My Favorite House Museum

Today is the first installment of my favorite museums. Today I feature my favorite museum house, Kingscote in Newport, Rhode Island.

Owned and operated today by The Preservation Society of Newport County, Kingscote is my favorite because unlike many other house museums, although certainly not all, everything in Kingscote is original to the house. Nothing has been brought in to add to the house or create an attitude. I always wonder how many people realize that the things in the Breakers, for example, were not necessarily owned by the Vanderbilt family. Many of these things are representations of what the family could have owned. In no way am I saying that this makes touring the Breakers not worth it. It is a fabulous mansion and totally worth the cost of a tour and the crowds. Look everywhere it is gorgeous both in its exterior architecture and its interior opulence.

Just make some time to visit Kingscote as well if and when you come to Newport. It is a great example of the Gothic Revival and as I have already mentioned, everything in the house goes with the house. The entire collection was left with the house by the last descendant of the King family. The Preservation Society became the property's owner in 1972. The collection contained within the house is large and amazing, but in some cases results in a little bit of object crowding. The tour groups are smaller however and the tour runs at a slower pace, allowing one to appreciate much of the collection and tour guides do a wonderful job pointing out the intricacies of certain objects that might get missed with only one glance around the room.

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Other favorite museum houses:

Smith's Castle in Wickford, RI - the history of the Smith family alone is enough to tour the house. It was also a dairy farm for sometime before becoming a house museum. It is also situated on a beautiful plot of land near the water, an area with a history of it's own.

The Whitehorne House in Newport, RI - owned by the Newport Restoration Foundation, it is a house museum in the sense that it is a house, but is more the home of a wonderful furniture collection. It also has a very interesting restoration story with the pictures to prove it. Well worth a visit if you are spending some time in Newport.

Edith Wharton's The Mount in Lenox, MA - this might be my favorite of the house museums that I have not yet visited but are on my list. The website makes it look beautiful, a very rags to riches in terms of preservation and restoration. It was recently saved from foreclosure and an uncertain future by the tireless efforts of those who work and love the Mount. I have been wanting to get here for quite some time; maybe I will see you there.

Castle in the Air - A Book Review

One of the many things I hope to accomplish with this blog is to let you know what books I am reading and to review whatever one I just finished. Today is one of those days.

Although I said I was going to bring a book to the Super Bowl party and did, in fact, bring it with me, I never ended up reading any of it. The evening was too crazy with the game and everyone running around. I found myself enjoying the game almost as much as the commercials, my favorite were the three Budweiser commercials featuring the Clydesdale horses, the e*trade babies, and the one with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. Congrats to the Steelers and to the Cardinals for a very interesting game.

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I finished the last 50 pages of my book when I got home. The book is Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones and is the companion to Howl's Moving Castle. Diana Wynne Jones is one of my favorite authors and I recommend reading any of her books, especially Howl's Moving Castle, which is, so far, my favorite.

The book starts out with Abdullah, a carpet merchant in the land of Zanzib. Troubled by his father's other family Abdullah allows himself to daydream about an alternate life where he is a long lost prince found by his father after he was stolen from his castle by the bandit Kabul Aqba. He also dreams that since he is a prince, he is destined to marry a princess.

Then a strange man arrives and sells Abdullah a flying carpet. Protecting his investment, Abdullah goes to bed on top of the carpet and wakes up later that night in a beautiful garden. There in the garden is a princess, the Sultan's daughter, who aside from her father, has never seen another man. She, Flower-in-the-Night, actually confuses Abdullah for a female, after all, he is in a nightgown and night cap. She tells him that there had been a prophesy made about her that the first man she sees it the one she is going to marry. Abdullah is instantly smitten and visits her the next two nights, but on the last night, a djinn steals her away.

Abdullah soon finds himself in chains accused of having kidnapped the princess by the Sultan. He had been discovered by his nightcap having been found among the princess's possessions. In an entertaining course of events, Abdullah is rescued by his neighbors dog and the flying carpet and in fleeing to the desert, he finds the most unlikely of characters: Kabul Aqba from his daydreams who just happens to have a genie in a bottle.

The resulting tale follows Abdullah and the genie in a quest to rescue Flower-in-the-Night from the djinn. The genie is no ordinary genie either, the wishes he grants, if requested in too open-ended a manner, result in more harm than good. This causes Abdullah to meet many interesting characters along his journey.

This is a well written story with lively characters, the right amount of description, and a highly entertaining plot. One could easily read this story without having read Howl's Moving Castle, although I do suggest that one reads that book too.

For those who have read and loved Howl's Moving Castle, what I found somewhat frustrating, is that minus the Castle, the characters from Howl's Moving Castle do not appear until page 250. Thankfully the book is 383 pages long. It took me quite a long time to see exactly how this book was a companion, but in totality it definitely is. There is of course a twist to the story, but that I will not reveal. You will have to go read it to find out what it is.

Super Bowl Sunday

I'm barely a football fan, especially since the Patriots are not playing, but I do enjoy Super Bowl parties when I get the chance to go to them. It also helps that these things are only once a year. My job this year is to slice the pepperoni and cheese.

As much as I wish the Patriots could make it to the Super Bowl each year, when they don't, I can sit down, watch the game, and appreciate the game for how it is played.

So good luck to both teams. Have fun enjoying the game for all of you football fans out there, and for those of you who are like me, enjoy the commercials.

I admit that I will still be bringing a book with me just in case.

The Final Two Questions

8. What do you do in your free time?

In my free time, and I do have more of it now that my thesis is done, I read (just about anything), write (mostly fiction, I've been working on a story now that is over 140 pages long), hang out with my friends, listen to music, blog (obviously) and plenty more. I'm interested in most things and like to have multiple projects going. I am also trying to reacquaint myself with html so that I can make websites, although I do currently use programs like Microsoft Publisher and Apple's iWeb. I'm working on one for my thesis currently, but that's an entry for another day.

9. If you could open your own museum, what would it have?

I had to do a project in the sixth grade called "My museum" and it featured rooms based on what my interests were or what I collected at the time. I had room for my American Girl Doll, Felicity, a room for my books, one for the Kachina Doll I had just gotten, and one for baseball, among others that I can't remember now. Oh, my museum was shaped like a cat.

Today my museum would be just as diverse, or random if you would find that more fitting. If it were based off of the things I collect, it would run the gamut from rocks, archaeology, teddy bears, m&ms, books, and baseball. I would also include a room for the physical exhibit that I would like to create from my thesis, one on different cultures and... I see a lot of expansion happening in my museum as I think more about this question.

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I also see a fun project in the works with regards to this question. More to come in the next few weeks.

On Why I Do Not Have A Favorite Musuem

As promised, here is my elaboration on why I do not have a favorite museum. You will all find out eventually that with most things in my life I do not have just one favorite of anything...except maybe with sports. So I have favorite museums, however, they fall into different categories. In other words, I have a favorite house museum and a favorite living museum (and favorites in other categories), but I don't favor one over the other. At least I don't think I do anyway. Also, as my geographic range has been mostly limited to the Northeast, I reserve the right to change my favorites, as all people should. Although as I visit more museums elsewhere I might just end up having my favorite house museum in the Northeast and my favorite house museum in the Southwest. That's just the way I do things. :-)

Next week, I shall make it the week of my favorite museums. Tomorrow I will finish up the rest of my introductory questions.

Updates

I have been playing with the templates and colors on this blog, and finally found a combination that I like. It is much lighter than what I had had and more viewer friendly. I have also added a few "gadgets" as they are called. The first is a list of links that I enjoy. The second is one that will display a new Picasso artwork each day. I'm thinking about changing this gadget each week to feature a different artist and maybe set up a rotation from there. All in all I am happy with the way it currently looks and do not expect to change it for a while.

Later today I will post about why I do not have a favorite museum, I promise.

About Me Continued

4. What experience do you have?

a. In an actual museum setting I do not have any experience except with being a visitor. I do have experience in working with collections. I was Lab Manager at the Salve Archaeology Lab and after training my successor, I have now "retired," although I would love to be there more than once a week (which is what has been happening the past couple of weeks). I have processed archaeological collections from start to finish encompassing cleaning, sorting, cataloging, photographing and rehousing artifacts. I have spoken at and volunteered for conferences related to cultural and historic preservation and have related gallery experience.

5. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

a. In 5 years I will have been finished with grad school for about 3 years. I see myself continuing to work in collections, although I see myself transitioning to more of a curatorial position but possibly just on the far side of that 5 years.

6. Where do you see yourself ultimately?

a. Ultimately, I would love to combine my experience in collections with my interests in curation, education, and the digital realm. Through collaboration I would like to create online exhibits and electronic field trips and work in an administration position. I don't think that this position has been created at all museums yet so maybe I would have to create it. I've already thought of a title: Director of Museum Presence on the Internet... or something like that. I think I would fit best in a medium sized institution where I can wear multiple hats and do all of that. I do plan on getting a certificate or degree in web design to help me create online exhibits and electronic field trips. Also, if I am better suited to be a consultant for museums looking to create those elements for their internet presence, then that's okay too. I'm open to it. But as this is a question about what I would like to do ultimately, I would totally love to have a museum to call home doing what I love.

7. What is your favorite museum?

a. Since I came up with these questions, I saved this one for last, because it is an obvious question for someone wanting to work in a museum. . . but the simple answer is: I do not have a favorite museum.

Gasp! Stay tuned to tomorrow when I elaborate on this answer.