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Author: Michelle Shen

I Thee Wed: Bridal fashion from the Collection

by Michelle Shen

As rice showers down, the happy couple runs to a car donning cans and ribbons along with the words “Just Married” sprawled across the back window. Smiling ear to ear, the groom disappears into the cab followed closely by the bride pulling her long white skirts around her. 

This classic scene is what many of us picture when we think of a wedding. The white wedding dress is probably the most significant part of the scene but has this always been the case? White wedding gowns in a variety of materials and styles are held in countless museum collections across the globe including Westport Museum. But these ideals of bridal wear, along with the social definition of marriage, have been constantly changing throughout time. 

The Iconic White Gown 

White can symbolize virtue, purity and innocence in Western countries such as the United States in the 21st century, but in the past the color white specifically symbolized one thing: wealth. 

Until synthetic dyes and electric washing machines became widely available in the 20th century, keeping clothing clean was a laborious task. Fine white textiles, especially with fragile lace, silk, and satin used only for one occasion would have been unfeasible for most. To marry, women of middle and lower classes would wear their “best dress,” usually in a shade of brown. Colors such as grey or light purple could be multifunctional as both wedding and funeral gowns.

Queen Victoria's wedding gown on display

White as the ideal wedding gown color spread in the 1840s with the publication of Godey’s Ladies Book. Although white was a wedding dress color among royals and the wealthy prior, Queen Victoria’s white wedding gown worn in 1840, became the ideal because of widely distributed media coverage of the nuptials of the young British Queen. Today Victoria is still credited with the “creation” of the white wedding dress.

Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom wed Price Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on February 10th of 1840. Her white gown was made with materials manufactured in Britain to bolster the country’s silk and lace trades. (The Royal Collection Trust)

Changing Definitions 

Just as the use and symbolism of white in weddings has evolved so has the social understanding of a marriage contract. Marriage as a legal agreement has existed for millennia, usually as an agreement between the father of the bride and the groom—with the father literally handing off his daughter to her husband. These marriage contracts, and their subsequent wedding ceremonies, were legally a transfer of assets—the woman—from one man to another. 

In Westport in the 18th century a White woman could not own property, make contracts, or vote—women of color and immigrant women held even fewer legal protections. Legal contracts such as marriage did little to safeguard women through the 19th and 20th centuries; Women entering a marriage contract were free to do so under their own legal power in the mid-20th century. Throughout history “concubine marriage” allowed couples to engage in intimate relations and co-habitation when differences of religion or race did not allow for legal matrimony. Concubine marriages were formed by contract, meant to financially protect women, and sometimes her children, in the event of separation. 

Two guests at Westport Museum's Build a Bride exhibit

Opening Reception

Visitors explored several examples of wedding gowns—both white and the less traditional—in the Museum’s exhibition opening on March 10, 2023. Not only did our community get to admire these gowns in detail but also discovered how these iconic dresses relate to wealth, class, gender, and women’s rights.

Visitors enjoy the interactivity of the exhibit as well as the gowns themselves.

Our textile collection contains over 1200 individual pieces; these gowns are fine examples but represent such a small part of our holdings. These gowns not only exemplify the changing silhouettes of bridal fashion but also the changing nature of women, and those presenting as female, in our society.” 


– Nicole Carpenter, Programs and Collections Director

Many enjoyed creating their own wedding dress through the exhibit’s interactive magnet wall, highlighting wedding fashions from around the globe and how individualism is encouraged in multicultural ceremonies today. Explore our exhibit yourself through November 11, 2023.

Bittersweet: Chocolate in the American Colonies

by Michelle Shen

With its turquoise waters and sunny skies, today the Caribbean is thought of primarily as a vacation destination. The Caribbean is integral to the idea of American wealth and almost always has been—not just as a leisure spot for those of means but in more nefarious ways as well. 

A crucial leg of the Atlantic Slave Trade, also called the Triangular Trade, it was sugar colonies in the Caribbean that first brought captive Africans to the Western hemisphere. They harvested and processed sugar cane into white gold in brutal conditions.

Man scraping chocolate, c. 1680-1780, Unknown Artist Spanish, Photo by JR P

The first Caribbean sugar plantations began in Barbados in the 1640s. This highly profitable and inhuman farming system became the prototype for the plantations elsewhere in the West Indies and in the American South. By the end of the 17th century, trade between European-Caribbean and European-North American colonies was brisk, with goods moving back and forth and across the seas to Europe and Africa, the latter in trade for human beings to keep the system going. 

In addition to sugar, Caribbean plantations produced spices like nutmeg, cinnamon and pepper transplanted from the Eastern hemisphere. Native foods like pineapple, allspice and cocoa became precious commodities arriving to ports like Charleston, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston destined for the homes of the wealthy. 

Cacao tree with ripened pods
Cacao tree

Cocoa became a must-have beverage at breakfast. Martha Washington was a fan while her husband, George, preferred a light tisane made from cocoa shells. In the most affluent homes, like Stratford Hall, the home of the Lees of Virginia, enslaved cooks ground chocolate using the same methods of the indigenous people of central America where Cacao originated. This stone called a matate was wide, and slightly cupped, resting on short legs and was heated. The cocoa beans were ground with a heavy stone that resembled a squat rolling pin.

I would take the liberty of requesting you’ll be so good as to procure and send me 2 or 3 bushels of the Chocolate Shells such as we frequently drink Chocolate of at Mt. Vernon, as my Wife thinks it agreed with her better than any other Breakfast.


– George Washington, 1794
La Prima Colazione (The Early Breakfast), 1754, Jean-Étienne Liotard, National Museum in Warsaw

By the early 1700s cocoa beans were being shipped to North American cities to be processed with spices into blocks for drinking chocolate and other uses. It may be surprising, for example, but chocolate cream pie, or chocolate tart was a common dessert in the 18th century. 

The chocolate of this era was far different from what we know today—it was a grittier product and usually flavored with spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice in a recipe like traditional Central American and Mexican preparations. The smooth, creamy chocolate we know today was not available until later in the 19th century when machinery was invented to grind the pure cocoa paste more finely and add back cocoa butter and sugar during the refining process. 

Chocolate Pot, 1879, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017.156a

Despite not being the melt-in-your-mouth product, we know today, chocolate was trendy enough in the colonial period to warrant its own sense of accoutrements including chocolate preparing pots, serving pots and drinking services. These remained popular into the later 19th century. Some examples of finer cocoa pots included swizzle sticks to reagitate the chocolate that naturally sunk to the bottom of the vessel before serving. 

Chocolate Tart recipes are quite common in cookbooks of the period such as Englishwoman Hannah Glasse’s 1747 book The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. Modern readers might be surprised that Glasse’s recipe (and most others of the time) calls for rice flour which is used as a thickening agent. Rice and rice flour were commonly used since rice came to England and later America, via the robust British trade with the East and West Indies. Later, rice was grown in the southern American colonies as well. This recipe we share below uses cornstarch as a more effective thickener, however you can harken back to yore and substitute rice flour instead. 

Traditionally this tart would have been served with a sugar crust on top like a crème brulee but we prefer to serve it with Chantilly cream (sweetened whip cream). 

Chocolate Tart Recipe

Makes 1, nine-inch pie 

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch or rice flour 
  • ¼ cup sugar (or to taste) 
  • 4 large egg yolks 
  • 2 cups heavy cream 
  • 1 tablespoon whole milk 
  • 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chunks or chips 
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 9-inch pie shell, frozen or use our recipe here 

Directions

  1. In a medium bowl, mix cornstarch or rice flour, sugar and egg yolks and set aside. 
  2. Mix the cream and chocolate in a medium saucepan over medium heat and bring it to a boil, stirring constantly until the chocolate melts. Do not allow the mixture to boil. 
  3. Add the milk and pinch of salt. Stir well. 
  4. Using a ladle, pour 1/2 cup of the chocolate mixture in a very thin stream into the egg mixture, whisking vigorously the whole time. You may also do this in the bowl of a stand mixer.
  5. Add the egg and cream mixture back to the pot with the remaining chocolate cream mixture and whisk well. Heat over medium heat, whisking well until thickened, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
  6. Preheat the oven to 350F. If using homemade pie crust, line a 9-inch pie plate with rolled out crust. Pour the cooled chocolate mixture into the pie crust and bake until firm—about 40 to 45 minutes.
  7. Remove from oven and cool completely. Wrap in plastic and cool at least 8 hours but preferably overnight. Serve with Chantilly Cream. 

Explore our exhibit yourself through November 11, 2023.

New Year’s Day Traditions 

by Michelle Shen

In early colonized America, New Year’s Day was celebrated on March 25th, following the Julian calendar used in Europe since antiquity. It was not until 1752 when the beginning of year was switched to the Gregorian calendar (losing eleven days in the process) that the first of the year became January 1st. In other cultures, the New Year varies in its beginning, from the Spring equinox in the Zoroastrian tradition, to early winter in the Chinese lunar calendar to the Fall in Judaism.  

As in other cultures, certain traditions were followed on New Year’s Day in colonial America—many of which placed the day above Christmas as a festive day. At the time Christmas was often observed, particularly in Puritan regions like Connecticut, as a solemn religious holiday so it was New Year’s Day that was a day for visiting and enjoying treats a practice first observed by those of Dutch descent in the New York Colony. 

Nieuwjaarskoeken, a thin, crispy cinnamon flavored cookie imprinted with a design imprinted on both sides was eaten topped with whipped cream. Spiced wine was often shared among young women in a traditional called “wassailing.”

Close up of a plate of Hoppin John

Sauerkraut was a common food for German Americans, while Southerners ate Hoppin’ John a dish of black-eyed peas flavored with salted pork or bacon and served with rice and mixed greens—featuring ingredients that came to North America with enslaved Africans and adopted universally.

Plate of Hoppin’ John

Today Americans in the South still eat Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day for luck—a practice also followed by people in the Caribbean in various culinary iterations. 

For the enslaved, New Year’s Day, was also called “Hiring Day” or “Heartbreak Day” because it was when debts of the previous year were settled among the White community. Enslavers would sell or hire out their human chattel to pay these debts, removing enslaved people from their community and family groups. 

Illustration of Watch Night

In 1862, New Year’s Day took on a different meaning with the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation declaring the end of enslavement in America on January 1st, 1863. On December 31st, 1862, the enslaved stayed up late through the night, waiting for sunrise and news of freedom. Today the day is celebrated as “Watch Night” in many Black communities. 

Illustration of a slave staying up for Watch Night

Hoppin’ John Recipe

For the Beans

  • ½ pound of bacon or ½ pound of pancetta diced into small pieces. Note: Bacon may be omitted. If omitting, use 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in its place
  • ½ onion, minced 
  • 1 celery stalk, white part trimmed, and minced 
  • ½ green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and minced 
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced 
  • 1 cup dried black-eyed peas, soaked overnight in 3 cups of water or 1 can of black-eyed peas, rinsed 
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper 
  • 2 springs fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme 
  • 1 bay leaf 
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper 
  • 1 teaspoon of coarse salt or more to taste 
  • 3 cups vegetable or chicken stock 

For the Greens 

  • ¼ pound of bacon or ½ pound of pancetta diced into small pieces or ¼ pound turkey bacon 
  • ½ onion, minced 
  • 1 garlic clove minced 
  • 6 cups of washed and trimmed greens of your choice: collard, turnip, kale, mustard or escarole 
  • ½ teaspoon salt or more to taste 
  • 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth or water 

Cooked rice to serve.

Make the Hoppin’ John

  1. Heat a large saucepan over medium heat and add the bacon. Cook until crispy and the fat is rendered. If omitting bacon, or if using, turkey bacon use 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. 
  2. Once fat is rendered from the bacon, add the onion, celery and bell pepper. Cook until softened, about 5 to 6 minutes. 
  3. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more. 
  4. Stir in the black-eyed peas and cayenne. 
  5. Add the thyme, bay leave, salt and pepper, and stock. Simmer, uncovered, 1 to 1 ½ hours for dried peas and 30 minutes for canned. 

Make the Greens

  1. Heat a large saucepan over medium heat and add the bacon. Cook until crispy and the fat is rendered. If omitting bacon, or if using, turkey bacon use 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. 
  2. Add onion and cook until softened, about 5 to 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. 
  3. Stir in the greens and stir well. Cook until the greens are just wilted, about 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the salt 
  4. Add the vegetable or chicken stock and stir well. Simmer on low for 30 to 40 minutes, uncovered. 
  5. Ladle beans over cooked rice in a bowl. Add greens on the side of the rice. 

Learn More

Wassail Recipe from Colonial Williamsburg 

The Historical Legacy of Watch Night 

Lewis Clark’s Account of Hiring Day, 1842 from The Antislavery Standard 

Westport Museum for History & Culture Completes Restoration of Historic 7-sided Cobblestone Barn, Unique in the State, Groundbreaking Begins on Garden Revitalization in December 2022

by Michelle Shen

In Summer 2023, a new green space will be coming to downtown Westport. Visitors will be able to enjoy lovely grounds, meet friends and simply take a break at Westport Museum’s Revitalized grounds and gardens. Work will begin in December 2022. 

The site design was inspired by an archival plan developed by Silvia Erskine Associates in the early 2000’s. Lyonsplain Architecture, Growing Solutions and Fairfield County Engineering advanced the design to further enhance and complement the property and to ensure the walkway system is accessible to all. Growing Solutions’ selection of plantings is deer resistant, incorporates plenty of CT-native and historically significant species, and is attractive throughout the seasons. 

The plan includes winding paths through native flower beds and shrubbery that welcomes pollinators. Walkways will be fashioned from the original, antique bluestone pavers that were originally on the property but were removed in 2017 and replaced by engraved and plain bricks. The bricks—purchased by donors as part of a Historical Society fundraiser—will be reset as decorative edging around the new pathways and in other designated areas. 

“The garden revitalization is integral to creating a welcoming, beautiful campus anchored by the historic cobblestone barn and the Bradley-Wheeler House,” said Hanna Przada, owner, and lead architect of Lyonsplain Architecture. The firm’s work includes high-end residential as well as commercial and cultural projects. “New plantings, walkways, and benches will vibrantly activate the space to create interest and engagement at the far end of the town.” 

Westport Museum's new garden design with a view of a big tree
Westport Museum's new garden design and the view of the walk way

The new garden design is part of a larger project by Lyonsplain Architecture, a woman-owned firm specializing in the cultural design and the restoration and revitalization of historic spaces. Lyonsplain oversaw the heritage restoration of the Museum’s 7-sided Cobblestone Barn, which is the only one of its kind in Connecticut and one of the few in New England. The project included restoration of original windows, replacement lighting, floor and roof replacement, and interior climate conditioning to protect the building from climate-change provoked extremes of heat, cold and moisture that are very different from when the structure was originally built. 

“It’s been an honor to direct this important mission to save a building that is unique to the town, state, and the region,” said Przada. “Westport Museum has preserved a treasure for generations to come. It’s a feather in the community’s cap.” 

While the Museum is private property and not a town entity the organization looks forward to welcoming the public to enjoy the grounds during open hours. The Museum plans to use the barn and revitalized garden space for Museum programs and as an event venue as well. Rentals will be available for weddings, conferences, photo shoots and other special events. 

“The Westport Museum for History & Culture engages the public with innovative and exciting approaches to history. The barn and garden revitalization further that public interaction. These projects have been made possible through the efforts of our Executive Director working with our dedicated donors,” said the Museum’s Chairperson, Darcy Hicks. “Our goal is for people of all ages to linger, talk, make art, read, have meetings, or just sit and enjoy a coffee or a lunch break.” 

Westport Museum's new garden design with a view of the museum
Westport Museum's new garden design with a view of the sidewalk

The restoration of the Cobblestone Barn and garden revitalization has been made possible by a generous gift from the Daniel E. Offutt III Charitable Trust. Richard Orenstein, Trustee of the Daniel E. Offutt III Charitable Trust said he was pleased to have delightful open space “smack in the middle of downtown Westport”. 

“The Trust is proud to partner with Westport Museum and support its mission of creatively engaging the community in inclusive history and civic discussion,” he said.

There are additional donor opportunities for benches, plantings, and lighting and those interested should contact Jessica DeRosa at jderosa@westporthistory.org. Further plans for the garden improvement project include restoration of the antique iron fence and stone pilasters as well as removal of diseased trees and shrubbery from the grounds.