Why can't I wear a Summer bonnet in January?
First eight hours of training and I'm not sure if I know the difference between a shift and a stay! But I'll eventually learn it all, or at least enough to get by as an interpreter. Today's training was such a delightful bombardment of great history and facts from experts Tom Kelleher and Deb Knight. We had a group of wonderful people with one thing in common, our love and passion for Old Sturbridge Village. We had college students and retirees who want to become interpreters at the village. Tom Kellerher, Historian and Curator of Mechanical Arts, downloaded vast amounts of knowledge to all of us in the group. We talked about the beginnings of the Village, the innovative and unique idea of AB Wells' son, to create a village and not a museum. He believed that during that time, people were bored of museums and a village would be more appealing and successful.
The two Wells' brothers decided to commit to this project and they decided to purchased the property from Mr. White. He had a farm in the property and sold it to the Wells. Ruth Dyer Wells oversaw the project as Mr. AB Wells went to California. They began working with the layout of the village and as the were building the first structures, people from around were coming to see what was going on. Construction slowed down because the workers were busy showing people around. Mrs Wells decided to charge a $1 and let people tour the village on their own as the watched the workers continue to build the village. It was a win win situation!
We learned about the everyday life of the rural families from Deb Knight, Museum Manager for Textiles and Dye, and the way the dressed in those days. Yes, I did actually learned the difference between a shift and a stay, just like I also learned the difference between the summer and winter bonnet. A shift is a simple garment worn next to the skin to protect clothing from sweat and body oils and a stay is a corset.
Deb walked us through a day in the lives of the families of this period. Their work and chores, how these changed and were performed depending on the seasons. Their diets, socialization, education, religions, occupations and their economy, and as Tom said "this was a time of change not only in New England but in the United States as a whole."
During lunch break I took a walk with my camera and capture a few cool shots.
Tom talked to us about the economics of the 1830s, how hard people had to work for their wages and the dynamics of the many processes of currency at the time. Today you can purchase a piece of writing paper for 1 cent, just like you could in the 1830s although back then earning a penny was way...... way ... way harder. A farmer might make in average about 50 cents a day, so you can see how 1 cent for a piece of paper back then is mucho dinero!
At the end of the training we got to visit the OSV archives and all I could hear was... wow!....really!...beautiful!.... can I take that one home? when can we start building a new gallery to display some of these amazing collections? Check out some great images of a small sampling of the collection!
For a rainy and cold day I had one of my best Sundays in a long time. I just love learning...I was like Johnny 5 in Short Circuit constantly saying input ....more input! I already can't wait for next Saturday.....the final part of our training. I will leave you with a rainy lanterny Old Sturbridge Village picture! Blog you soon!
