Furniture Fight Fuels Founder Fracas |
|
Strawbery Banke presents
HISTORIC PORTSMOUTH #200
Lottie McLaughlin was volunteer "hostess" of the restored Chase House when it opened at Strawbery Banke in 1965. Controversy erupted among museum founders when the curator noted that these items on display had to be removed (Continued below)
HISTORIC PHOTOS of the Greater Portsmouth Area appear here weekl
The objects in this picture -- like the curtains, rug, piano and harp -- did not accurately represent the early 1800s-era to which the house had been restored. The debate over the furnishings in the Chase House made headlines in the local newspaper and culminated in the hiring of the museum’s first professionally trained administrator in 1972. Mrs. McLaughlin, who lived upstairs in the Cahse House, was at the heart of the controversy that changed the nature of the museum.
This image from the book STRAWBERY BANKE:
A Seaport Museum 400 Years in the Making
by J. Dennis Robinson
(c) Strawbery Banke Museum Collection
Please visit these SeacoastNH.com ad partners.