Displaying items by tag: governor

In honor of the statewide celebration – Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture – the state’s governor, Deval Patrick, has named September 17, 2013 Massachusetts Furniture Day. A special event will be held in Nurses Hall in the State House in Boston.

Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture is the first-ever collaboration between 10 museums and cultural institutions throughout the state that will highlight the area’s furniture making legacy. A series of exhibitions and public programs will explore furniture making from the 1600s to the present day. Participating institutions include the Colonial Society of Massachusetts; Concord Museum; Fuller Craft Museum; Historic Deerfield; Historic New England; Massachusetts Historical Society; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; North Bennet Street School; Old Sturbridge Village; and Peabody Essex Museum; and Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library.

Dennis Fiori, President of the Massachusetts Historical Society and one of the project’s founders, said, “We are honored that Governor Patrick has recognized the Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture project with such a wonderful designation. By declaring September 17 as Massachusetts Furniture Day, Governor Patrick is recognizing the truly remarkable legacy in American furniture history that Massachusetts holds, not only as a traditional industry but also as an art form.”

Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture will run through December 2014. For more information visit www.fourcenturies.org.

A significant painting by Thomas Cole (1801-1848), the English-born American artist who founded the Hudson River School, will be sold to benefit the Seward House Museum in Auburn, New York. Portage Falls on the Genesee (1839) was given to the American politician William H. Seward (1801-1972) while he was the governor of New York prior to the Civil War. Seward went on to serve as Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.

The painting, which depicts what is now Letchworth State Park in western New York, has been a part of the Seward Museum’s collection for decades. Seward’s home and contents were donated to the Fred L. Emerson Foundation in the 1950s by Seward’s grandson, William Henry Seward III. The Seward House opened to the public in 1955 and became a registered National Historic Landmark in 1964. The museum became a fully independent, not-for-profit museum in 2009 and the Cole painting was retained by the foundation.

The recent discovery of the painting’s value and the subsequent need for greater security prompted officials to put the work up for sale. Funds from the sale will be split between the Emerson Foundation and the Seward House Museum. The museum plans to use its portion of the proceeds to further its preservation mission. Portage Falls on the Genesee is being kept in a secure storage location until the sale is official.