A New England Legacy

Historic New England's major traveling exhibition, Cherished Possessions: A New England Legacy, features approximately two hundred objects selected from the organization's notable collection of fine and decorative arts.

Items in Cherished Possessions range from furniture and photographs, to costumes and jewelry, to paintings and textiles that share the stories of more than three hundred years of life in New England.

Cherished Possessions provides Historic New England with an opportunity to showcase both the depth of its collection and the wonderful stories that accompany each object. Each item in the exhibition was selected based on its ability to tell a story and to place the history of that object within the larger history of the region and the nation. Items range from a Japanned high chest that was twice rescued from house fires before 1770 to a dress that belonged to Deborah Sampson, who fought in the American Revolution dressed as a man; from a girandole shaped like the Mt. Auburn Cemetery chapel to small butterfly stools from 1956. Other examples include eighteenth-century freestanding wax figures created by Sarah Gardner Gee, c. 1720; a portrait of a New Englander who made a fortune in the slave trade but died in poverty; and a 1936 chair designed by Marcel Breuer.

History often focuses on the stories of the wealthy and famous, the politicians, the pilgrims, and the privileged. Historic New England's exhibition touches on these stories, but also highlights the uniqueness of the daily objects of the everyday citizen. Thanks to New Englanders' penchant for retaining family objects that tell tales, more than 300 years of New England history are evident in the items in the exhibition.

Fearing that "our New England antiquities are fast disappearing because no society has made their preservation its exclusive object," William Sumner Appleton and a small group of like-minded individuals founded SPNEA (now Historic New England) in 1910. By 1920, Director of Museums Henry Vinton Long wrote in his report that the museum’s purpose was "to preserve and illustrate the life of New Englanders..." The history of New Englanders encompasses the stories of family life, immigration, school girls' routines, servants' duties, the enslaved Africans, and the products of masons, carpenters, and furniture makers.

Cherished Possessions highlights Historic New England's mission to preserve and cherish all layers of history and reflects an ongoing pride in New England's past.

Cherished Possessions Exhibition Itinerary

• Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine
  July 16 - October 27, 2003
   
• Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
  June 12 - August 22, 2004
   
• Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii
  September 29, 2004 - January 2, 2005
   
• Bard Graduate Center, New York
  March 10 - June 5, 2005
   
• Public Museum of Grand Rapids, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  July 2 - October 31, 2005
   

Historic New England is presented by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.