September 06, 2025
By Rachael Kane, '22
This video explores the physical presence of an early nineteenth-century ceramic jelly mold, both as a crafted object and as an important aspect of the table settings used by wealthy British citizens during the Georgian era. Part of the tradition of the Staffordshire potteries, this object tells stories of foodways, interior dining room decoration, and the continued expansion of the British empire. These objects were often visual ...
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September 06, 2025
Photograph of a Sitting Room, 1883. Photograph, likely Albumen. Winterthur Library: Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera Coll. 182.
With digital communication, taking a quick photograph of furniture arrangements or picture placement for review and approval by others seems like second nature. We throw it up on Instagram, or SnapChat for all to see. The inscription on the reverse of this photo gives proof that this idea of ...
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September 06, 2025
Like the extensive collection of early American decorative arts and top-notch graduate program, Charles Hummel has had a consistent presence at Winterthur for the past 60 years. Most current students and alumni of the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture know the museum's curator emeritus as "Charlie" and look to him for wisdom based on his life-long passion for American history and craftsmanship. I recently sat down with Charlie to ask him ...
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July 28, 2025
By Esme Krohn
I felt a little bad about the hours I spend on TikTok when I saw the scrupulously detailed anatomical studies by Elias Alexander Vogler at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina [Figs. 1-4].1 In addition to being a talented artist, Vogler was the mayor of Salem, North Carolina for two terms, an entrepreneur, an architect, and a community leader in the Moravian Church [Fig. 5]. If he were alive ...
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