Summer Exhibit:

North of the Riverett

            Among the C
onial artifacts will be a heart-in-crown chair, called the cream of our collection by Noah Webster House Executive Director Christopher I. Dobbs.  The piece is of particular note because it represents a folk style of chair only manufactured by about six craftsmen working between Norwalk & Guilford from 1720 to about 1820.  All of these craftsmen were trained by Thomas Salmon of Stratford, who emigrated there from England sometime before 1719.  Joining the chair will be a drop-leaf Queen Anne-style table sporting fairly typical cabriole legs & Dutch feet and probably of New England construct.  The slender & elegant Queen Anne style was popular in America between 1720 & 1760 but was eventually supplanted by the heavier Georgian style.

            Also making an appearance are some 18th-century artifacts that have not been exhibited for a long time, if ever.  One such object is a beam from the house built for Reverend Joseph Smith by the 2nd Congregational Society on the east side of Pleasant Street.  Constructed during the Winter of 1717-1718, the house was torn down in the late 1960s or early ‘70s after it was badly damaged by fire.  But possibly the most exciting collection of objects are those once owned by a soldier in the Revolutionary War.  19-year-old Eleazer Bidwell, who was living in the town of Colebrook in Litchfield County in 1771, served as a private & then a sergeant in the War of Independence.  He is on Colebrook town records as a grand juror in 1783 & then as drawing a pension from the War Department at age 88 in 1840.  The Cromwell Historical Society is proud to exhibit Eleazar Bidwell’s pension certificate, his work smock (the early equivalent of a Carhaart jacket), and his Revolutionary War uniform coat.

"North of te Riverett" will be open as part of our summer museum hours.  Visit the Stevens-Frisbie House on Sunday afternoons from 1 until 3.  While admission is free, donations are appreciated.