Seeds of the Past: A Flax Garden Journey in Time at the Old Berwick Historical Society

                         Old Berwick Historical Society & The Counting House Museum

Seeds of the Past: A Flax Garden Journey in Time

 By Beth Gallucci, Executive Director

 

Why Flax? This was a question often asked by visitors to the Old Berwick Historical Society’s (OBHS) experimental archaeology project at the Counting House Museum, Seeds of the Past: A Flax Garden Journey in Time. The answer is deeply rooted in New England history. This spring, in collaboration with the Woodman Museum and the Newmarket Historical Society, OBHS (and partners) grew their own community flax gardens, a project initiated by Dr. Kimberly Alexander, as part of her broader flax-to-linen research. The project was funded by a grant from the James Hayes Fellowship at the UNH Center for the Humanities.

 

This collaboration aimed to explore the process of growing and harvesting flax, a crop that played a crucial role in the region’s pre-industrial, rural-based textile economy. Historically, flax was once a cornerstone of local life. It was essential for producing linen for clothing and household textiles. By recreating these processes, the project offered a hands-on approach to understanding the agricultural practices and economic exchanges that shaped our ancestor’s daily lives, and a deeper appreciation for the historical significance of flax in our shared history. 

 

Dr. Erin Sigel, Collection Manager at The Hodgdon Herbarium/Department of Biological Sciences at the University of New Hampshire and her staff extracted some of OBHS’s flax plants from the garden in mid July. The samples will provide a picture of this years growing cycle and aid Dr. Alexander’s research. Additionally, filmmaker Catherine Stewart was onsite documenting the process.

 

OBHS planted its flax on June 1st, and after a 91-day growing period, the crop was harvested on August 30th. The growth of some flax strands was affected by the site conditions, including prior construction, backfill, and an underground clay pipe. These factors contributed to uneven growth and yellowing of the stems in certain areas of the garden. However, we had a successful harvest overall and will proceed with drying the flax stooks, followed by the retting process, which will allow us to then break, scutch, and comb the flax in preparation for spinning it into linen thread.

The Old Berwick Historical Society houses an extensive collection of linen items, including dresses, waistcoats, military patches, pantaloons, and tablecloths, as well as artifacts like ships’ log covers and linen-lined clothing and shoes. Among these pieces, the Counting House Museum also displays a diary entry written by Benjamin Gerrish, a farmer from South Berwick, Maine, dating to the late 18th century. On October 18, 1791, Gerrish recorded harvesting 50 pounds of flax. After his death in 1792, his probate inventory listed several linen items, including pillowcases, a set of linen damask curtains, and two homespun linen diaper tablecloths valued at 6 shillings. Wills and probate documents like these offer valuable insights into the significant role that flax and linen played in the New England economy.

Join OBHS & The Counting House Museum in celebrating the final weeks of their historic exhibition, “Material Culture: Domestic Cloth-Making in 18th Century New England.” On view through October, the exhibit is open on Sundays from 1-4 PM, or by appointment. This thoughtfully curated display will be of particular interest to textile enthusiasts, artists, and scholars of material culture.

 

The UNH Flax-to Linen-Project Expands to Three Community Grow Sites

Posted by Dr. Kimberly Alexander

Director of Museum Studies and Senior Lecturer, UNH Department of History

James Hayes Fellow, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025

Funded by two fellowships from the UNH Center for the Humanities, the overall conceptual framework for this project began in a UNH History Department classroom in Spring of 2023 while teaching a new course for HIST600/800 entitled "From Homespun to Fast Fashion: A Global History of Textiles."  Now in our second year, in addition to growing, harvesting and processing flax and conducting primary source research, the Flax Team has presented over a dozen talks, given numerous demonstrations, and of note, opened an exhibition about the project at the Woodman Museum in Dover. (The exhibition entitled “Combing History: Flax and Linen in New Hampshire” is on view through 24 November 2024.)

For the 2024-2025 season, we shifted the project from its initial physical core at UNH and took what the project team learned about the growing and processing of flax out into the larger public Seacoast museum and history community. Dr. Alexander and graduate research assistants in the UNH History/Museum Studies program are working with three community partners (‘grow sites’), where each will grow flax and can incorporate hands-on teaching about the importance of growing flax and processing linen in New Hampshire into their public educational activities. Other related educational opportunities include discussions of sustainability, fast fashion and circular design models, gendered workspaces, and community agricultural events and seasonal celebrations.

 

There are three components to this next phase of the project: Allocating funds to three community partners as grow sites [Woodman Museum, Dover; Old Berwick Historical Society, South Berwick, ME, and Newmarket Historical Society, Newmarket]; exploration of the use of film shorts with film-maker Catherine Stewart to increase audience reach throughout New Hampshire and beyond and continued archival research. 

In the past, the unrecorded thousands of hours of cutting, retting, braking, spinning, dying, weaving, and sewing small clothes, bed linens, and all manner of domestic items contributed greatly to a New Hampshire family’s financial stability. This aspect of domestic production in rural economies continues to remain largely absent from history texts, particularly in the time before the mid-19^th century and the growth of the textile factory/industrial complex seen in just about every New Hampshire town.

 

The ability to deep dive into this single important fiber, while growing it at UNH and surrounding communities, offers a tremendous opportunity for university- and community-wide engagement and allows the extension of historic research surrounding our flax project to include 18^th and early 19^th century flax growing and linen production in the Seacoast.  The project started in the classroom and will continue evolve in the classroom, but it will spill out into the community, to Woodman Farm, and local archives, to presentations for interested groups both inside and outside UNH. It is anticipated that students will take this multi-faceted experience with them beyond the campus to expand in any number of ways.

 

Dr. Alexander’s research is funded by two James Hayes Fellowships from the UNH Center for the Humanities.

All photos are from community flax harvest days at the community grow sites.

Lecture: Textile Tuesdays at the Newmarket Historical Society

‘Flax & Linen: A New Hampshire Perspective on the American Revolution’

Dr. Kimberly Alexander, University of New Hampshire History Department

6 August 2024 at 6:00

Newmarket Historical Society, Stone School Museum, Granite Street

Free and open to the public— donations gladly accepted.

Exhibition Spotlight: A rare extant blue and white striped homespun linen dress, c. 1800, with a New Hampshire provenance

By Kimberly Alexander

Understated and refined describes the time-worn beauty of this hand-sewn, unlined homespun c. 1800 linen dress. The indigo blue and white stripes, loosely pleated back, and empire waist subtly elevate the style of this every day, at-home or work dress.

 

The numerous patches and repairs reveal its inherent value to the wearer/wearers and the reluctance to discard such a frequently overlooked garment. It is not known if the maker and the wearer are the same or related in some way – perhaps future research will uncover additional information. Employing blue and white stripes was indeed common in early America. There was an extensive network of flax growers, spinners and linen weavers working throughout New Hampshire and the Seacoast region in the 18^th and into the 19^thcenturies. 

The weft-woven stripes indicate that the fabric was turned and cut horizontally to obtain the vertical striping implying a definite style choice and economical use of the linen. As noted by Adjunct Curator for the Irma Bowen Collection, Astrida Schaeffer: "In all, the gown is assembled out of thirty-two pieces (aside from its patches) and its use of fabric is extremely frugal, in places suggesting that the fabric is recycled from a previous object." Donated by Mary Pepperrell Ffrost Sawyer, of Durham NH, the dress has a strong local New Hampshire connection.

 You can view the dress at the Woodman Museum in Dover in the exhibition “Combing History: Flax and Linen in New Hampshire” through 24 November 2024.

Courtesy of The Milne Special Collections and Archives at Dimond Library. University of New Hampshire, part of the Irma G. Bowen Textile Collection

 

For a detailed description and images, see: https://scholars.unh.edu/bowen_collection/597/

UNH Dimond Library, Archives and Special Collections 

 

3rd Annual Farm and Flax Day, Gilmanton, NH

From the Gilmantion Historical Society:

Experience Flax to Linen production as it was done in Colonial times at our historic flax retting pond. Discover the amazing qualities of linen and learn why this ancient fiber is making a comeback as a fabric of the future! 

Try your hand at processing flax or watch our wonderful team of presenters transform this ancient plant from stalk to thread to fabric. 

 

Flax Presenters are:
Peter Cook
Diane Howes
Cheryl Callahan
Lori Baldwin 
Michelle Parrish
Patty Williams
Marion Ceres & others

Stroll through the Howe Barn to view our exhibit of flax & linen artifacts that span 100's of years as well as our collection of antique farm implements. 

Blacksmithing presented by Norm Miner 
In addition, lacemaking demos will be presented by the New England Lace Group. To learn more: https://www.nelg.us/

Additional Participants:
The UNH Flax to Linen Project 
Marion Dillon & Members of the NNE Fibershed
Patty Williams Aker Fiber Farm

Like to hike? The Howe Conservation area includes a beautiful hike to Meetinghouse Pond on the Joe Urner Trail. 

Cost: Free but donations are encouraged for our ongoing restoration efforts.
Event Rain date is Sunday, July 28th.

Exhibition Spotlight: 18th Century Shoes on view at the Woodman Museum

By Kimberly Alexander

For Stratham, New Hampshire shoemakers such as Samuel Lane and Josiah Brown, tailors like Samuel Watson of Dover, and printers of newspapers, broadsides and books, linen played an important role. Often, in its ubiquity, it goes unmentioned and unnoticed in historical records. 

 

For example, the linen was used as the ground for embroidered shoe uppers and linings and embroidered samplers; it was employed also for interior lining material on waistcoats, jackets, and stays. Separately from clothing items, linen thread and cloth had scores of utilitarian purposes, used for grain sacks, thread for stitching, tape for binding; even linen rags for making paper were a sought-after commodity by newspaper publishers, printers and booksellers.

 

Join me for a look at three pairs of shoes featured in Combing History: Flax and Linen in New Hampshire.

 

Wool Shoes

 

These late 18th-century brown-black woolen shoes were likely made in New England, possibly in New Hampshire. The wearer and the maker are currently unknown. The wool upper retains a bit of a sheen, associated with popular calamanco uppers, and they are lined with locally produced linen. A "transition" style of shoe, the pointed toes and lower heels give a nod to fashion circa the 1780s-1790s. On the other hand, the straps or lachets, requiring buckles to affix them to the foot, carry on an earlier tradition. They are amply sized, well-finished, and may have been the "best shoes" of a "middling” sort, or perhaps they belonged to a woman who wanted a more traditional shoe. 

 

Loan courtesy of the Irma Bowen Textile Collection, University of New Hampshire, Archives and Special Collections, Museum #438. For more: https://scholars.unh.edu/bowen_collection/975/

  

Photo, Astrida Schaeffer; Courtesy UNH Irma Bowen Clothing Collection

Embroidered Cream Silk Shoes

 

Made in Boston, Massachusetts, this pair of elegant silk shoes with embroidered toes are lined with linen and feature diminutive string ties rather than the straps for buckles as seen in the adjacent woolen shoes. They are also a transitional shoe from the late 18th century. In both pairs of women’s shoes, as well as in the red silk shoes (adjacent), linen is used for lining and backing, and linen thread is used for sewing and for ties.

 

Loan courtesy of the author.

 

Red Silk Shoes

 

Although the maker and wearer are unknown, these vibrant and stylish red silk satin, linen-lined buckle shoes, c1780s, were possibly made in England and likely worn by a woman of means in New Hampshire. The architectonic, balanced color scheme and smooth satin surface is indicative of the transition away from the heavy embroidery and richly decorated silk brocades from earlier in the 18th century associated with the Rococo style, shifting to the burgeoning, Neoclassical influence of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

 

Loan courtesy of the Moffatt-Ladd House and Garden, Portsmouth, NH. 

**************

For more on Georgian Shoes in America:

 

The shoes on view here, in addition to dozens of others, are discussed in Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era [Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018. Honor Book Award 2019, Historic New England.]

https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/11565/treasures-afoot

 

For more in the UNH Flax-to-Linen Project

http://www.theflaxprojectunh.com

June 2024 Events: Combing History: Flax and Linen in New Hampshire

 Join us in June at the Woodman Museum, Dover, NH! 

All programs planned in conjunction with "Combing History..." are free, thanks to generous support from the NH Humanities.

For Your 2024 Planner: Events for 'Combing History: Flax and Linen in New Hampshire'

For additional details, follow this blog or
woodman museum.org

 

Exhibition Spotlight: 18th Century Stays from the Kensington Historical Society

 On View in 'Combing History: Flax and Linen in New Hampshire' 

at the Woodman Museum, Dover, NH. 

By Kimberly Alexander

 

What were stays? 

 

Stays were essentially a stiffened ‘foundation’ undergarment which supported the bust, aligned posture, trimmed the waist, and supported the dress or gown worn above it.  Women (as well as children and some men) of all socio-economic backgrounds wore stays – the design, materials, stitching and mending could reflect this. Generally, stays were not intended for the tight lacing associated with producing a tiny waist (there are always exceptions) but rather to help keep the body comfortable and the appearance neat. Not surprisingly, the shape of stays would change with the prevalent fashion.  The stays on view exemplify one of the exhibitions primary themes of ‘linen seen and unseen’: linen was used as an outer layer, an interior lining (although frequently that has deteriorated and requires scrutiny to see the evidence) and for sewing. 

The identity of the stay maker or makers are currently unknown, but fortunately, the owner of the two pairs of stays have been identified through the Kensington Historical Society. It is likely that Sarah Green (1746-1804) wore both the indigo-dyed, twilled linen stays, and the wool and linen lined, brown-gold stays, c. 1770s-90s. The interiors (not visible in the display) reveal rough hand sewing and linen patching indicating an alteration. The stays were donated by a descendant of the wearer, Sarah A. Green and are on loan courtesy of the Kensington Historical Society, Kensington, NH. 

Thank you to the Kensington Historical Society board and to University of New Hampshire History major and Kensington Historical Society Intern, Mikayla Tilden for making this loan possible.

 

 

 

 

Exhibition: How Do We Know? A Behind the Scenes Look at "Combing History: Flax and Linen in New Hampshire"

By Kimberly Alexander

 

How do we know about the textiles and the families whose stories are highlighted in the exhibition? Any exhibition, no matter the size or scale, is the result of hundreds of hours of work on the part of numerous of individuals. Over the last year, the project leads and the Museum Studies students involved in the UNH Flax-to-Linen Project conducted extensive research into a wide variety of New Hampshire collections and archives. 

Scouring day books, journals, shop accounts, receipts, newspapers, wills, and probate records, in combination with examination of historic textiles saved and passed along by family members, helped create a body of material to work with and cull through. In addition, the Flax Team worked with town, inventory, tax, poll, and census records.  

All of this – and much more-- goes into creating the background of, and connections to, the individuals and their possessions which you see in this installation.

Photo above: Beth Gallucci, Curator; John Cookson, Woodman Museum Curatorial Assistant and Jonathan Nicols, Director of the Woodman Museum read through Dover account and day books.

John Cookson, Woodman Museum and Astrida Schaeffer, Adjunct Curator, Irma Bowen Textile Collection. UNH Library, Special Collections,

Exhibit curator, Beth Gallucci, UNH Museum Studies and John Cookson prepare for exhbit opening.

Exhibition— Combing History: Flax and Linen in New Hampshire —Open Through 24 November 2024

 

Combing History: Flax and Linen in New Hampshire

is a milestone for the Museum Studies/History program at UNH: MA grad students curated, researched, installed, and fundraised for the exhibition and extensive public programing. 

The exhibition is a collaboration with the Woodman Museum in Dover, New Hampshire and is made possible through generous support from the New Hampshire Humanities, a James Hayes Fellowship from the UNH Center for the Humanities and the UNH History Department.