This exhibit will trace the history of the Training School from its beginnings in 1858 as a private school for "imbecile" children in Lakeville, Connecticut, to its closing in 1993 as a state institution run by the Department of Mental Retardation. For three-quarters of the twentieth century, the Mansfield Training School was a large presence in our town. Although it was once considered a model institution, societal changes and new trends in the treatment of mental retardation led to its closing amidst allegations of abuse.
Our student intern, Rachel Neumann, has been busy interviewing people associated with the school and tracking down information, photographs and artifacts. Now that 10 years have passed since the Training School closed, it's time to look back and review this significant part of Mansfield's history.
From the mid 18th century on, working a sampler was an important part of a young girl's education. As the child stitched her letters and numbers, she also learned important needlework skills that would make her a desirable homemaker in later life.
This exhibit will display a collection of samplers ranging from simple examples to elaborate pictorical ones made by schoolgirls taught at academies. Joan Gerssen is the curator of this exhibit.
Using the needlework skills they learned while stitching their early samplers, women embellished all manner of objects during the 19th century. This exhibit will showcase an array of embroidered items from clothing to household linens and crazy quilts.
A collection of sewing baskets, pincushions and other sewing paraphernalia will also be on display. Althea Stadler and Poppy Whitaker are working on this exhibit.
Claude McDaniels was a farmer who lived on Wormwood Hill for most of his 93 years. His family moved to Wormwood Hill in 1915, where Claude lived a lifestyle more akin to his 19th-century parents, than his 20th-century peers. Claude's poetic eccentricity and remarkable memory for detail drew artists, poets, writers, and photographers who sought the wealth of unrecorded history that he spewed on a daily basis.
In this exhibit, photographer Cecelia Chau of New York City, and singer-songwriter/dramatist Donna Dufresne of Pomfret, will attempt to capture the end of a life well-lived in photographs, stories, and songs that depict the by-gone days of rural Connecticut. The photographs depict Claude in his final days in the fall of 2003. The stories and songs are derived from oral history collected from Claude over a twenty-year period. Cecelia Chau and Donna Dufresne are fifth-grade teachers and graduate students at UCONN in the Three Summers Gifted and Talented Program.
If you have any artifacts or memorabilia relating to these topics that you are willing to loan, please contact the museum at 860-429-6575. We are especially in need of samplers and examples of embroidery. Any information or memories that you can share will also be appreciated. Thank you!
Ann Galonska,
Museum Director