Old Deerfield, Massachusetts

Museums of Deerfield

Memorial Hall Museum / Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association / Deerfield Children's Museum

Special Exhibits

2008 Exhibits

Don’t Smile for the Camera: Another Angle on Early Photography

WHY SO SERIOUS? A NEW EXHIBITION EXPLORING EXPRESSION IN EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS
Have you wondered why people in early photographs wear such solemn expressions? Deerfield’s Memorial Hall Museum’s exhibition, Don’t Smile for the Camera -- 75 daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, albumen prints, and 26 platinum prints by Deerfield’s Allen sisters-- features an intriguing assortment of unsmiling people and idiosyncratic poses.
“Today we’re conditioned to smile for the camera, but early photographs reveal a different social convention, one that frowned upon excessive familiarity,” explains Memorial Hall Museum Curator, Suzanne Flynt. “A smile, particularly a teeth-revealing smile, could be perceived as unbecoming or inappropriate.” With the advent of photography in the 19th century, people from all walks of life could have their likeness taken. But traditional portraiture had shaped the way people presented themselves. Having a portrait taken was considered a serious matter and there was little spontaneity in the experience. Deportment, expression, clothing, and surroundings were all carefully scripted.

What changed? When photography entered the sphere of the art world, Pictorial photographers such as Frances and Mary Allen saw their subjects differently. They didn’t ask people to smile, but used poses and lighting to capture an idealized scene or evoke a mood, sometimes even facing their subjects away from the camera. It wasn’t until photography was made accessible to all through new technology that the camera was taken out of the studio and into the hands of family and friends, that people wereencouraged to ham it up and “put on a happy face.” Now we rarely even have to be told to “smile for the camera!”

Zebina Stebbins, Deerfield, c. 1859

The Baby, Mary E. Allen, c. 1899

Don’t Smile for the Camera also includes an iron head brace used by Jonas Patch of Shelburne, MA, albums, and early photography advertisements. The exhibition is on view daily from 11 am to 5 pm through November 2, 2008. At the Old Deerfield Summer Craft Fair on June 21 and 22, tintype photographer John Bernaski will demonstrate his craft for the public.  Read a review of the exhibit from The Berkshire Review.

Covered Bridges

Robert Strong Woodward, Charlemont, Ma, c. 1935

In the late-nineteenth century, photographers such as Clifton Johnson began documenting Franklin County’s covered bridges. Painters were also drawn to these local landmarks. Between about 1925 and 1935, four artists were inspired to paint these wooden structures. Although Marie Day Alexander, Clara Alquist, Kenneth Stinson, and Robert Strong Woodward looked to the same subject matter, each of these artists made distinct use of light, color, and texture to create their paintings. Little did the artists know that some of the bridges they painted would not survive more than a few years.

Slavery In Deerfield

A memorial to enslaved African-Americans in the Memorial Room is the first step towards giving greater visibility to the African-American experience in Deerfield.  Africans have lived in Deerfield since the end of the seventeenth century. Like many New England towns and cities, Deerfield was a slave-owning community. In the mid-eighteenth century, seven percent of the population of Deerfield’s mile-long main street were enslaved Africans. But little is known about the lives of these twenty-one people. Who were these people? What were their lives like?

African-American Memorial, Shamek Weddle and Dimitrios Klitsas, 2005.

For further information on slavery in Deerfield, Ma. see "A Guide to African-American Historic Sites in Deerfield" at: http://www.americancenturies.mass.edu/activities/afram/index.html

Extraordinary fabrics, splendid colors, and fine workmanship describe the clothing from the 18th century to the early 20th century on exhibition at Memorial Hall Museum's Costume Room. Of special interest are the wedding dresses- one a blue wool damask from 1785, a taffeta from 1830, and a plaid silk from 1861. A handsome, two-piece dress, which was part of a trousseau, commissioned in Boston for a Greenfield, Massachusetts bride in the 1880s is also on display.  In addition to the clothing, the Costume Room includes displays on The Franklin County Public Hospital School of Nursing and Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail, Class of 1927, who was a Crow from Montana. Children's and adult's clothing and cases of fashion accessories: fans, high-backed hair combs, gloves, canes, shoes and shoe buckles are also on exhibit.

Bridal gown worn by Diadama Field, 1785, Northfield, Massachusetts.

"Pewter: the Solon Newton Collection"

A set of four two-handled pewter cups by Robert Bonynge
(wkg. 1731-1763) of Boston.

Soon after antiquarian Solon L. Newton (1841-1901) of Greenfield, MA bequeathed his "House full of Curiosities" to Memorial Hall, the museum created the Newton Room. While the furniture, china and brass were of interest, Mr. Newton's collection of pewter was considered "perhaps the best collection of pewter in the country." Beginning in 1872, Mr. Newton collected examples of American and British pewter from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Most notable in the collection is a set of four two-handled cups made in Boston c.1745 by Robert Bonynge. Thanks to the generosity of Mr. Newton's great niece, Alice Newton Childs Smith, and a grant from the Pewter Collectors Club of America, close to fifty pieces of Solon L. Newton's pewter collection were reinstalled in a newly-built exhibition case. The exhibit is accompanied by a gallery guide.

"Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704"

This exhibit examines the multiple perspectives of the Deerfield raid by placing the attack within a continuum of events in the history of England and France and their respective colonies, New England and New France (Quebec.) The interpretation discusses the relationships between the colonists and the Native Americans, some of which continue today.

Old Indian House Door, from the Ensign John Sheldon House, Deerfield, 1699. The door retains the hole and gashes make by the French and Indian attackers on the night of February 29, 1704.

See Our On-Line Exhibit: "American Centuries"

DIRECTIONS: Memorial Hall is located on the corner of Memorial Street and Rt. 5 & 10 in Deerfield, Massachusetts. From the south, take I-91 North to Exit 24, then drive 6 miles north on Rt. 5. From the north, take I-91 South to Exit 25, and follow signs for Rt. 5 North 5 miles to Deerfield.