Research: Old Berwick Historical Society, Counting House Museum

 By Kimberly Alexander, Director of Museum Studies

At the end of the fall 2023 semester, I organized a special tour for UNH Museum Studies class and the Flax Team to the Counting House Museum at the Old Berwick Historical Society. The tour was led by the OBHS curator, Ruth Greene-McNally, and guest curators, renowned material culture and historic textile specialists, Peter and Nancy Cook. The OBHS staff and exhibition team were extremely generous with their time and knowledge. We hope to return during the spring 2024 semester. 

 

About the exhibition: 

Material Culture: Domestic Cloth-Making in 18th Century New England

 

The Counting House Museum's 2022 exhibit explores the material culture of early domestic textile arts and the tools used to produce linen and woolen cloth in rural New England homesteads. Material goods provide a window into standards of living, self-sufficiency, economic diversification, and the transition from frontier life to settled communities. The specialized tools used to process flax and wool, and the spinning wheels and looms on display, reveal the necessary individual skills and the collaborative family roles in creating yarn and cloth. 

 

Loans from the collection of Guest Curators Peter and Nancy Cook and selections from the permanent collection of the Old Berwick Historical Society reflect the art of creating homespun textiles in common use throughout the 18th century. This exhibit will be on display for the 2023 season, with a possible extension into 2024.

 

Bartlett Bed Hangings, Five Valances, and Headcloth

 Unidentified maker, Londonderry, NH

18th century

Linen cloth and fringe

Courtesy of Peter and Nancy Cook 

​

Miniature Pencil Post Bed

Unidentified maker (bed)

c. 1770-1800

Maple, pine, and iron

Courtesy of Peter and Nancy Cook

Miniature Bed Curtains

Nancy Cook 

Linen, woolen, and cotton cloth fragments

Courtesy of Peter and Nancy Cook

The bedding and curtains for this miniature pencil post bed were made by Nancy Cook, c1985

 from fragments of materials pertaining to the period.

The OBHS Board of Directors gratefully acknowledges the support of several individuals for their contributions to the development of Material Culture: Domestic Cloth-Making in 18th-Century New England:

Hollis Brodrick, Lender 

Randi Ona, Lender

Paul and Pat Boisvert, Lenders 

Melody English, OBHS Archivist

Harrison English-Yonan, OBHS Archivist

Norma Keim, OBHS Archivist and Office Manager

Wendy Pirsig, OBHS Archivist and Board President, Emeritus 

Jane Orr, OBHS Board Treasurer, Proofreading 

Jane McDonnell, Gallery Renovation 

George McNally, Gallery Renovation 

Rich Cunningham, Gallery Renovation 

Dave Lurvey, Gallery Renovation

Philip C. Carling, MD, Custom Rare Book Boxes and Cradles 

Andy Ritzo, Trompe l'oeil faux finish 

Christina Nancarrow-Wilson, OBHS Archivist, Curatorial Assistance 

Jessica Elsmore, Photography

Rachel Zoll Schumacher, Graphic Design

Larry Hayden, Preparator

John Demos, OBHS Archivist, Gallery Renovation and Installation 

Ruth Greene-McNally, OBHS Curator

 

 

Introduction: #TeamFlax

Greetings, and welcome to our 

University of New Hampshire History Department 

Flax Project 

A few introductions...

Hello - I am Professor Kimberly Alexander, Director of Museum Studies & Senior Lecturer in the History Department at UNH.  My research and teaching examines material culture with a focus on historic textiles, and so I am excited about directing the Flax to Linen Project. This experimental undertaking explores the year-long cycle from planting to harvesting of flax, through its production and processing as linen. Linen was a common textile used in early America.  Funding from the UNH Center for Humanities, James Hayes Fellowship, allows me to introduce my graduate and undergraduate students into every phase of this New England experience as told via material culture and primary sources - account books, journals, diaries, newspapers, and probate inventories from the 17th through the early19th century. 

 

If you would like to know more about my publications, teaching. and public engagement, you can find me here: https://findscholars.unh.edu/display/ksd38

 

Invaluable assistance for this project is provided by COLSA Professor Rebecca Sideman, Department Chair, Agriculture, Nutrition, and Food Systems, and Evan Ford, Manager of the Woodman Horticultural Research Farm and the Kingman Research Farm. Financial support comes from a James Hayes Fellowship from the UNH Center for the Humanities and the History Department Harris Fund.

Professor Rebecca Sideman
https://colsa.unh.edu/person/rebecca-sideman

Evan Ford, Farm Manager
https://colsa.unh.edu/spotlight/evan-ford

Research Assistants

Hello, my name is Sophie MacDonald and I am a Museum Studies student at the University of New Hampshire. I love being able to experience history in person and am passionate about giving others the same opportunity to learn. Recreating historical processes allows researchers to truly grasp the skill and labor required to thrive in the past. This flax project is incredibly exciting because it allows me to deeply understand the process and work that went into the creation of a single scrap of fabric. Turning a simple plant into cloth is an impressive example of the continuation of knowledge over generations.

Hello! My name is Sydney Rue, and I am a Museum Studies Masters student at the University of New Hampshire. I have always been fascinated with experimental archeology and history. By recreating historical agricultural practices, you can uncover what has been forgotten or left unsaid. When Professor Alexander asked me to be a research assistant for the Flax Project, I was ecstatic. Fabric binds us to the past, and having the chance to grow and be a part of this endeavor is a dream for me.

Hello! My name is Erica Linderman and I am a PhD Candidate at the University of New Hampshire. I am thrilled to be a part of Team Flax and can't wait to see how this project unfolds. For me, history is storytelling; learning about the day-to-day lives of people deepens our understanding of the past and offers a way to make history more accessible. My work focuses on citizenship in New England during the Early Republic and how people navigated their communities in a world where the rules of citizenry were ill-defined. Flax played an integral role in the inner workings of New England communities, so to be able to part of this project and glean more information on the importance of flax was an opportunity I wasn't going to pass up.

Interns

Greetings! I am Beth Gallucci, currently a graduate student in the Museum Studies program at the University of New Hampshire. My journey into the captivating world of history and culture has led me to Dr. Alexander's and UNH's Flax Project, which has been a remarkable experience. Originally hailing from Minnesota, I was drawn to Dr. Alexander's innovative approach that melds history and museum studies in the classroom, igniting my curiosity to delve deeper into New Hampshire's rich history and engage in this unique project at the intersection of history, agriculture, textiles, and sustainability research. My ultimate goal is to preserve and spotlight the fascinating history of New Hampshire through this educational research project.

Hi! My name is Zoe Sizemore. I am a Museum Studies Master's student at the University of New Hampshire. I have always really enjoyed history and creating projects that are accessible to the general public. I am very excited to be working on this project because of the digital component that will allow people from all over to explore our project virtually. I think it is very important to be as inclusive as possible when creating a history project and that was one of the reasons why I was so excited to be able to work on the Flax Project for my internship with Professor Alexander. 

Hello, I am Katherine Morgan, a community member who became involved in the Flax Project after auditing Professor Alexander’s class which focused on the global history of textiles Spring semester, 2023.  Though I was a high school English teacher, history has been an avocation and I have researched, edited and published the correspondence of my great grandmother to and from her mother (1868 - 1882) in a book entitled My Ever Dear Daughter, My Own Dear Mother. My interest in the flax project is primarily to help establish the local historical context for flax growing and its transformation into linen for household use and as a commodity in early New England.

Not pictured: Alison Hertweck, Alex Runyon and Ryan Cutting

Process, Method, and Timeline

Sophie measures and sketches a hemp break at the Woodman Museum, Dover, NH

Sowing, growing, harvesting, and processing

Traditionally, from sowing to harvest to processing was a year-long cycle as revealed in historical accounts.  Our project timeline is roughly May 2023-June 2024, which will encompass planting to harvest, process to production. We will work with Professor Sideman from the Sustainable Agriculture department on growing our crop while also undertaking the necessary historical research.

We sowed two varieties of flax seed — Avian and Nathalie -- on May 17th, 2023, and now, in mid-June, our plants our looking healthy and are approaching a foot in height. We plan to harvest the crop in late August or early September, at the beginning of the fall semester. [For updates on the growth of the flax, please see additional blog posts and attached videos.]

Historic Context 

Account book kept by currently unknown Dover resident, c. 1779-1780
Woodman Museum, Ellen P. Rounds Collection, #3749

The cultivation, production and sale and trade of flax is an integral part of my scholarly research into New Hampshire’s pre-industrial, rural-based textile economy. I have worked extensively with the 18^th century writings of shoemaker and Deacon Samuel Lane of Stratham, NH, General John Montgomery of Haverhill, NH and numerous other day and account books throughout New England, looking at the home production and sale of textiles at places like Portsmouth Market Day or via trade and barter with neighbors. The opportunity to deep dive into this single important fiber, while actually growing it at UNH offers a tremendous opportunity for university- and community-wide engagement and allows the extension of historic research surrounding the flax project to include late 17^th through early 19^th century flax growing and linen production in the Seacoast.  For example, last summer, with the assistance of the Stratham Historical Society (one of our community partners) I located two c1825-35 child's dresses from the Lane family which are of homespun linen and handsewn. Through lengthy research, I was able to determine that the dresses were worn by Olivia Emeline Lane (14 November 1825- 4 September 1905) and made by her mother, Hannah French Lane (1802-1841). Look for a future post on these charming garments.

We are continuing to work with the Stratham Historical Society, the Newmarket Historical Society, the New Hampshire Historical Society, the Portsmouth Athenaeum, the Moffatt-Ladd House, and the Woodman Museum, in addition to many others. 

Backstory: How the Flax Project Began

 

"….in all Joshua Sow'd about 1½ Bu. & ½ peck flax Seed.”

Samuel Lane, Almanack, May I, 1769.

The concept for this project began in a University of New Hampshire (UNH) History Department classroom. During the Spring semester of 2023, I taught HIST600/800 "From Homespun to Fast Fashion: A Global History of Textiles." After several classes spent on an in-depth study of both the global and local history of growing flax for linen production, a student noted it would be a unique experience if we could try growing flax and processing it. My response--why not?

The class is now collaborating with UNH Extension Professor Becky Sideman from UNH’s Sustainable Agriculture program and is experimenting with growing flax, cotton, and rye in a 50’x50’ plot at the Woodman Agricultural Research Farm, part of the UNH Campus. After access to the plot was confirmed, class members (grad and undergrad working together) conducted research on the best type of flax seed for New England soil and textile production. The students and the Department are excited about the project, which will extend from spring 2023 through spring 2024. We hope it will generate more interdepartmental collaborative projects. 

The following posts will introduce you to team members, track the growth of the flax, take you behind the scenes to New England museums and historical societies, and chart our experiments with everything from building a flax break to harvesting, retting and scutching the flax and -- we hope--processing enough linen thread to make a small article of clothing. 

Our methodology is both experiential and archival-- based on the knowledge shared in newspapers, documents, letters, diaries, and almanacs, as well as the surviving textiles made and saved by those living in the Seacoast of New Hampshire during the late 17th through early 19th centuries. We thank these frequently anonymous individuals for taking the time in their busy world to record their endeavors. 

Dr. Kimberly Alexander

Director of Museum Studies & Senior Lecturer