Photos of the toy museum are available upon request.
Contact:
Becky Giantonio, Pita Communications
(860) 293-0157, ext. 25; becky@pitacomm.com
WEBB-DEANE-STEVENS MUSEUM KICKS OFF SUMMER WITH THE OPENING OF CHILDREN’S EXHIBITS
WETHERSFIELD, Conn. (April 26, 2007) – Step back in time at the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum this summer, and experience the life of a child during the early 19th century. On May 2, the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum begins its summer hours and unveils new children’s exhibits on the second floor of the Stevens House.
The second floor of the Stevens House has been closed to the public for more than 10 years. This spring, three rooms and the hallway were refurbished with fresh paint and new lighting and now feature a toy museum, an 1830s children’s bedroom and an interactive room where children can play with various reproduction period toys and games.
“The Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum is dedicated to bringing history to life for our visitors, many of whom are families,” said Charles Lyle, executive director of the museum. “We wanted to create an exhibit area that families can relate to and children will look forward to seeing. The children’s exhibits, as well as our popular Museum School programs, get kids excited about history, because they can both see and experience the way children lived in an earlier era.”
The toy collection includes a dollhouse, rocking horse, various games, an authentic 18th-century wooden doll, a French fashion doll complete with trunk and wardrobe to display fashions from Paris, children’s books and various examples of miniature furniture. A Noah’s Ark is displayed in one of the cases with its cargo of carved wooden birds and animals lined up in pairs waiting to enter the ark. This was one of the few toys children were permitted to play with on Sunday. The collection also includes an 1840 model of a schoolhouse. The schoolmaster looms large over his class of boys and girls seated behind their wooden desks, with the boys seated on one side and the girls on the other, as was the custom of the time.
The newly refurnished children’s bedroom in the front of the house features paneling and woodwork painted in its original blue color with red trim. The paint was uncovered when the house was restored from 1959 to 1963. The room is interpreted to reflect the sleeping arrangements of the five children who lived in the Stevens home in the 1830s, and contains a large bed with a trundle bed that rolled underneath and a small bed with its original green paint. Also on exhibit are 19th-century bedroom furnishings, a child’s chest of drawers made of curly maple with glass knobs, additional period toys and colorful quilts and textiles.
In the interactive room, visitors can learn about children’s lives in the 19th century as seen in the photographs of early portraits and engravings of children pinned on bulletin boards mounted on the room’s walls. These colorful pictures portray the clothing children wore, their pets, the games and toys they enjoyed, their schooling and their role as laborers on the farm and in factories. Young visitors can also play with reproduction toys and games and try on children’s clothing.
School and children’s groups can arrange to play 19th-century outdoor games on the back lawn, such as the game of graces. The game, in which opponents send whirling hoops toward each other to be caught on the tips of slender wands, was considered proper and beneficial exercise for young ladies in the early 1800s. The game of shuttle cock is similar to badminton but does not include a net. A conical feathered cock is struck back and forth with the objective of keeping it in the air as long as possible.
This collection of toys was a gift to the museum by members of The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America (NSCDA) in the State of Connecticut, an association dedicated to fostering an appreciated of the state’s heritage through historic preservation and education. The NSCDA in Connecticut owns the museum’s three homes and works to restore and interpret the properties.
The Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum is open daily – with the exception of Tuesday – from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., May through October. Three-house tours cost $8 for adults and $4 for students and children ages 5 to 18. For information about current exhibits, upcoming events or Museum School classes, call (860) 529-0612 or visit www.webb-deane-stevens.org.
About the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum
Located in the heart of Connecticut’s largest historic district, the museum, which consists of three authentically restored 18th-century homes, brings Wethersfield’s rich history to life, from the American Revolution through the early 20th century. The museum includes the Joseph Webb House, which served as George Washington’s headquarters in May 1781; the Silas Deane House, built for America’s first diplomat; and the Isaac Stevens House, which depicts life during the Industrial Revolution through original family objects.
The museum is also responsible for tours of the Buttolph-Williams House, which portrays 17th-century life.
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