|
Preserving the Past…and Some of the Present…at SPNEA by Jane
C. Nylander
In the years since SPNEA was founded in 1910, the preservation mission of the organization has remained central. At the same time, the nature of SPNEA's activities has expanded and changed through the years, responding to new strategies for preserving historic buildings as well as to rising standards of professionalism in conservation, exhibition, and interpretation. Focused at first on architecture, historic artifacts, and visual documents the collections today also recognize the historic landscapes that are an integral part of each historic property. Even as a young man, SPNEA's founder William Sumner Appleton realized that the realm of historic buildings and objects that were worthy of preservation extended far beyond things associated with pilgrims and patriots. Although there were probably at least several hundred antique collectors and people active in building preservation in New England at this period, it was Appleton who had by far the broadest and most enduring vision. Appleton's interests focused on architecture both as an academic study, as a setting for daily life, and as a contributing factor to the definition of the New England landscape and experience. He was eager that SPNEA position itself in such a way that it could respond in emergency situations to preserve historic buildings and objects wherever they might be and however they might be threatened. In those days, the primary way to preserve anything was to own it. Appleton not only rescued endangered buildings and worked to enlist others in the same cause; he also sought to preserve things he called "smaller antiquities," those things now generally termed material culture. At a time when many were only interested in fine furniture, paintings, and silver, Appleton cast a broad net, gathering in vast collections of diverse objects that he made certain were thoroughly authenticated and well documented.. From the very beginning, SPNEA collected contemporary objects, reflecting the understanding of its early librarian Ernest L. Gay, who wrote in his annual report in 1913 " What is new to this generation will be old fashioned to the next and antique to that following. Appleton's zeal for documentation provided a fall back position when preservation through acquisition proved impossible, impractical, or both. He immediately began to collect and commission photographs and pleaded with his friends and SPNEA members to contribute photographs to expand the collection and thus document the past that he knew was disappearing all around him. Appleton's voracious collecting resulted in a vast hoard. By the time of his death in 1947, SPNEA owned more than 60 buildings and untold numbers of objects. Fortunately, items had been numbered and information about them was carefully recorded when they arrived, but the number had exceeded SPNEA's ability to provide safe and secure harbor for them. Careful refinement of the collections, building and object stabilization and conservation, landscape restoration or rehabilitation, creative education programs, pilot exhibitions programs, scholarly publication, and meticulous cataloging have occupied a talented staff for the past twenty years. New material has been added to the collections and active efforts to increase the diversity of the collections are underway. Today the collections include more than 125 historic buildings on 46 sites in five states, 1,300+ acres of land, l20,000+ objects, 400,000 photographs, and more than one million archival items. Bringing these vast resources to new and diverse audiences is the challenge facing the staff today as they embrace with enthusiasm the teaching aspect of the museum's mission. |