Do you ever wonder how objects end up in museum exhibitions? The cloak on view in our museum gallery arrived at the Society in a box. It had ripped seams, frayed trim, insect damage, and layers of dirt. But in its prime in the early 1800s, the bright red color was a fashion statement and a sign of the owner’s wealth.
When you visit the reinterpreted rooms of the Strong-Howard House, you will feel as if you had stepped into the Howards’ home. Not only will you have the opportunity to touch everything, snooping is encouraged. Want to try out the bed? Feel free. Want to look under the tablecloth? Go right ahead. But you might wonder about an item – why is this here?
Mary and Elisha Strong raised 11 children in their elegant house on North Meadow Road in Windsor. Elisha built the house in 1780 and filled it with prestigious items, including a custom made desk-and-bookcase, which, like the house, survive to this day. Another survivor is a quilted, embroidered bedcover in the collection of the International Quilt Study Center in Nebraska.
For centuries, the wedding day attire of brides and grooms has carried enough significance for future generations to preserve as relics. The Society owns many wedding-day souvenirs from Windsor couples, including these 18th-century ladies’ shoe buckles that were possibly worn by Hannah Allyn on January 6, 1763, the day she wed Captain James Hooker.
Industrial Revolution produced both an increase in leisure time for the middle class and a profusion of affordable recreational equipment. It is this equipment that fills many of the Windsor Historical Society’s storage shelves, including six pairs of ice skates, a lone single skate, and a few pairs of steel blades.