Historic Deerfield’s 2024 Fall Forum on September 13–14 is titled A Rich and Varied Palette: Coloring New England’s Past. Leading researchers and scholars will explore the vast subject of color and its history, focusing on New England’s specific cultural region.
The program’s lectures will cover such topics as “global colorants and textiles, lithoprints in 1840s New England, painted furniture at the Bath Academy, japanned furniture, Shakers’ color use and meanings, New England’s textile bleaching industries, chrome yellow and pink as pigments, and the paints and finishes of the Rockingham (Vermont) meeting house.”
Despite the pervasive misconception of drabness, New England embraced color as a reflection of refinement and status, a visual display of commerce and the global economy, and a defining element of cultural difference, regional identity, and social and racial hierarchies. Through lectures, workshops, and tours, forum participants will experience the latest scholarship on color and gain a better understanding of the role of color in New England material life.
Historic Deerfield is home to one of the finest collections of New England architecture, interiors, and decorative arts of the 18th and 19th centuries. The museum’s Library also features the superb collection of Stephen L. Wolf (1917–2008), composed of pamphlets, trade catalogs, periodicals, and ephemera on applied color dating from the late 1500s to the present.
The full schedule can be downloaded here in PDF form (in color, of course). People can attend in-person or virtually. In-person registration costs $150, less for Historic Deerfield members and college students; that doesn’t include meals or extras. Virtual registration for the lectures only costs $90 with similar discounts. Register through this page.
Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife 