The New York Times-20080127-Colonial Suffolk Life In All Its Simplicity

Return to: The_New_York_Times-20080127

Colonial Suffolk Life In All Its Simplicity

Full Text (806  words)

THERE is a straight-legged corner chair, its wood and its seat cushion clearly aged. A linen coverlet, embroidered in blue, depicts a man beside a horse. An engraved powder horn is incised with the image of a sailing ship and the year it was made: 1762.

With objects like these, Colonial Treasures From the Collection, the exhibition at the Suffolk County Historical Society that begins on Feb. 2, though mainly a presentation of decorative arts and practical craftsmanship, also conveys a sense of early European-American life in Suffolk.

The show, focusing on the Colonial era in eastern Long Island, draws on artifacts collected by the society since its founding in 1886. The 47 artifacts and 13 documents on display come from communities across the county but primarily from the East End, where most of Suffolk's Colonial settlements were situated.

Some of the objects belonged to families of prominent local figures like the Continental Congressman David Gelston and the Revolutionary War hero Nathaniel Woodhull. Included is furniture, elegant and simple, and a silver tankard and salver and various firearms. Other items of 18th-century life are a pocket watch, paper money issued by the Continental Congress and a silk vest with a rose embroidered on each of its buttons. Illustrating the immediately post-Colonial period is a 1795 letter from President George Washington explaining to Suffolk residents the value of the recently approved Jay Treaty with England.

These are things that people rarely get to see, said Kathryn Curran, the museum's exhibition coordinator. The Bicentennial was the last time many of them were on display.

One of the exhibition's text panels uses the phrase sequestered in a great measure from the world, which describes one aspect of the lives of Colonial residents in Suffolk. They could be insular in some ways, Ms. Curran said, and wealthy and cosmopolitan in other ways. But they were often interested in maintaining their traditions.

Although the exhibition displays, for instance, an imported Italian pistol with intricate engraving and bronze insets, it also contains more prosaic flintlock muskets used by farmers for hunting and protection. Among its furnishings are an elegant William and Mary-style oak escritoire with a bonnet top, inlaid drawers and a rich teak veneer. But also on hand are several distinctly unfussy splat-backed chairs as well as a humble cradle used by Nathaniel Woodhull as an infant and a simple drop-leaf table (upon which local patriots signed the Articles of Association to show their support for independence).

When you take a look at a large body of objects from this period, you get a clear sense that eastern Long Island was a bit more isolated and remote, said Dean Failey, an expert in local art history and senior director at Christie's art auction house in New York. The people there had access to more fashionable styles, but it didn't seem to be as important to them.

For Richard Barons, executive director of the East Hampton Historical Society, this tendency was a matter of cultural perspective. I don't think they were sequestered, he said. They had a great deal of contact with other areas, but they were exceedingly conservative. I think it's partly a matter of the Puritan aesthetic remaining here during that time.

A glimpse of the simplicity of the period can be found in the exhibition's display of a Colonial doctor's journal, which records, among other things, how he accepted barter for his services. This unassuming, rustic quality can help explain tastes in crafts as well. They didn't live in a social context when competing with neighbors was as important, Mr. Failey said. There was less pressure to be better off than the family next door. There wasn't the need to live above your place in life. A minister, for instance, did not make a lot of money, but he held a respected position in town. And they were largely satisfied.

The exhibition will show that Colonial residents in Suffolk had much to be satisfied with. Visitors coming to see the exhibition will learn that people lived very comfortably in those days, Ms. Curran said. There was a high degree of craftsmanship at all levels of society.

They might not have jumped on the latest fashion, Mr. Barons said, but they were proud of having good craftsmen in their community and they expected something good for their money.

Colonial Treasures From the Collection runs from Feb. 2 through March 29 at the Suffolk County Historical Society, 300 West Main Street, Riverhead; (631) 727-2881; www.schs-museum.org.

[Illustration]PHOTOS: OBJECTS TO SAVOR: Above left, Colonial paper money; a letter with George Washington's signature; right, embroidered Irish stitch purse, made in 1770 by John F. Foster for his wife, Mary Foster; left, a mahogany desk owned by David Gelston; below, a detail of an 18th-century pistol. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY DOUG KUNTZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)