Artifacts

The former Town Scale, measuring approximately 7.5 feet by 6.6 feet by 2.3 feet, is one of the largest items in our collection. Our scale was made by the firm of Howard and Davis of 34 Water Street, Boston as one of 330 sets ordered by the Legislature (one for each town, city, and county in existence at the time). There is some question as to the number that were actually delivered as a number of communities reportedly shared a set to minimize expense. As early as 1800 state statutes mandated “it shall be the duty of the treasurer of

The Society is excited to announce the recent acquisition of a Chippendale style wing back chair with an interesting history. The chair comes to us through the generous donation of Marcia Close of McClean, Virginia. Mrs. Close is the daughter of Willard F. Smith whose parents, Allen and Edeler (Chickering) Smith lived in the house on Centre Street that is now occupied by the Charles River School. On the evening of January 21, 1908 the Smiths and others removed this chair from the fire that was consuming the Williams Tavern which lay across the street and just east of the

Much of the fun that is to be found in local historical societies lies in the odd collection of artifacts that accumulate over the course of a century or more. The more obviously significant items tend to be well documented, but the more obscure items are a veritable treasure trove for the curious researcher. This rather large wall clock has hung on the wall in the basement of the Sawin Museum since the early 1960’s. The dial bears the name A. C. Rice and the date 1857. All that was known of its history is that it was given to

Remembering recent contributions of mine in Dover Tidings some readers may well say, “Enough WWI, let’s move on”.  Indeed, I am moving on with one last article commenting on a remarkable piece of artwork.  The Sawin Museum is fortunate to own a series of WWI posters exhorting Americans in the most graphic manner to hate the enemy and purchase war bonds.  Some of these were the work of Joseph (signed “Ioseph”) Pennell (1857-1926), in his time one of the most talented and famous etchers who documented the conflict with a series of lithographs created in Britain, France and the USA. 

The Upper Level of the Sawin Museum has long been home to an office for the Dover Historical Society, and it seemed like a good idea to downsize the administrative area into a corner and reclaim display space.  While sliding heavy boxes of papers across the room I repeatedly bumped into a medium-sized leather trunk and it needed to be stored away.  The trunk was filled with office ephemera; nothing more exciting than a couple of desk accessories from the 1980s, an answering machine manual and old software installation discs. The empty trunk is beautiful. The wallpaper lining is in

Although the Sawin Museum is closed for the winter, it has never been busier.  New projects abound on every floor as the museum looks ahead towards re-opening to the public in September.   A new 19th century Dover one-room schoolhouse exhibit is being constructed in the hands-on Lower Level.  Inspiration for this exhibit came from a very generous donation of original desks, chairs and a bookshelf from Ms. Caroline Blake Whitney, whose family owned and preserved Dover’s East District School for many years. This one-room schoolhouse was built in 1850, closed in 1910, and moved to 19 Strawberry Hill Street