Reed Homestead
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Reed Homestead
The Reed Homestead (circa 1809) is a historic home currently operated as a historic house museum in Townsend Harbor, Massachusetts. Overview The house is notable mainly for its well-preserved murals on the second floor, attributed to Rufus Porter (painter), Rufus Porter, founder of ''Scientific American'' magazine. The murals date from around 1800 to 1835, and are among the best-preserved examples anywhere of Porter's work. Although it is believed that about 160 Porter murals once existed in homes throughout New England, most have subsequently been destroyed by wallpapering or fading due to sunlight. The two-story, federal-style house was built circa 1809 for Oliver Reed Jr., and inhabited by four generations of the Reed family. In 1973 it was purchased by the Townsend Historical Society. Nearly everything inside is original, from the wide pine floors to the crown glass windows to the mammy bench in the kitchen. Some modernization has taken place (e.g. electricity was installed i ...
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Reed Homestead (exterior) - Townsend, Massachusetts
The Reed Homestead (circa 1809) is a historic home currently operated as a historic house museum in Townsend Harbor, Massachusetts. Overview The house is notable mainly for its well-preserved murals on the second floor, attributed to Rufus Porter (painter), Rufus Porter, founder of ''Scientific American'' magazine. The murals date from around 1800 to 1835, and are among the best-preserved examples anywhere of Porter's work. Although it is believed that about 160 Porter murals once existed in homes throughout New England, most have subsequently been destroyed by wallpapering or fading due to sunlight. The two-story, federal-style house was built circa 1809 for Oliver Reed Jr., and inhabited by four generations of the Reed family. In 1973 it was purchased by the Townsend Historical Society. Nearly everything inside is original, from the wide pine floors to the crown glass windows to the mammy bench in the kitchen. Some modernization has taken place (e.g. electricity was installed i ...
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Historic House Museum
A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a variety of standards, including those of the International Council of Museums. Houses are transformed into museums for a number of different reasons. For example, the homes of famous writers are frequently turned into writer's home museums to support literary tourism. About Historic house museums are sometimes known as a "memory museum", which is a term used to suggest that the museum contains a collection of the traces of memory of the people who once lived there. It is often made up of the inhabitants' belongings and objects – this approach is mostly concerned with authenticity. Some museums are organised around the person who lived there or the social role the house had. Other historic house museums may be partially or completely re ...
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Townsend Harbor, Massachusetts
Townsend Harbor is a village in Townsend, Massachusetts, containing Harbor Pond dammed from the Squannacook River. At this location Jonas Spaulding and his brother Waldo started a mill in 1873 that made leatherboard (composed of leather scraps and wood pulp). They did business as Spaulding Brothers. Their family business expanded to locations in New Hampshire and western New York."Tonawanda News"; Spaulding Supplement; Oct 14, 1961; p1, front page. Jonas Spaulding expanded further into leatherboard manufacturing, founding a second mill at Milton, New Hampshire, around 1893. This allowed Jonas to bring his three grown sons: Leon C., Huntley N., and Rolland H. Spaulding, into the business in a second company organized as J. Spaulding and Sons. The senior Spaulding started construction of a third leatherboard mill at North Rochester, New Hampshire. It began production in 1900 shortly after his death. The three Spaulding sons were successful and acquired the Spaulding Brothers mil ...
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Rufus Porter (painter)
Rufus Porter (May 1, 1792 – August 13, 1884) was an American painter, inventor, and founder of ''Scientific American'' magazine. Famous family Rufus Porter descended from an old colonial New England family. The family's first immigrants to the US were Mary and John Porter (–1676) who emigrated from Dorset, England to Salem, Massachusetts in the early 17th century. When John died in 1676 he was the largest landowner around, owning property that included the modern cities of Salem, Danvers, Wenham, Beverly, Topsfield and Boxford, Massachusetts. Later descendants included Benjamin Porter, who was Rufus' great-grandfather. Benjamin moved to West Boxford in 1716 and became the wealthiest man there. His descendants include ministers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, an army colonel, a ship's captain, a professor of mathematics and several legislative members. He was related by marriage to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the Honorable Rufus King (minister to England) and Harrie ...
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Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. ''Scientific American'' is owned by Springer Nature, which in turn is a subsidiary of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. History ''Scientific American'' was founded by inventor and publisher Rufus Porter (painter), Rufus Porter in 1845 as a four-page weekly newspaper. The first issue of the large format newspaper was released August 28, 1845. Throughout its early years, much emphasis was placed on reports of what was going on at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, U.S. Patent Office. It also reported on a broad range of inventions including perpetual motion machines, an 1860 device for buoying vessels by Abraham Lincoln, and the universal joint which now can be found ...
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Houses Completed In 1809
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems.Schoenauer, Norbert (2000). ''6,000 Years of Housing'' (rev. ed.) (New York: W.W. Norton & Company). Houses use a range of different roofing systems to keep precipitation such as rain from getting into the dwelling space. Houses may have doors or locks to secure the dwelling space and protect its inhabitants and contents from burglars or other trespassers. Most conventional modern houses in Western cultures will contain one or more bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen or cooking area, and a living room. A house may have a separate dining room, or the eating area may be integrated into another room. Some large houses in North America have a recreation room. In traditional agriculture-oriented societies, domestic animals such as ...
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Historic House Museums In Massachusetts
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of these events. Historians seek knowledge of the past using historical sources such as written documents, oral accounts, art and material artifacts, and ecological markers. History is not complete and still has debatable mysteries. History is also an academic discipline which uses narrative to describe, examine, question, and analyze past events, and investigate their patterns of cause and effect. Historians often debate which narrative best explains an event, as well as the significance of different causes and effects. Historians also debate the nature of history as an end in itself, as well as its usefulness to give perspective on the problems of the p ...
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Museums In Middlesex County, Massachusetts
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these items available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. The largest museums are located in major cities throughout the world, while thousands of local museums exist in smaller cities, towns, and rural areas. Museums have varying aims, ranging from the conservation and documentation of their collection, serving researchers and specialists, to catering to the general public. The goal of serving researchers is not only scientific, but intended to serve the general public. There are many types of museums, including art museums, natural history museums, science museums, war museums, and children's museums. According to the International Council of Museums (ICOM), there are more than 55,000 museums in 202 countries ...
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Art Museums And Galleries In Massachusetts
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of what constitutes art, and its interpretation has varied greatly throughout history and across cultures. In the Western tradition, the three classical branches of visual art are painting, sculpture, and architecture. Theatre, dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature, music, film and other media such as interactive media, are included in a broader definition of the arts. Until the 17th century, ''art'' referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences. In modern usage after the 17th century, where aesthetic considerations are paramount, the fine arts are separated and distinguished from acquired skills in general, such as the decorative or applied arts. The nature of art and related concepts, such ...
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