Alice Morse Earle and the Domestic History of Early America

Acknowledgments

: xiii ; Acknowledgments D uring the twenty years I have been working on this book, many people have aided me, in terms of my research and writing as well as my personal well-being. For wise guidance in the earliest stages of this project at the University of Delaware, I thank David Allmendinger ,Anne Boylan,Bernie Herman,and Richard Bushman.Thanks for your patience—I know that some of you have been waiting a long time to see this book come to print I received invaluable assistance from numerous research libraries and archives. The Macmillan Company, Firestone Library at Princeton University , and the Division of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the New York Public Library permitted me to reproduce portions of Alice Morse Earle’s correspondence, as did Northwestern University Library, the American Antiquarian Society, Boston Public Library, the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College, the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Syracuse University Library, Memorial Hall Museum and the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, and the Old York Historical Society. I also thank Dun & Bradstreet and the Baker Library at Harvard Business School for permission to cite sections of the R. G. Dun & Company papers. Thanks also to the Morris Library at the University of Delaware, Forbes Library in Northampton, Mass., Rush Rhees Library at the University of Rochester, Schlesinger Library, the DAR Library in Washington, the xiv ; Acknowledgments Massachusetts Historical Society, Worcester Historical Museum, the McGilvrey Room of the Peterborough (N.H.) Library, Worcester Public Library,the Worcester Art Museum,and the Division of Prints and Photographs of the Library of Congress.Special thanks to Neville Thompson and Winterthur Museum; archivist and dear friend Sandra Markham; Ann Lanning at Historic Deerfield; Suzanne Flynt and David Bosse at the Memorial Hall Museum and Library; and Kathy Bell, librarian at the Tower Hill Botanic Garden. At my home institution, Fitchburg State University, helpful librarians, past and present, assisted me, especially Kathryn Wells, Lisa Field, Sara Marks, Linda LeBlanc, Jenny Fielding, Mark Melchior, Jason Simon, and always, Bob Foley. Early on, both Marilyn Williams and Jackie Goggin generously shared their own research on Alice Morse Earle with me.Thanks also to Jane Nylander ,Mary Anne Caton,Kevin Murphy,Laura Sprague,Bill Hosley,Ellen Dencker, and the late Sandy Armentrout, whose interests in china collecting and the colonial revival paralleled mine,and to Jennifer Anderson Lawrence , who helped me to penetrate the mysteries of the Colonial Dames. Thanks to Beverly Gordon, whose long-ago suggestion that I find Earle’s friends proved invaluable, and to Tim Cranston at the Wickford (R.I.) Town Office, who helped me track down Earle’s Wickford past and Earle/ Greene descendants.Patricia Hoffman facilitated my search for documents and photographs at the New Ipswich Historical Society, as well as cultivating my interest in gardens and plants.Thanks also to John Harris, archivist extraordinaire in the town of Dublin, and Mary Meath of Historic Harrisville —who lived on the site of Reuben Morse’s farm—both helped me track down the early Morse family in New Hampshire.Julia Pane was kind enough to share her house in Brooklyn Heights with me. I am further indebted to the people in Andover, Vermont—Larry Sullivan, Peter Farrar, and Reino and Dotty Berquist—who welcomed me into their homes and patiently answered my questions. I also thank Andover town clerk Claudia Hazeltine for her willing assistance. One of the great pleasures of working on this book was meeting Alice Morse Earle’s great-grandchildren—Don Post, Susan Urstadt, Joshua B. Powers,and Tom Powers—who gave me free access to their family papers, photographs, genealogical materials, and hospitality, all of which I greatly appreciated. Sadly, Don and Susan did not live to see this book’s completion . Matt Post, Earle’s great-great-grandson, and his wife, Laura, turned :xv Acknowledgments up with a series of lovely watercolor paintings done by Alice and her sister , Frances, one of which is reproduced here. I have fond memories of a Post family reunion of sorts at Tower Hill celebrating Alice’s 160th birthday and an exhibition of those paintings. From another branch of the family, Natalie Hamlin, an Earle/Greene descendant, helped me to understand the history of Duck Cove and “Homogansett.” Early on,Carolyn Goldstein,Michael Kucher,Julie Nicoletta,and Ruth Oldenzeil read the manuscript.Thanks also to students in my women’s...