If you could rev up the Time Machine and rocket back to 1810, how long would you want to stay?
My guess: About as long as it takes to visit the new “Hearth and Home” exhibit at Morristown’s Macculloch Hall Historical Museum.
Let’s face it, life in those days was hard — even with a staff of servants to handle (some) of the dirty work. In this podcast (also available for free on iTunes), museum Executive Director Carrie Fellows gives you the 19th century in 19 minutes.
The exhibit, which opens today and runs through June, includes an amusing quote from the family patriarch, George Macculloch, from a Christmas 1845 letter to his son:
“The history of a family is like the history of a nation, always most to be envied when the least can be said about it.”
For that reason, it took some digging on Carrie’s part to unearth details about daily life at Macculloch Hall, which began two centuries ago as a 26-acre gentleman’s farm and expanded to include a Latin academy for boys.
Some of her best clues came from George Macculloch’s account book.
“I’m looking for evidence of what he was paying people to do do, what he was purchasing from vendors, what was being produced on the farm,” said Carrie, who started planning this exhibit in August 2009, shortly after becoming museum director.
Turns out cash was not king in the 1800s. Day laborers at Macculloch Hall sometimes were paid in hard cider, said Carrie, former administrator of the Morris County Heritage Commission.
Vendors of the day also are represented by a series of engravings, “Cries of London” by Francis Wheatley, depicting the calls and singsongs of street peddlers.
Exhibit artifacts include wash basins, sewing implements, barbarous-looking grooming tools and yes, a commode. Items were culled from the museum’s collection, and from the Morris County Historical Society and the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts in Madison.
The exhibit is part of Macculloch Hall’s 200th anniversary celebration, which includes an “1810 Tartan Day” fund-raising concert at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church on Oct. 24.
“Hearth and Home” is subtitled “A Century of Family Life,” but it could have been “A Woman’s Work is Never Done.”
The brunt of household chores fell to the females of the house–wash day and ironing day were major events–and the matriarch, Louisa Macculloch, was not spared from such tasks as butchering steers, according to Carrie.
Louisa appreciated the plight of women enough to establish the Female Charitable Society, now Family Service of Morris County.
All in all, Carrie said, she’s pretty happy to be living in the new millennium. The 19th century, as “Home and Hearth” makes clear, is a nice place to visit.
The Macculloch Hall Historical Museum on 45 Macculloch Avenue is open Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1 pm to 4 pm. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, and free for members and children under 12. The gardens are free from dawn until dusk.
