Summer in Winterthur. It was green and gorgeous. Everything was manicured, trimmed, and mowed at the DuPont private archive for material culture. The collection is housed and displayed in the seven stories of the DuPont house which has undergone many changes throughout the years. Now it is a private non-profit museum, library and educational center supported by private funds.
We started our day with a lecture on the consumer revolution by Kathy Matsen. In her talk she discussed the spike in consumption as well as production of goods in the colonies between the years of 1740 and 1750. Then she proceeded to show us evidence and examples of the kinds of things that began to show up in daily use for most people during those years. This was a huge shift from the earlier years in the colonies when luxuries were few and most items had to do with day to day subsistence. Matsen discussed an increase in the use of non-nutrient stimulant foods such as sugar alcohol and tobacco, and also an increase in the variety of goods available: cookware, domestic items such as barrels and buckets, hand tools, lighting and heating devices and even a variety of pots for serving chocolate. The variety of consumer items, alone, indicated that the colonies had become a thriving business center—a place that had made it past the “survival” stage and entered fully into the world of trade, commerce, and consumption.
After Matsen’s talk, we were able to go into the museum library where many of these goods have been archived. One section of the library was dedicated to old books, but the other had more of a variety of items that included things like paper dolls from France, hand written recipe books, trade cards, Milner account books, diaries, sewing instruction books, and other items that gave “material” clues into the lives of the people who owned them.
We had lunch and a garden tour and spent the afternoon touring some of the rooms of the museum. After that we spent time in the education center learning about the program offered to school children their. We were able to take photos in the museum, but in the education center, no cameras were allowed. I would have loved to have had pictures of the clock shop and also the carpenter shop because those recreated rooms showed the tools of the day and how they worked. Also on “Shop Lane” they had reproduced some of the signs that would have been hanging during the colonial days. These I think would have been of great interest to students—especially the barbershop pole which as it was explained to us is red and white because the barber often had a second job of being the blood and bandage man. The rooster on the top of the pole signified that this particular shop opened early. Cock-a-doodle doo.
There were many things from today’s trip that could be taken into the classroom. In the education center, we did a simulated shopping trip which demonstrated how goods were exchanged for credit or other usable items. For example, a farmer would take a pound of butter to the shopkeeper and could purchase goods with it such as eggs, nails, or other daily items. We also did an activity where students had to classify artifacts and place them on a world map to show where they came from. This could easily be reproduced in the classroom using photocopies of items, and it would also be a great way to integrate geography and history.
We ended the day at a great restaurant where we were able to sit down together. It bordered the Pristina (sp?) River that is a tributary to the Delaware. The bus trip going home went fast. It didn’t seem at all like we’d gone to another state and back, but then Delaware as it has been pointed out to us is a pretty small state. Don’t blink and and you’ll miss it. We were reminded, however, that Delaware had a well-known contributor to the Constitution. John Dickenson, who helped create the famous compromise. Because of illness Dickenson never actually signed the Constitution because he had to leave the Convention early because of an illness. Another delegate signed in his behalf.
ITEMS REPRSENTING THE CONSUMPTION REVOLUTION:
Items used daily.
