Our intrepid curator, Patti Phillipon, has changed the setting in the dining room table. We change the table settings often to reflect the season, or some historical element that we would like to highlight on our tours. This change is no exception. We thought you, dear readers, might like some inside knowledge on how and why we curate certain aspects of the house. Ready to put your history-caps on? (Then take them off-- you're going into a party with ladies, for heaven's sakes.)
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| The dining-room, where the party took place |
The new table setup is based on a letter written by Margaret (Daisy) Warner to her father, dated Hartford,
March 20th, 1887.
“Susy Clemens was
fifteen years old yesterday [March 19, 1887] and she had a lovely party. The two Twichell girls, Mary and Hattie
Foote, Cousin Lilly, Ward Foote, Hattie Whitmore, and Fannie Freese, and Lucy
Drake, and I were all there to supper.
Mrs. Clemens had her beautiful big, round dinner table, and at each
place was a lovely bunch of beautiful roses. Three or four at each place, and we all put
them on. And also, at each place was a
lovely little glass dish of candy, tied around with pretty ribbons and a little
Japanese card with our names on it, on the top of the dish. In the middle of the table, was a kind of
pyramid of nasturtiums and then there were other vases, of roses. And those tall silver candles were on the
table, too and the whole thing was so lovely… We then had soup, then
turkey, and with it some little potato-cakes and jelly – Then salad, and then
straw-berries and ice cream, and cakes (lady-fingers etc.) and then the big
birthday-cake was brought on, with fifteen lighted candles. It was very pretty. Of course we had some of it; and then we had
fruit and candy. After supper we danced
and had charades. Mr. Clemens read some
“Uncle Remus” to us and Mama and Frank, and Aunt Lottie, came in after
supper. And altogether we had a
DELIGHTFUL time."
The table is set for eight guests a
la Russe. This means that there
would be no food on the table when the dinner guests arrived. Food would be served either from the
sideboard or brought out from the kitchen, and be presented to the diners. In our setup, the turkey stands on a side table
waiting to be carved and served. The “little Japanese cards” on the table have the names of 8 of the children
who attended the party – Susy, Daisy, Susan Twichell, Julia Twichell, Mary,
Hattie, and Ward Foote, and Fannie Freese. We don't have quite enough room to fit all eleven mentioned place settings in-- if we did, there'd be no room for tours to go through. So if you're coming through this season you can simply imagine yourself as guest number nine. Don't touch the collection objects, though!
The dinner plates are Wedgwood bone
china, dated approximately 1895. The
glasses are Bohemian cut crystal with etched poppy designs on the body, foot
and rim. They were purchased in Europe – not by the Clemens family -- during the 1880s or
1890s. We are showing the water glasses
on the table.
The majority of the silverware is the Gorham
“Rosette” pattern introduced circa 1867 and sold by Tiffany & Company. They are engraved “Olivia L. Langdon” on the
handles. The knives, which are of a
different pattern, have mother-of-pearl handles. According to one source, “…knives were not
always considered part of a flatware service before the 1890s…Knives, with
mother-of-pearl, silver, ivory, or plastic handles, were often sold separately,
although they could be obtained with a set.”
A large cake for the dessert course is shown on the
sideboard, which would have been typical for the time Cake and sweets were popular
and often served at children’s birthday parties, as shown in both Daisy
Warner’s letter and the attached photo of a Victorian children’s party. Other parts of the dessert (strawberries and
candy) are in the Butler’s Pantry waiting to be brought out.
In the library, on the small table to the left of
the fireplace, is a copy of
Uncle Remus.
Sam read excerpts from this book to the children following the dinner
party. The reason we're putting up this table setting, and its accompanying details, a couple of months early is that we're talking about
Uncle Remus in our upcoming exhibit,
A Sound Heart and a Deformed Conscience.
On the center table of the main room are all sorts
of tools used to bake Susy’s birthday cake (mixing bowls, wooden spoons, eggs,
egg whisk, and more). On the small table
under the windows is a basket of nasturtiums and roses that are also seen on
the table. There is an additional
corsage of roses being put together. On
the stove, potatoes are boiling in a pot for the potato cakes. In the Scullery, there is a colander with lettuce
and tomatoes draining to be used for the salad course. In the Butler’s Pantry, George is plating
strawberries and candy for the dessert course.
The dessert plates are also waiting to be brought out. They are polychromed, painted porcelain.
As you can see, when we work on the interior details of the house, we try to make sure we do a complete job. This one little letter from a girl named Daisy allows us to accurately fill in details of nearly every room on the first floor of the house, and informs our exhibition programming. We're happy to share all of these historical tidbits with you today-- all because one little girl took the time to hand-write a letter to her dad.
-- Patti Phillipon, Chief Curator, and Julia Pistell, Communications Associate
