Category: Artifact Corner

Hi Everyone, and welcome back to another artifact corner. Today we will be looking at an artifact outside of the home. This is an iron wash basin or tub. It’s not for humans, it’s for your laundry. The basin is placed at the back of the home, and position right behind the kitchen. This was a great spot for it, because it wasn’t too far from the well, so hauling water to fill it up was a bit easier. It is a large iron vessel, for doing a big load of laundry, and a wooden cap on top of it to make sure that small animals, or worse, children wouldn’t accidentally fall into it. Let’s learn a bit more about doing laundry in the Victorian period.

Every successful laundry day, or laundry days, began with the process of soaking. So, the night before you would gather all of the clothing needed to be laundered, and put it in warm water. So, the process begins with gathering water, either from a well, or from a river or other body of water. Then, you would need to heat the water up, pour it into your wash basin, and put all the clothes in. Some Victorian manuals actually called for soaking up to three times. The next morning, very early, they would start collecting and boiling water again for the wash day. Once all of the clothes were covered in boiling water you would use a stick called a dolly, which was a long stick with what looked like a small stool on the end of it to agitate the clothing. Next the clothing would be taken out piece by piece and scrubbed on a washboard. Then it would be wrung out, using a mangle or wringer, or if you were very poor, by hand. Then it was time to hang the clothing on a line to dry out. Once the clothing was dry, it would need to be ironed, or pressed. Then folded, and put away. Depending on the number of people in the family, this could be a one to two day process.

The Victorians had a number of clever ways to remove different parts of stains. Given that white cotton and linen where incredibly popular fabrics used in both men’s and women’s fashions, one of the hardest parts of laundry day was keeping white fabrics looking white. A Victorian laundresses trick was to add a bit of blue dye to the wash water. The process was called bluing, since blue is a complementary color to yellow, it helped cancel the yellow out. You can still buy bluing agents for clothing today. Multiple laundry manuals mentioned that sour milk can remove iron rust from white clothing. Fruit or wine stains can be treated with chloride of lime, sal ammonia, or spirits of wine. And ink can be removed with just a few drops of oxalic acid or salts of sorrel.

Doing laundry was an all day and sometimes even days a air, and was incredibly hard work. It definitely makes you appreciate the modern conveniences of a washing machine and a dryer. If you’d like to see our wash basin in person, we have our Historic Farm and Garden Festival this weekend! It’s a free family event that has lots of activities and games, as well as demonstrations. It’s Saturday and Sunday from 11-3, and again, it’s free. We hope to see you there, and thanks so much for stopping by.

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Sunny Morning by MusicLFiles
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/7813-sunny-morning
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://cemmusicproject.wixsite.com/musiclibraryfiles

Hi Everyone and welcome back to another artifact corner. Today we will be looking at a drawing done by Henry Delord in one of his day books. This particular day book Henry used in 1818. He kept multiple day books in his time here in Plattsburgh. He used them to keep track of his Red Store’s nances, document milestones with his family, and in this instance, map out the gardens and grounds around the home. The details on the map are incredibly helpful for reconstructing the property in Henry Delord’s day. Henry was born and raised in France, and admired the beautifully curated and cultivated gardens of the Palace of Versailles. When he nally had a stately home, he had the gardens laid out in a very organized, and carefully designed. Let’s learn a bit more about the gardens Henry emulated, the gardens at the Palace of Versailles.

The grounds on which the gardens and the palace of Versailles lie once belonged to France’s nance minister. He was disgraced when it was discovered that he had been embezzling funds from the Crown. King Louis XIII then took over the property. He made some improvements to the grounds and gardens, but no major renovations. That changed when Louis XIV took the throne. In 1661 Louis XIV entrusted André Le Nôtre with the creation and renovation of the gardens of Versailles, which he considered just as important as the Palace. Work on the gardens was started at the same time as the work on the palace and lasted for 40 or so years. During this time André Le Nôtre collaborated with the likes of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Superintendent of Buildings to the King from 1664 to 1683, who managed the project, and Charles Le Brun, who was made First Painter to the King in January 1664 and provided the drawings for a large number of the statues and fountains. Last but not least, each project was reviewed by the King himself, who was keen to see “every detail”.

The Chateau de Versailles website describes the construction and maintenance of the gardens as follows: “Creating the gardens was a monumental task. Large amounts of soil had to be shifted to level the ground, create parterres, build the Orangery and dig out the fountains and Canal in places previously occupied solely by meadows and marshes. Trees were brought in from di erent regions of France. Thousands of men, sometimes even entire regiments, took part in this immense project. To maintain the design, the garden needed to be replanted approximately once every 100 years. Louis XVI did so at the beginning of his reign, and the undertaking was next carried out during the reign of Napoleon III. Following damage caused by a series of storms in the late 20th century, including one in December 1999, which was the most devastating, the garden has been fully replanted and now boasts a fresh, youthful appearance similar to how it would have looked to Louis XIV.”

Henry’s day books are in beautiful condition. They are currently housed in special collections in SUNY Plattsburgh’s library, so they are accessible to students and the public. If you are interested in learning more about the gardens and grounds here at KDHM, we have a fantastic event scheduled for June 3rd and 4th. Join us for our Farm and Garden festival, where we will be giving tours of the gardens and grounds, having blacksmithing demonstrations, planting seeds with children, learning about pollinators and much more! The event is free and fun for the whole family! We hope to see you there, and as always, thanks so much for stopping by.

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Sunny Morning by MusicLFiles
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/7813-sunny-morning
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://cemmusicproject.wixsite.com/musiclibraryfiles

Hi Everyone, and welcome back to another artifact corner. Today we will be looking at a piece that is not actually in our collections. This very early telephone was donated to the museum, but was never actually accessioned. We know that Fannie Delord Webb Hall, had a phone installed in the home, but are not sure what happened to the original phone. After the home became a museum, someone donated the phone we currently have, which was a very similar model to the one that Fannie had installed. Fannie refused to have all other modern conveniences, such as electricity, indoor plumbing, and central heating added to the home. But, she really wanted a telephone, a way to be better connected to a cause she cared deeply about, the Temperance movement. Let’s learn a bit more about the history of the telephone.

A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. The word telephone comes from the Greek roots tēle, meaning “far,” and phonē, meaning “sound.” It was applied as early as the late 17th century to the string telephone familiar to children, and it was later used to refer to the megaphone and the speaking tube. Most American’s today will almost always associate the telephone with Alexander Graham Bell. But, Italian innovator Antonio Meucci is credited with inventing the first basic phone in 1849, and Frenchman Charles Bourseul devised a phone in 1854. Alexander Graham Bell applied for a patent for the telephone in 1876, and his device was the first one actually granted that patent. The telephone was about to explode onto the scene in the United States, and rapidly across the world.

In 1877-78, the first telephone line was constructed, the first switchboard was created and the first telephone exchange was in operation. Three years later, almost 49,000 telephones were in use. In 1880, Bell (in the photo below) merged this company with others to form the American Bell Telephone Company and in 1885 American Telegraph and Telephone Company (AT&T) was formed. In January of 1878, Bell brought his invention to England. He demonstrated his invention to Queen Victoria, and he made the first publicly-witnessed long-distance calls in the UK. Queen Victoria also tried the phone and remarked that it was “quite extraordinary.” By 1900 there were nearly 600,000 phones in Bell’s telephone system; that number shot up to 2.2 million phones by 1905, and 5.8 million by 1910. By the 1960’s almost every home in the United States had a telephone, proving how much of an indispensable part of everyday life it had become in less than 100 years. Amazingly enough, Bell even predicted having conversations over the phone while being able to see each other. In 1878 Bell said, “While two persons, hundreds of miles apart, are talking together, they will actually see each other.”

The telephone changed the way we communicated. Prior to it’s invention, you either had to travel to have a conversation with someone, or write a letter, and wait quite some time for a response. We are not quite sure when Fannie had the phone installed in the home, but we know it was as soon as it was available to her. Telephone lines came to Plattsburgh in the early 1880’s, so that must be when Fannie had it installed. Our telephone is in good condition, and is a wonderful addition to our collections. Thanks so much for stopping by!

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Sunny Morning by MusicLFiles
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/7813-sunny-morning
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://cemmusicproject.wixsite.com/musiclibraryfiles

Hi Everyone, and welcome back to another artifact corner. Today we will be looking at one of the souvenirs brought back from Frances Henrietta and Henry Webb’s honeymoon to Europe in 1833. The couple spent over a year touring Europe, and spent time in France, Italy and England. During their travels to Rome, they picked up a souvenir book, which contains many sketches of famous landmarks. This is one of the pages, St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. We know Frances and Henry visited The Vatican City thanks to Frances’ journal from their honeymoon.

Here is an excerpt from that journal entry:

“Saturday, February 2 (1833)
At nine this morning we set out in a carriage proceeding to the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The chapel is filled with frescoes by Michaelangelo. Where the seats are for ladies is a very open grating about the height of a person. This being the exclusive chapel of the Pope the ladies cannot look at him except through a grate. Knowing that he was to officiate we were informed that we must go in dress and the ladies with their veils. I was fortunate in procuring a stand directly by the grate. The Swiss guards gazed at me for trespassing so much nearer the grate than the other ladies. But as my view was decidedly the best, I was seemingly ignorant of my encroachment. Today is Candlemas Day. The Pope was seated on a throne with Cardinals surrounding him very richly dressed, then the different orders of priests, Monks, etc. Among the most conspicuous ceremonies was the blessing of the candles. The Cardinals one by one presented a candle to the Pope, he blessing it and they kneeling kissing his toe and finger ring.”

Let’s learn a bit more about St. Peter’s Basilica. The original basilica of St. Peter was constructed under the orders of Constantine in the year 319. It was the belief that this was the spot where St. Peter was crucified by the Romans in 64 AD. 250 years later Christianity was spreading across Europe like wild re, and churches began to spring up everywhere. The original church was over 350 feet long and 125 feet high, a massive and impressive structure. Many smaller chapels, each with holy relics were formed in the church over the years. The church stood for over 1,000 years, and was a holy pilgrimage for Medieval travelers. By the 1400’s, the church was really showing signs of it’s age. Some sections of the wall were leaning so badly, they were measured at being 5 feet o from vertical. Sections of the ceiling started to come down during mass, causing many people to flee. This was when Pope Julius II decided it
was time to replace the crumbling basilica. Construction of the present basilica began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626. The current basilica is comprised of stone from the old basilica as well as ancient Roman ruins. Many of the greatest Renaissance artists contributed works to St. Peter’s, such as Michelangelo and Raphael.

Having been to St. Peter’s personally, I must say, it is an amazing work of Renaissance architecture, and if you are in Rome, it is a must see! This sketch of the basilica is in fantastic shape, and it’s amazing how similar St. Peter’s looks 190 years after this drawing was done. We are so lucky to have this piece in our collections. Thanks so much for stopping by.

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Sunny Morning by MusicLFiles
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/7813-sunny-morning
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://cemmusicproject.wixsite.com/musiclibraryfiles

Hi Everyone, and welcome back to another artifact corner. Today we will be looking at a small pendant. On one side we have a onyx stone, and on the other side we have a beautiful compass. The pendant is gold plated, and has some lovely scroll work at the top of it. This pendant was likely made in the mid to late Victorian period. Let’s learn a bit more about the history of compasses!

A compass is a device that indicates direction and is one of the most important tools in navigation. Magnetic compasses are the most well known type of compass, and our compass is a magnetic one. A magnetic compass consist of a magnetized needle that is allowed to rotate so it lines up with Earth’s magnetic field. The ends point to what are known as magnetic north and magnetic south. Historians are not quite sure when humans discovered the principles of magnetism. We do know that as early as 2,000 years ago, Chinese scientists may have known that rubbing an iron bar (such as a needle) with a naturally occurring magnet, called a lodestone, would temporarily magnetize the needle so that it would point north and south. Early compasses were made of a magnetized needle attached to a piece of wood or cork that floated freely in a dish of water. As the needle would settle, the marked end would point toward magnetic north.

Before the introduction of the compass, geographical position and direction at sea were primarily determined by the sighting of landmarks, supplemented with the observation of the position of celestial bodies. Other techniques included sampling mud from the seafloor this was something done in China. Some other techniques included analyzing the flight path of birds, and observing wind, sea debris, and sea state, which was a common practice in Polynesia and elsewhere. Some of the most incredible navigators, the Norse, are believed to have used a type of sun compass to locate true north. On cloudy days, the Vikings may have used cordierite or some other birefringent crystal to determine the sun’s direction and elevation from the polarization of daylight; their astronomical knowledge was sufficient to let them use this information to determine their proper heading. In their earliest use, compasses were likely used as backups for when the sun, stars, or other landmarks could not be seen. Eventually, as compasses became more reliable and more explorers understood how to read them, the devices became a critical navigational tool.

Our compass is in good shape. The dial over the compass is scratched, and can make it slightly difficult to read, but this is to be expected given it’s age, and how much use it probably had. This was designed to be worn on a chain, either as a necklace, or stored in a pocket. It’s a beautiful compass from the mid to late 1800’s and we are so lucky to have it in our collections. Thanks so much for stopping by!

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Sunny Morning by MusicLFiles
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/7813-sunny-morning
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://cemmusicproject.wixsite.com/musiclibraryfiles

A slightly different artifact corner today – we speak with our intern Zach about his experience!

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Sunny Morning by MusicLFiles
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/7813-sunny-morning
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://cemmusicproject.wixsite.com/musiclibraryfiles

Hi Everyone, and welcome back to another artifact corner. Today we will be looking at two very necessary items in our museum, chamber pots. These two pots are made of porcelain, and each of them have their original lids. One is painted with flowers in blue, green and warm umber tones. The other is a straight white glaze, with the same cattail motif as the pitcher and basin set we featured in a previous video. This one likely came with the pitcher and basin as a bathroom set. Let’s learn a bit more about the history of bathrooms, but more specifically how people used the toilet.

The first known use of what we would recognize as a toilet dates to around 3200 BCE in Ancient Mesopotamia. In 3,000 BCE the Neolithic village of Skara Brae, which is on the Orkney Isles of Scotland, contains examples of internal small rooms over a communal drain, rather than just a simple pit. In the Indus city of Lothal (c. 2350 BCE), houses belonging to the upper classes had private toilets connected to a covered sewer network constructed of brickwork held together with a gypsum-based mortar that emptied either into the surrounding water bodies or alternatively into cesspits, the latter of which were regularly emptied and cleaned. The Romans had latrines that used flowing water. They had toilets that were elevated from the floor, that sat above a sewer system that was periodically flushed to remove the waste. Following the collapse of the Roman Empire, there is not a lot written about toilets or how people did their business. In the Middle Ages, the upper classes had a room called a Garderobe. They were flat pieces of wood or stone spanning from one wall to the other, with one or more holes to sit on. These were above chutes or pipes that discharged outside the castle or Manor house. The garderobes were always kept away from the main living areas, so as to keep the smell at bay.

Chamber pots, similar to the ones in our collections, were already in use in the Medieval period. By the 16th century, cesspits and cesspools were increasingly dug into the ground near houses in Europe as a means of collecting waste. Urban population centers were growing and street gutters were becoming blocked with the larger volume of human waste. So, people took matters into their own hands, hence the digging of cesspools and cesspits. Cesspools were cleaned out by tradesmen, known in English as gong farmers, who pumped out the liquid waste, then shoveled out the solid waste and collected it during the night. This solid waste, euphemistically known as night soil, was sold as fertilizer for agricultural production. During the Victorian era, housemaids collected all of the homes chamber pots and carried them to a room known as the housemaids’ cupboard, where they would be emptied and cleaned. Outhouses were also very common, but if you live in our area, imagine having to go outside to use an outhouse in the middle of January at night. Not at all appealing! In 1826, a man named Isaiah Rogers installed the first indoor plumbing in the Tremont Hotel in Boston. But it wasn’t until 1891, when we have the invention of what we would consider the modern toilet. We owe that to a man named Thomas Crapper, who history would thank by turning his name into a euphemism for the toilet. Sorry Thomas, we really all are appreciative of your invention.

Our Chamber pots are in good condition. They both have minor chipping on them, which is unsurprising given the amount of use they both received. They offer us a glimpse into our past, and also a reminder of how lucky we are to have our modern conveniences, like indoor plumbing. We are so lucky to have them in our collections. Thanks so much for stopping by!

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Sunny Morning by MusicLFiles
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/7813-sunny-morning
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://cemmusicproject.wixsite.com/musiclibraryfiles

Hi Everyone, and welcome back to another artifact corner. Today we will be looking at a small glass bottle that can be found in the apothecary in the museum. This bottle belonged to Fannie Delord Webb Hall, and was part of the medicine she administered to the many patients she treated from the home here in Plattsburgh. The glass bottle still contains the original paper label, and even contains the original cork, and some of the bottle’s contents remain as well! Let’s learn a bit more about Listerine, and antiseptics in general.

Throughout history, surgery has been a very dangerous thing to undergo. Even if you had the best surgeons in the world, and the surgery was successful, you could still be in real danger from bacterial infection such as sepsis or gangrene. Antibiotics would not be discovered until 1928, and so for everyone undergoing a surgical procedure prior to that, infection was a real concern. In 1864, while working at Glasgow University as Professor of Surgery, Joseph Lister was introduced to Pasteur’s germ theory of disease, and he decided to apply it to the problem of surgical infections. He looked for ways to prevent germs from entering a wound by creating a chemical barrier—which he called an antiseptic—between the surgical wound and the surroundings. The chemical he chose to use was carbolic acid, which killed the germs on contact. As the number of surgery related infections fell, the evidence that antisepsis worked became irrefutable and it was widely accepted by surgeons around the world. Lister even received Royal Approval when he used his carbolic spray during a surgical procedure on Queen Victoria.

Listerine was first created in 1879 by a chemist in St. Louis named Joseph Lawrence. Lawrence named his new medicine after Dr. Joseph Lister, as a way of paying homage to him for his work in antiseptics. Listerine was originally designed to be a surgical antiseptic,not a mouthwash. But, it’s sales were nothing to write home about. According to Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s book Freakonomics: “Listerine, for instance, was invented in the nineteenth century as powerful surgical antiseptic. It was later sold, in distilled form, as both a floor cleaner and a cure for gonorrhea. But it wasn’t a runaway success until the 1920s, when it was pitched as a solution for “chronic halitosis” — a then obscure medical term for bad breath. Listerine’s new ads featured forlorn young women and men, eager for marriage but turned off by their mate’s rotten breath.” By 1985 Listerine had been accepted by the American Dental Association, and had already become a household name.

This bottle is one of the original designs from the late 1800’s, and was intended to be used as a surgical antiseptic. Fannie would treat just about any patient that came to her door, and remained up to date on all medical advancements, so this was likely something she used in her practice. This bottle is in great condition, despite a few sections of the original label having come off with use. This is a fascinating look into medical procedures in the 19th Century, and the Listerine company in general, and we are so lucky to have it in our collections. Thanks so much for stopping by!

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Sunny Morning by MusicLFiles
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/7813-sunny-morning
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://cemmusicproject.wixsite.com/musiclibraryfiles

Hi everyone, and welcome back to another artifact corner. Today we will be looking at portraits of some of the women in the Delord house, and talking about one of our favorite topics, fashion. The first portrait we will be examining is that of Mahitable Nott Webb Deane. This portrait was painted in 1767, and depicts her in a beautiful mustard colored gown. The next picture we will be looking at is of Margeret Bloodgood in a white, empire-waisted, diaphanous gown typical of the Regency Era. And lastly, we’ll be looking at this portrait of Frances Delord Webb in a gray silk gown painted in 1833 in London. This gown is the epitome of Romantic Era fashion. Let’s learn a bit more about women’s fashions from the 1760’s to the 1830’s.

In the mid 1700’s women’s fashions were anything but tame. Bright colors and bold patterns were all the rage, and the fabric choices themselves were also decident. Stunning silks that were richly embroidered were all the rage, trimmed with silk and velvet bows, ruffles, and other decorative trims. The mid 1700’s was the height of the era’s fashions, everything was bigger and more bold. Women’s clothing styles emphasized a narrow, inverted conical torso, achieved with boned stays, above full skirts. Hoop skirts continued to be worn, reaching their largest size in the 1750s, and were sometimes replaced by side-hoops, also called ‘false hips’, or panniers. The usual fashion of the years 1750–1775 was a low-necked gown (usually called a robe), worn over a petticoat. Most gowns had skirts that opened in front to show the petticoat worn beneath. If the bodice of the gown was open in front, the opening was filled in with a decorative stomacher, pinned to the gown over the laces or to the stays beneath. By the 1780’s and 1790’s, women’s fashions were undergoing a dramatic shift. Women’s clothing styles maintained an emphasis on the conical shape of the torso while the shape of the skirts changed throughout the period. The wide panniers (holding the skirts out at the side) for the most part disappeared by 1780 for all but the most formal court functions, and false rumps (bum-pads or hip-pads) were worn for a time.

The nineteenth century opened with a fashion landscape that was changing dramatically and rapidly from the styles of a generation earlier. The French Revolution brought fashions that had been emerging since the 1780s to the forefront. Neoclassicism now defined fashion as both men and women took inspiration from classical antiquity. For women, the high-waisted silhouette in lightweight muslin was the dominant style. The color pallete was more muted and subtle, and the gowns that women wore were not adorned with heavy embroidery. But, like all things in fashion, this simplicity and return to natural form was to be short lived. This style dominated for around 20 years before the fashion tides began to shift again in the 1820’s. The waistlines began to settle more towards the natural waist rather than being directly under the bust. The 1820s were a transitional period away from the “Empire” silhouette and Neoclassical influences. Instead, Romanticism became the chief influence on fashion, as Gothic decoration lavished dresses and historicism inspired styles borrowed from past centuries. Layers of color and an increasingly exaggerated silhouette, for both men and women, created a style of dramatic display by the end of the decade. In the 1830s, fashionable women’s clothing styles had distinctive large ‘leg of mutton’ or gigot sleeves, above large full conical skirts, ideally with a narrow, low waist, achieved through a combination of corsetry to restrict the waist and full sleeves and skirts that made the waist appear smaller by comparison. Heavy stiff fabrics such as brocades were all the rage, and many 18th Century gowns were cut up and repurposed. The fashionable feminine figure, with its sloping shoulders, rounded bust, narrow waist and full hips, was emphasized in various ways with the cut and trim of gowns. Up to about 1835, the small waist was accentuated with a wide belt, as we can see here in the wedding portrait of Frances Henrietta, painted in 1832.

As you can see from the portraits in our collections, women’s fashion was ever changing, very much like fashion today. If you are interested in seeing these portraits in person, and learning more about women’s fashions in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, we open for the season May 23rd! Let us know in the comments which time period and which style of dress was your favorite! Thanks so much for stopping by!

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Sunny Morning by MusicLFiles
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/7813-sunny-morning
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://cemmusicproject.wixsite.com/musiclibraryfiles

Hi everyone, and welcome back to another artifact corner. Today we will be looking at a painting that was done sometime between 1832 and 1833. This painting is of British Parliamentarians and the King, and was done to commemorate the reforms to being made to Parliament and voting. This portrait is done on ceramic, which is then housed in a wooden frame. We believe that this piece was acquired by Frances Henrietta and her husband Henry Webb on their European honeymoon. The two traveled Europe in 1832 and 1833, with them being in England in 1833. Unfortunately, the piece is not signed, so we do not know who the artist was. Let’s learn a bit more about painting portraits on porcelain, and the reforms that this Parliament were making.

People have been painting on porcelain and pottery for thousands of years. The ancient Greeks and romans decorated their pottery with portraits of heroes and gods. Their portraits were glorifying and idealistic, rather than trying to be realistic. Throughout the Middle Ages portraiture on pottery basically disappeared. In the 14th and 15th Centuries, during the Renaissance portrait painting on pottery began to come back into fashion. Portrait painting on porcelain really came into it’s heyday in the 18th Century. The bulk of the paintings on porcelain were miniatures, small pieces meant to be displayed on a pice of furniture or carried with you on your person, rather than hung on a wall. Our piece is large and framed, meaning it was meant to be hung and displayed on a wall.

So, what was so important about the reforms being made that a portrait was painted to commemorate it? In 1832, Parliament passed a law that changed the British electoral system. It was known as the Great Reform Act, which basically gave the vote to middle class men, leaving working men disappointed. The Reform Act became law in response to years of criticism of the electoral system from those outside and inside Parliament. Elections in Britain were neither fair nor representative. In order to vote, a person had to own property or pay certain taxes to qualify, which excluded most working class people. There were also constituencies with several voters that elected two MPs to Parliament, such as Old Sarum in Salisbury. In these ‘rotten boroughs’, with few voters and no secret ballot, it was easy for those standing for election to buy votes. Industrial towns like Manchester or Birmingham, which had grown during the previous 80 years, had no Members of Parliament to represent them. In 1831, the House of Commons passed a Reform Bill, but the House of Lords, dominated by the Tory party, defeated it. This was followed by riots and serious disturbances in London, Birmingham, Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Exeter and Bristol and other cities throughout England.

This portrait is in very good condition. The frame is in rougher shape, and has had some repair work done to it. It is the original frame though, which is great. We’re not sure why Frances and Henry decided to purchase this painting and bring it back with them, but we’re glad they did. It is a fascinating glimpse into British history and we are so lucky to have it in our collections. Thanks so much for stopping by.

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Sunny Morning by MusicLFiles
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/7813-sunny-morning
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://cemmusicproject.wixsite.com/musiclibraryfiles