970 book. Linda’s latest publication, Erica Wilson: A Life in Stitches, co-authored with Anne Hilker, was released in December 2020.

“Linda must hold the record for number of scholarly publications and exhibitions emanating from Winterthur,” said Tom Savage, the former director of external affairs at Winterthur and a longtime friend. “Her Quilts in a Material World book and exhibition placed Winterthur’s extraordinary collection in a global context. There was nothing parochial about her approach. She knew the wide world of textiles internationally and brought that vast knowledge to the study of the most minute topic. Her update of Florence Montgomery’s Printed Textiles gave this landmark work new life as the publication of record on the topic. Two generations of scholars benefitted from her tutelage at Winterthur as conservator, then curator of textiles and McGraw director of collections, and her star pupils now head noted collections of textiles.”

Linda’s students and mentees care for renowned collections at such institutions as the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Museum of the American Indian, Colonial Williamsburg, and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Museum Tongarewa, as well as Winterthur. Linda was also a founding board member of the North American Textile Conservation Conference and a member of the board of Textile Society of America.

“Linda arrived in 1990 as the head of textile conservation and was initially my supervisor,” said Joy Gardiner, head of Conservation for Winterthur. “She quickly proved an excellent mentor to me and so many others, and she became a long-term good friend for my family—a wonderful presence and influence in our daughter’s life. Linda was a textilian to her core and a staunch—one might even say fierce—advocate for the objects made from fibers and the people who created them. In her generous sharing of this advocacy in teaching, publications, workshops and exhibitions, she fostered an expanded appreciation of the medium at Winterthur and well beyond. Her influence will be long lasting.”

Outside the museum and the classroom, Linda served as the volunteer president of the Arden Craft Museum Board, which preserves the unique history of three communities known collectively as The Ardens. Linda’s leadership helped to transform the museum into a center of the villages that offers year-round programs and attracts researchers from around the country.

Linda trained at the Textile Conservation Centre and the Courtauld Institute of Art before working for the National Museums of Scotland. Linda arrived at Winterthur in 1991 as a textile conservator. She became curator of textiles in 2000 and was promoted to director of museum collections and senior curator of textiles in 2009. Linda was named the John L. and Marjorie P. McGraw Director of Collections and Senior Curator of Textiles in 2012. She retired in December 2020. An endowed curator of textiles position was recently created in her name.

Though the Winterthur community is saddened by Linda’s passing, we honor her legacy in our daily work and continue to celebrate her accomplishments and influence on the field. Others who wish to honor Linda may make a donation to the Linda Eaton Curator of Textiles endowment at https://my.winterthur.org/donate/i/lecurator.

View the Press Release online.

Library News

These are the most recent issues of Winterthur Library News, our quarterly newsletter entitled. If you would like to receive issues as they come out, please use our Newsletter Subscription form. Many thanks for your interest.

Recent Issues

2020 – Summer Edition
2020 – Spring Edition
2019 – Winter Edition
2019 – Fall Edition
2019 – Summer Edition
2017 – Fall Edition
2017 – Summer Edition
2017 – Spring Edition
2017 – Winter Edition

Finding Aids

Search across hundreds of finding aids to get detailed descriptions of archival collections.

Please note that this list is not comprehensive, please contact reference@winterthur.org for more information.

Collections

Documents

Folios

Microfilm

    Microfilm 1-2: Inventories of Estates: New York City and Vicinity
    Microfilm 5, 8-24: Inventories of Estates, Baltimore County, Maryland
    Microfilm 91: John McComb Architectural Drawings and Account Book
    Microfilm 101: Bancker Family Papers
    Microfilm 187: Samuel Wetherill and Sons Ledger
    Microfilm 255-257, 260-261: Kress Library of Business and Economics, Woolen and Silk Trades Papers
    Microfilm 270-282: Inventories of English Royalty
    Microfilm 296: Samuel Rowland Fisher Travel Journals
    Microfilm 314, 437-439: Thomas Cole Papers and Sketchbooks
    Microfilm 665.1: Ezekiel Bennett Daybook
    Microfilm 665.2-3: Robert C. Scadin Manuscripts
    Microfilm 665.4: Leonard Proctor Ledger and Daybook
    Microfilm 665.5: Miles Benjamin Ledger
    Microfilm 667-708: Philadelphia County, Pa. Tax Ledgers
    Microfilm 712-714, 1619: Elias Pelletreau Account Books
    Microfilm 737: American Correspondence of the Royal Society of Arts
    Microfilm 764-809: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Records
    Microfilm 839: American Philosophical Society Communications
    Microfilm 848: Aaron Ogden Account Book
    Microfilm 876: James Dixon and Sons Letterbook
    Microfilm 892-894: New Orleans Artists. Roster
    Microfilm 1424-1525, 2728: Gillow & Co. Business Papers
    Microfilm 1574-1576: Warren Family Papers
    Microfilm 1901: Constitutions of the Journeymen’s and Workingmen’s Associations, Philadelphia, Pa.
    Microfilm 2016-2022: Essex Institute Sample Books
    Microfilm 2579: Charles N. Buck Memoirs
    Microfilm 2677: John Glassford & Co. Records
    Microfilm 2710-2714: John Nicholson Papers
    Microfilm 2855, 2857.1: Job Danforth Account Book

Shaker Collection

     Shaker Artifacts: Shaker Artifacts
     Shaker Media: Shaker Media
     Shaker Photographs: Shaker Photographs
     Shaker 734: Olive Blake Papers
     Shaker 736: Shaker Discharges and Lists of Clothing
     Shaker 737: Wills and Estate Inventories
     Shaker 740: Hancock, Mass. Real Estate Records
     Shaker 751: New Lebanon, NY Apprenticeships
     Shaker 752: New Lebanon, NY Real Estate Records
     Shaker 818: Journal of William Deming’s Travel to the State of Ohio.
     Shaker 871: Jane Emily Smith Papers
     Shaker 1039: Stephen Munson Letters
     Shaker 1044: Pleasant Hill, Ky. Letters
     Shaker 1046: Sodus Bay, NY Letters
     Shaker 1047: South Union, Ky. Letters
     Shaker 1048: Union Village, Ohio Letters
     Shaker 1089: Margaret Brown Collection
     Shaker 1128: New Lebanon, NY Bills and Letters
     Shaker 1130: New Lebanon, NY Receipts and Notes
     Shaker 1142: Florence Roberts Letters
     Shaker 1198: Helena Blavatsky Collection
     Shaker 1202: Laura Carter Holloway Langford Papers
     Shaker 1393: John R. Henry Papers

Chairs of the Fed

A pair of chairs made for Alexander Hamilton and his wife.

Winterthur deconstructs Alexander Hamilton’s seating to see what it might say about furniture making and taste.

The big news about Hamilton, the musical, is that it will open the Broadway Philadelphia season this fall. The bigger news about Hamilton at Winterthur is that the museum recently acquired six chairs that are strongly believed to have been owned by him—and they have much to tell.

Since 1952, Winterthur has owned a side chair that was part of a set of 18 to 24 chairs believed to have been made by New York cabinetmaker Elbert Anderson between 1790 and 1800 for Alexander Hamilton and his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton. Based on close similarities in the decoration and construction of that first Winterthur chair, chairs in other museum collection, and the six added to the Winterthur collection in December, Josh Lane, the Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil Curator of Furniture, and Kathy Z. Gillis, the Elizabeth Terry Seaks Senior Furniture Conservator, believe they are all part of the same set.

“We’re looking for a bill, an order, a diary entry—anything like that,” says Lane. “We need that smoking gun.”

‘Kind of radical’

The chairs are made of mahogany. All are decorated with swags of floral inlay, each meticulously incised, then rubbed with ink or paint to heighten the illusion of relief. The seats curve upward at the corners for comfort. The tops are flat, unlike typical shield-back chairs. The Hamiltons used them in the dining room of The Grange, their Federal-style home in Manhattan.

“They’re kind of radical,” says Lane, who describes the chairs as “party furniture.” “This is the cutting edge of high fashion, made for a very public, performative room designed for entertaining and dining on a large scale.”

The chairs were a gift from Lammot du Pont Copeland and his wife, Deborah Copeland, who used them in their own dining room for many years. They match side chairs in other museum collections, including the Albany Institute of History and Art, the Museum of the City of New York, the New York State Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art—all of them believed to be from the original set made for the Hamiltons. The set could have been dispersed through an estate sale or divided among the Hamilton children.

The two armchairs are especially important. When the conservation firm Wilkinson and Fallon replicated the set in 2011 for display at the Grange, no armchairs from the set were known to exist. Designers were forced to speculate about how they might have looked. Conclusive evidence that Winterthur’s armchairs are original would confirm the design and reinforce interpretation at The Grange and other sites.

Finding the story

In Winterthur’s furniture conservation lab, Gillis has removed the latest upholstery and springs, revealing evidence of three or four previous upholstery campaigns through the nail and tacking holes, including a decorative swag pattern that may be the original. Some of the chairs may be re-upholstered to approximate their original appearance, then displayed in the Winterthur house. Two of the chairs may remain uncovered for further study by Winterthur staff and other scholars. With the benefit of new knowledge, Lane himself looks forward to studying chairs in other collections.

By comparing these chairs with those in other collections, “We’re learning more of the story of New York chairmaking and who the craftsmen were, who worked on this commission. These chairs also tell a story of taste and how they functioned in a private home—one in which government officials were hosted,” Lane says. How did a well-connected, high-placed statesman and his wealthy, taste-making spouse define what was fashionable and appropriate for their station in life? “Those are fun questions to explore.”

Object of the Month: Globe or Terrestrial Sampler

Close up image of globe or terrestrial sampler

In 1815, when 14-year-old Ruth Wright embroidered her last stitch in the pale blue silk fabric that she had fitted around an 8-inch spherical form to make a terrestrial globe, did she feel a sense of accomplishment or relief, joy or frustration?

Ruth had sewn the skin of her globe sampler from eight pie-shaped pieces of silk on which she had carefully lettered in ink the names of continents, countries, islands, and oceans. After penciling the boundaries of countries, the equator, the Arctic and Antarctic, Ruth painstakingly embroidered the lines with fine white silk thread. She used red silk thread to delineate the tropics of Capricorn and Cancer and blue silk thread to mark the longitudinal and latitudinal lines.

Image of globe or terrestrial sampler — A rare globe embroidery sampler, made by Ruth Wright in 1815.

The story behind the object

I am drawn to this piece because, in its simplicity and fragile state, it might not seem very attractive at first glance. But further examination and study of the history and makers of such objects can reveal much more. It’s the story behind the object—the why and the who—that interests me.

Because I started embroidering as a pre-teen, I feel some connection to the maker. I also lived and traveled as a child outside of the continental United States, and through these experiences, I learned to appreciate geography and cultures other than my own.

We do not yet know much about the young woman who created this piece. From a label on the bottom of the globe’s wooden stand and from her school’s records, we know Ruth’s name, that she was from Exeter, Pennsylvania, and that she made her terrestrial or globe sampler while enrolled for just one year (October 1814 to October 1815) at Westtown School in Chester County, a Quaker boarding school 25 miles west of Philadelphia. From research into the curricula at Westtown during this period and an examination of other known examples, we know the globe was both a useful study tool and a practical memento that demonstrated Ruth’s needlework skills and, perhaps more significant, the instruction she had received in astronomy and mathematical geography.

A rare example

Ruth’s terrestrial globe is among 40 known surviving examples of terrestrial and celestial embroidered globes made by Westtown School girls from the early 1800s through the mid-1840s. Enrollment records for documented globe-makers reveal that most girls attended Westtown for only one year during their early- to mid-teens and that they came from homes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware. The earliest Westtown embroidered globes date from an era when the few globes the school purchased for classroom use were made in England.

The silk fabric of Ruth’s globe is fragile and the colors are fading, but the piece is still useful as an educational tool. When not included in an exhibition at Winterthur or out on loan to another museum, it rests quietly in study-storage awaiting visits from researchers and special needlework tours. The globe was most recently loaned in 2016 to the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, for inclusion in the exhibition, The Instruction of Young Ladies: Arts from Private Girls’ Schools and Academies in Early America.

Beth J. Parker Miller

Registrar

Paintings Conservation

The Paintings conservator is responsible for the care of more than 380 paintings in the Winterthur collection, as well as their frames and painted surfaces on objects such as furniture and clock dials. Paintings conservators address structural problems such as torn or deteriorated canvas or stretchers that cause distortion and loss of the paints and varnishes applied to them. Paint on any substrate (canvas, wood, or metal) may begin to flake due to physical damage, corrosion, or shrinking and swelling in the substrate caused by unstable relative humidity. Wood and fabrics such as canvas absorb and release moisture as the relative humidity fluctuates, which results in dimensional changes. Because the paint layer absorbs moisture at a different rate, it cannot change with the substrate, causing the paint to flake. Varnishes and coatings applied to the surface age and darken with time and may require cleaning or removal and replacement.

Visually and structurally, frames are an integral part of paintings because they provide protection and the means to hang a painting. Traditional frames are composed of wood, compo (a plaster-like mixture of chalk, glue, resin, and oil) and various gilt and painted finishes that are subject to abrasion and physical damage that causes breakage and loss of decorative elements.

Preventive Conservation

Like other parts of Winterthur’s collection, paintings are maintained at a stable temperature and relative humidity of 50 percent and protected from excessive light that can accelerate aging of varnish and fading of pigments. Proper framing requires a backing board to protect the canvas and secure hardware to ensure safe hanging.

Textiles Conservation

Textile conservators at Winterthur are responsible for about 20,000 objects such as window treatments, bed curtains, rugs, costumes, quilts and coverlets, needlework, and upholstery. Damage to textiles comes from many sources. Unstable environmental conditions that cause mold and exposure to excessive light weaken and discolor textile fibers and fade dyes and colorants. Abrasive, acidic soil from the environment that becomes embedded in the fibers also weakens and disfigures the textile. Stains and wear from past usage contribute to deterioration. Some dyes and finishes used in the production of textiles are inherently unstable and may case serious damage. Textile conservators support and stabilize the structure of textiles while reducing stains and degradation wherever possible.

Preventive Conservation

Winterthur’s textiles are stored in stable environmental conditions using acid-free archival quality tissues, boxes, and fabrics. To prevent creases that cause localized damage to the fibers, textiles are rolled or padded with acid-free tissue. Textiles on open exhibit are cleaned regularly by careful low-suction vacuuming to remove dust. Lighting specialists are especially vigilant in lighting textiles and keep the levels very low. If a textile becomes too weak to remain on exhibit, it is retired to the study collection and replaced with a textile in better condition or a reproduction fabric. Textile conservators also work with furniture conservators to preserve existing upholstery fabrics or replace them with reproductions.

Furniture Conservation

The Furniture Conservation Lab cares for and treats about 9,000 pieces of furniture and wooden objects in the collection. Historic surfaces, both transparent and painted, change and deteriorate over time, resulting in crackling, flaking, uneven darkening, fading, blanching, scratches, and stains. Furniture conservators are concerned with both structural and surface issues. Conservators maintain and stabilize the structure of objects that may have been damaged or poorly repaired in the past, that suffered an insect infestation, or were weakened by exposure to water or a poor environment. They balance preserving early surfaces and the history they embody with maintaining an aesthetic appearance that respects the intent of the original maker.

Working with textile conservators, furniture conservators also care for upholstered furniture. They preserve and stabilize existing upholstery structures and show fabrics when they are historically appropriate and in stable condition. When the upholstery is inappropriate and/or the structure or show fabric is too deteriorated, conservators replace it with a non-invasive structure that avoids nailing or tacking into the original wood.

Preventive Conservation

To reduce the risk of damage to its furniture collection, Winterthur maintains a stable environment with an average temperature of 68 degrees to 70 degrees and a relative humidity of 45 percent to 55 percent. A stable relative humidity is especially important to furniture since rapid changes cause different parts of the object to expand and contract at different rates and to different degrees, causing problems such as detached veneers, cracks, and flaking paint. Since insects like the powder post beetle can cause serious damage to wooden objects, preventive conservation aides carefully monitor for evidence of insect activity. Excess light can cause surfaces and upholstery fabrics to fade or darken so exterior windows are modified to reduce ultraviolet and visible light. Wintethur lighting specialists design interior lighting to minimize damage.

Recent Issues

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Documents

Folios

Microfilm

Shaker Collection

Winterthur deconstructs Alexander Hamilton’s seating to see what it might say about furniture making and taste.

‘Kind of radical’

Finding the story

The story behind the object

A rare example

Preventive Conservation

Preventive Conservation