This is a certificate from the Washington National Monument Society to Samuel Copp, Esquire for his contribution of one dollar to the Society’s fundraising efforts. The Washington National Monument Society was organized in 1833 by such early American luminaries like Zachary Taylor, James Madison, and Chief Justice John Marshall. Plans for a monument to Washington had been discussed since 1783, and the Society decided to take action to push these plans through. Fundraising was a major issue for the Society and this certificate shows the willingness of the Copp family to participate in the memorialization of the nation’s first President. The certificate includes vignettes of the proposed Washington Monument with a pantheon and as an obelisk, a medallion portrait of George Washington in the center flanked by Justice and Liberty, and a portrait of Washington's grave at Mount Vernon at the bottom center. The certificate is signed by Zachary Taylor, president; George Watterston, secretary; and Elisha Whittlesey, general agent, and Joseph E. Woodworth, agent.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Canvas work embroidered chair seat. Wool on linen canvas. The date "1750" in silk cross stitch. Probably New England. Thread count is 32 x 27 to the inch. Cut to shape as a chair seat, but also cut after embroidering to fit a chair. Depicts a male figure at bottom, with large flowering branch design, and a few animals. Design elements are not to the same scale. Design shows Moses at the burning bush, flowers, two animals, butterfly. Shoes on ground behind Moses. Hands, face, and shoes worked in petit point. Colors: brown ground, pinks and salmon pinks, red, blues, greens, yellows, white. The back has been reinforced and stabilized with white linen stitched along the sides. The reverse shows the original colors of the embroidery wools very clearly.
Dark blue glazed wool was used for this example of a New England whole cloth quilt. Sometimes labelled a utility quilt, a thick carded wool filling and wool fabrics make it an especially warm bedcover. While it has evidence of many repairs (darning and patches) the wool used for the top still has much of the glazed sheen. Glazing, a process involving the use of a hot press on wool fabric, resulted in a smooth, lustrous fabric surface.
The quilt center is quilted in a clamshell pattern, framed by a 5 ½-inch band of chevrons and diagonal grid quilting. A 16-inch border is quilted in interlocking circles. At some point a segment (16-inches x 18-inches) was cut from a corner. Wool and linen sewing threads and wool quilting threads are an indicator of its late 18th-early 19th century construction.
Unlike most of the half-hull models in the Smithsonian’s National Watercraft Collection, this one was not intended for use in shipbuilding. Instead, this half model of the fishing schooner Helen B. Thomas was made to show a radical design innovation to potential vessel owners. Its maker, Thomas F. McManus, a naval architect in Boston, adapted an idea from sailing yachts to the fishing schooners of New England. He eliminated the bowsprit, the spar projecting forward from the schooner’s bow, in an attempt to make the vessel safer for the fishermen working in treacherous conditions far offshore. In McManus’s new design, fishermen would not have to clamber out on the bowsprit to tend the jib (the vessel’s forward-most sail), a dangerous task especially in bad weather that, in McManus’s view, resulted too often in injury or death.
McManus made this half-hull model and displayed it in his Boston office, hoping to attract a client. After nearly a year, Capt. William Thomas of Portland, Maine, decided to try the design and contracted with the Oxner & Story yard in Essex, Mass., to build the schooner. The Helen B. Thomas was launched in 1902 and measured 106’-7” overall, with a beam (width) of 21’-6” and 13’ deep. The vessel became a successful fishing schooner. While no other schooners were built to this exact design, many were built without the bowsprit, a schooner design that became known as the “knockabout.”
This model represents the fishing schooner Fredonia, designed by the well-known yacht designer Edward Burgess of Boston. Burgess designed several America’s Cup racing yachts, including the Puritan, the Mayflower, and the Volunteer, which successfully defended the cup in 1885, 1886, and 1887, respectively. From Burgess’s plans, Moses Adams built the Fredonia in 1889, at Essex, Mass. The schooner measured 111’-6” long, with a beam (width) of 23’-6”, and a depth of 10’-3”. Adams also built the schooner Nellie Dixon from the same plans in East Boston that year.
After launching, the Fredonia was used as a yacht and made a transatlantic cruise before being refitted for work in the offshore fisheries. The vessel became known for its speed, and attracted attention for its fine lines. Its clipper-style bow with carved trail boards led to a long bowsprit (a spar extending forward from the bow that carried the jib). The design influenced fishing schooners for years to come, and vessels built on the Fredonia model came to represent the quintessential New England fishing schooner.
The Fredonia’s influence belied its short life. In 1896 the vessel met with disaster while fishing for cod on the Grand Banks. During a December storm the Fredonia sank, with all but two of its crew of 23 saved by other schooners fishing in the area.
The first coins made in what would later become the United States were plain silver discs, hand-stamped with the letters NE (New England) on the obverse, and a Roman numeral value on the reverse. The coinage was produced in Massachusetts in 1652, during the Commonwealth period. Previously, only the English monarch could authorize coinage, but with the English throne vacant, this law was not upheld.
This mortar and pestle was owned by the Copp family of Stonington, Connecticut during the 18th and 19th century. While the mortar and pestle is often associated with pharmaceuticals, it was an essential kitchen tool for grinding plants and spices into powder.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.