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Gathering meaning in the goods of the recent past

Historic New England, best known for its preservation of old properties, gathers 20th century domestic goods

Nancy Carlisle, senior curator of collections, stands among Historic New England’s 18th- to 20th-century paintings. Erik Jacobs for the Boston Globe/Globe Freelance

HAVERHILL — On a recent morning, staff members at Historic New England bustle in a makeshift photo studio. One handles the camera, another the computer, and two more adjust the banks of lights.

Gray backdrop paper unspools behind the subject posed on a low pedestal: the first model of an Amana Radarange. It is one of 21,499 (and counting) artifacts in the group’s 20th-century collections.

Flashes pop, an image appears on the computer screen, and, once approved, joins the object description in a public online database.

Nancy Carlisle, senior curator of collections, wouldn’t have been happier if the subject had been Paul Revere’s butter churn. As the 20th century recedes, Historic New England is paying a significant amount of attention to gathering more quotidian objects of the just passed era. This may seem odd to the casual observer, given that the group is best known for its stewardship of 36 historic properties that represent more than 400 years of New England life.

“We have two microwaves,” says Carlisle. “We have good stories of how the owners bought them, where they bought them, and how they used them.” Introduced in 1967, the Amana Radarange, invented by Amana’s parent company back then, Massachusetts-based Raytheon, was the first countertop microwave oven, and it revolutionized the home kitchen.

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The organization’s leaders understand why their interest in late-20th-century artifacts, many of them mass-produced, might surprise would-be donors and others. But they say it’s truly consistent with what they’re all about.

Founded in 1910 as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, the nonprofit’s current name reflects its mission to preserve and interpret the continuum of domestic life in New England. History didn’t stop in 1900, and neither do the group’s collections. Founder William Sumner Appleton, for example, acquired some handsome — and for him, contemporary —Saturday Evening Girls pottery from Boston’s North End.

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Many potential donors “don’t realize that their objects could be significant,” Carlisle says, noting that something that seems inconsequential now could prove valuable for what it reveals about its era.

Items in Historic New England's 20th century collection wait to be catalogued including pottery from the 1920s and product boxes from 1940s to 1960s.Erik Jacobs for The Boston Globe

Donations account for more than 99 percent of the 20th-century collections, and Carlisle would love to get more boomers with overstuffed attics and garages thinking like curators. “We get weekly offers of wedding dresses,” she says. “It’s hard for donors to realize that we’re really more interested in their Crock-Pots.”

Actually, Historic New England already has a Crock-Pot slow cooker. It was purchased around 1974 in Bangor, and the donor also saved the original recipe booklet, annotated to show her family’s response to particular dishes. The organization likewise owns a George Foreman Grill. The curators were thrilled with the original packaging but unswayed by the celebrity factor. They were more interested in how the appliance represented the “fad about people eating healthier,” says Carlisle.

The collection has a decidedly domestic focus. “Our umbrella is life in the home,” says Carlisle, “things that come out of the home that are indicative of a particular time, phase, or fad.” The curators are most interested in objects with contextual stories. Living with an object gives it meaning: Historic New England would rather have the chipped family teapot used every day than a pristine pot that a collector found on eBay. The more information a donor can provide the better.

Having just crossed the Rubicon of Black Friday, we are embarked on the season of mass acquisition.

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But don’t ask Carlisle what trinkets under the tree will eventually make their way into her collections. It probably won’t be an iPhone 6 or a Surface Pro 3. Although the group has already started selectively collecting 21st-century artifacts, it leaves the category of consumer technology largely to others, notably the Smithsonian. As for gifts without batteries or switches, it’s hard to predict. “We need a little of the distance that gives you perspective,” Carlisle says.

In collecting the recent past, the organization seems to take a cue from poet Ezra Pound: “What thou lovest well remains, / the rest is dross.” Those well-loved things range from an over-the-top poodle skirt purchased at Filene’s Basement to a Modern Hygiene vacuum cleaner to a Little League bat, mitt, ball, uniform, and team photo.

A 1956 poodle skirt from Filene's Basement in Historic New England 20th century collection.Erik Jacobs for The Boston Globe/Globe Freelance

Recent acquisitions include a 1930s Maytag washing machine, complete with a homemade tea-cozy-style cover, and an Eames LCW molded plywood chair, hailed by Time magazine as the “Best Design of the 20th Century.” (Historic New England curators are particularly interested in objects purchased at Design Research in Cambridge.)

But many pieces are more personal and even handmade — and recent donations do, in fact, include at least one wedding dress.

“I made it myself,” says Julianne Mehegan of Hingham. “It’s green. It’s pretty cheap fabric, but it represents the style of pattern, fabric, and zippers available then. It was a pretty hippie-style wedding,” and that’s the key to why Historic New England wanted it. The curators are seeking artifacts from that era to flesh out the collections.

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Donations from Kathleen Carr of Marshfield paint a portrait of an era of change. A dress, complete with a bow in the back, that she sewed in 1988 for daughter Susannah’s ninth-grade dinner dance perfectly captures that “Pretty in Pink”/“Sixteen Candles” moment in pop culture. Susannah’s field hockey letter jacket speaks of the rise of women’s sports with the implementation of Title IX.

A Hingham High field hockey letter jacket among clothing from the 70's and 80's in Historic New England 20th century collection.Erik Jacobs for The Boston Globe/Globe Freelance

Such things, says Carr, “are full of memories, but your children don’t want them. I feel really pleased that they ended up with Historic New England. Parting with things is much easier if you know they are going to a good place.”

Historic New England catalogs all items when they’re acquired and adds more extensive detail when an object is featured in a publication or exhibition. Some objects also wind up in properties that did not come with their own possessions. Not everything has to be put to immediate use. Historic New England founder Appleton “would put things in a box with a note ‘For some future curator to decide,’ ” Carlisle says, noting that she and her staff are operating in the same spirit, creating a treasure trove for future researchers and curators at a 48,000-square-foot warehouse in downtown Haverhill.

“These objects,” she says, “tell us how New Englanders lived and what they cared about.”


Patricia Harris and David Lyon can be contacted at harrislyon@gmail.com.

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