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| Historical Hodgepodge:Dispatches from the Saco Museum |
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100 Years Ago –
The Thornton Academy Class of 1925 |
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As Saco gets ready to celebrate the Class of 2025, we take a moment to look back a hundred years ago when Thornton Academy honored the Class of 1925. Thanks to a recent - and timely - donation from Dottie Vachon, we received a large collection of individual cabinet cards of Thornton Academy seniors from 1925. Many of the cards are signed with colorful nicknames bestowed by their fellow students, like “Doc,” “Stubb,” and “General.” Seventy students were included in the Class of 1925, making it the largest graduating class in the school’s history up to that point, surpassing the previous record by nearly twenty students.
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Muriel Frances Staples, The Elite Studio, Biddeford |
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“Doc,” unidentified T.A. student, The Elite Studio, Biddeford |
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Ena and Esther Tuttle, The Elite Studio, Biddeford |
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Virgil and Victor Thurston, The Elite Studio, Biddeford |
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The 1925 class included two sets of twins, Ena and Esther Tuttle of lower Beach Street, and Virgil and Victor Thurston of North Saco. The Tuttle sisters were the daughters of Pearl and Arthur Tuttle, a carpenter at the Saco Lowell Shops. The Thurston boys were from the well-known Thurston Mill family on Watson Mill Road. The Elite Studio in Biddeford arranged a special photo shoot for the two twins in addition to their regular individual portraits.
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Thornton Academy Class of 1925, Philip K. Fry, Saco |
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At the time, graduation ceremonies were held at the George Addison Emery Gymnasium (currently the Mary Weymouth Hyde Library) at Thornton Academy. The full-length panorama group photo of the Class of 1925 has been in the collection of the Dyer Library for several years. The cabinet cards add a vital piece to the panorama photo and allow us to put together a more complete picture of these graduates from a hundred years ago.
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Deering Chest |
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We recently received an early 19th-century chest of drawers made by James Deering (1798-1898) while serving as an apprentice cabinetmaker in Saco. Deering came from a large family of shipwrights, but the shipping business was in a slump when he was a youth and he chose to learn cabinetmaking instead.
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Deering made the chest of drawers between 1815 and 1820, several years into his apprenticeship. It is constructed of white pine and mahogany veneer. While it is relatively plain compared to some others made in Saco around the same time, the construction features and its distinctive patterned string inlay clearly relate it to other case furniture known to have been made in the shop operated by cabinetmakers Joshua Cumston and David Buckminster.
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When Deering completed his apprenticeship in 1820, he moved his family to South Paris, Maine and the chest descended in the family there for many generations. Former Saco Museum curator Tom Hardiman included the chest in an article on Saco cabinetmakers that he published in The Magazine Antiques in May 2001. At the time, it was in a private collection in California. It remained there until this March when the late owner’s partner arranged to have it shipped to the museum. We are very grateful that the chest of drawers has been able to return home to the place where it was made. It will be included in our upcoming exhibition, so come see it in person this summer!
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This year the Saco Museum is participating in the Blue Star Museums program. Blue Star Museums is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts and Blue Star Families, in collaboration with the Department of Defense and museums across America.
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Institutions participating the Blue Star Museum program include art, history, and science museums, children’s museums, zoos, gardens, lighthouses, and more from all fifty states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Blue Star Museums offer free admission to the nation’s active-duty military personnel and their families, including National Guard and Reserves. The 2025 program will begin on Armed Forces Day, Saturday, May 17, 2025, and run through Labor Day, September 1, 2025.
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| New Exhibit opens May 24th |
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Ceramics Shelf |
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We’re taking a different approach to our summer exhibition this year. Instead of focusing on a particular historical theme or time period, we are going to take a look at some behind-the-scenes museum work. Most people know that museums collect objects, put on exhibitions, and present programs for the public, but just how do museum staff go about doing those things? Where do museums obtain objects for their collections - and how do they decide what
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is appropriate to collect? How do staff take care of those objects so that future generations can enjoy them? How do they go about researching the items in the collections? And how does the staff use that information when putting together exhibitions and programs? Come visit us this summer to find out!
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"Behind Closed Doors: The Secrets of Museum Work" will also feature some of our oldest collections, dating from the late 19th century, as well as our most recent acquisitions. We plan on setting up various |
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work stations in our large gallery so that we can photograph objects, vacuum and box textiles, and generally work on cataloguing projects. During the weekdays, museum staff will usually be available in the gallery to answer questions. The exhibit will run through August 23rd.
Check out our website this summer for special exhibition-related programs. |
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Paintings Rack |
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