Boston Flora

Tag: Castle Tucker

  • Wednesday, November 7, 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Uncovering Voices from the Back Stairs

    Historic New England and the New England Historic Genealogical Society will present a program entitled Uncovering Voices from the Back Stairs on Wednesday, November 7, beginning at 6 pm at the New England Genealogical Society’s headquarters at 99 – 101 Newbury Street in Boston. The event is free to HNE and NEHGS members, $5 for non-members.

    Although domestic servants made everyday life in grand homes possible, their identities and roles within the household have long been hidden. Jennifer Pustz, museum historian at Historic New England and author of Voices from the Back Stairs, illustrates the diversity of domestic service in New England over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by focusing on Castle Tucker, Roseland Cottage, and the Codman Estate. Archival materials illustrate the lives of servants and relationships with their employers.

    Following this lecture, Marie Daly, director of the library at New England Historic Genealogical Society, demonstrates how anyone can research their family history, including hard-to-trace ancestors such as servants, immigrants, and members of the working class. She will highlight both online and on-site research venues, bringing to light the sources that can help piece together your family story. Co-sponsored with New England Historic Genealogical Society.

    Registration is required. Please call 617-994-5959 for more information. Purchase tickets now by clicking here.

  • Sunday, July 19, 3 – 4:30 p.m. – Curves, Carpets and Color – Romantic and Victorian Gardening in America

    Historic New England (www.historicnewengland.org) invites you to Castle Tucker, 2 Lee Street in Wiscasset,  Maine on Sunday, July 18, from 3 to 4:30 pm, when author Martha McDowell explores the development of an American landscaping style from the formal plans of the eighteenth century to the elaborate designs of Victorian high style.  The program is co-sponsored by the Maine Antiques Dealers’ Association.

    Marta McDowell lives, writes and gardens in Chatham, New Jersey.  She shares her garden with her husband, Kirke Bent, her crested cockatiel, Sydney, and approximately 30,000 honeybees.  Her garden writing has appeared in popular publications such as Woman’s Day, Fine Gardening and The New York Times.  Scholars and specialists have read her essays on American authors and their horticultural interests in the journals Hortus and Arnoldia.

    Following the relationship between the pen and the trowel led Marta to the poet Emily Dickinson.  Marta’s book, Emily Dickinson’s Gardens, was published by McGraw-Hill in 2005.  If you visit the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts, you can stroll the grounds with a landscape audio tour that Marta scripted in 2007.

    Marta teaches landscape history and preservation at the New York Botanical Garden and Drew University.  She teaches gardening classes for the Chautauqua Institution.  A popular lecturer on topics ranging from design history to plant combinations, she has been a featured speaker at locations ranging from Wave Hill to the Garden Club of Philadelphia and the Cummer Museum of Art in Jacksonville, Florida.

    Marta’s latest gardening adventure was a six-month working holiday in England.  She interned at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Rosemoor in Devon and at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London.

    Her husband summed up Marta’s biography as “I am, therefore I dig.”

    $5 for Members of Historic New England, $10 for non-Members.  Pre-registration is recommended.