Our most ambitious new exhibit focuses on Czech and Hungarian immigrants who settled in the neighboring towns of Mansfield, Ashford and Willington in the early 1900s. They populated many of the abandoned farms in the area and brought them back to life.
The Willington Historical Society is partnering with us on this exhibit. Gardner Hall Jr. recruited many Czechs off the boat at Ellis Island to work in his Thread Company in Willington. A number of them had been skilled mother-of-pearl button makers in their native land, and soon established button shops in Willington and Mansfield.
Some of these Czech and Hungarian families still live in the area. A number of them have agreed to be interviewed [see The Story of Joe Toth] and to loan family memorabilia for the exhibit, which will be displayed in the Old Town Hall.
This year marks the University of Connecticut's 125th anniversary. The front room of the main building will feature an exhibit showing what Mansfield was like in the 1880s when UConn's predecessor, the Storrs Agricultural School, was established.
The exhibit will include photographs, newspaper articles, and even some costumes from this period. It should give some local historical context to the anniversary exhibits on view at the University.
In the adjacent gallery, we will be displaying Gregory Cichowski's photographs — showing the dismantling of the Ash house and its reconstruction on his property at Old Turnpike Road. Some of you will recall Greg's fascinating talk about this project at our Annual Meeting last September.
The 17th-century saltbox was long a familiar sight on Route 195, next to Mansfield Supply. Some of the artifacts found during the archaeological site study by TRC Solutions will also be on display. These are on loan from the Connecticut Archaeology Center.
A collection of Victorian planters and jardinières, loaned by Isabelle Atwood, will be displayed in the furniture gallery, filled with period-appropriate silk plants. Joan Gerdsen and Joyce Passmore are also planning an exhibit of place settings and serving pieces for the glass display cases in the vault area.
They are seeking examples of china, glassware and flatware of different eras for this display. If you are willing to loan any of your family heirlooms, please contact the museum at (860) 429-6575.
And last, but not least, this year's kitchen display will focus on housekeeping in the early 1900s. It will include vignettes representing cleaning and laundry chores, supplemented by excerpts from period housekeeping manuals and advertisements for cleaning products of that period.
Ann Galonska,
Museum Director