Today we went to see the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts in Madison, NJ. The museum has artifacts and exhibits from the early 1800s that show various trades and crafts that ordinary people of the time did. They have a blacksmith's display, a cooper, a distiller, a shoemaker, farmer, housewife, etc.
These displays were very well presented, and they had some nice hands on stations where children (or children at heart) could touch and play with things. The most impressive part of the museum, however, was the building itself.
From the website:
Before the James Library Building housed the Museum of Early Trades & Crafts, it was the first official town library of Madison. Built as a gift to Madison by philanthropist D. Willis James in 1900, our church-like building was embellished with beautifully painted tiles, ornate stained glass windows and a working bell tower. This new exhibit invites visitors to explore and gain a true appreciation of the exquisite building METC calls home.
Fifty-six stained glass windows grace the former library, each of which contains a literary quote. There are also quotes stenciled onto the walls, and carved in fireplaces. The archetectural style of the building is called "Richardsonian Romanesque Revival" - it's absolutely gorgeous. Right now, they have a special exhibit that tells you about how the building was made in addition to their perminant exhibits.
This quote by Longfellow (Art is Long and Time is Fleeting) made me think of Daniel, and all his songs about time. I love the classic poets and this is a wonderful quote for a library. Back then, of course, when the library was made, Longfellow was a fairly contemporary poet - having only died eight years before the library's completion. Wisdom from all eras was represented, however - Franklin's "Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today"; several quotes by Shakespeare, a Colleridge, Goethe, Spencer and so on.
The library was wired for electric light from the very begining- which made it cutting edge and inovative in its time. This fixture illuminates the stencil painting on the walls. The walls are very attractively stencil painted, and the museum presents a display of how the stencils were made, and allows children (and okay, me, I played with it too) to make their own stencil pictures and rubbings.
"God be thanked for books, they are the voices of the distant and the dead and make us heirs of the spiritual lives of past ages." says this fireplace. The fireplate in the back depicts the tale of St. George and the dragon, though you can't see it well in this picture.
"How forceable are right words" reads this inscription on another fireplace's mantle.
I paused to read in the reading room of the museum. They had a lot of books and some
comfortable chairs and tables there to sit and look through what books still remained as a testiment to the place's former library days.
At right, a view of the museum's main floor - you can see how the library had two mezanines, one on each side, where bookshelves would be. Each had a stairway going up to them, and a railing to prevent patrons from falling over onto the lower floor, I suppose. Yay safety!
This curved stairway leads down to the lower flo
or, where the exhibts on the blacksmith, cooper, shoemaker, etc. where - and a children's room with period toys and costumes. The painting on the children's room wall was very nice and featured some three-dimensional toys stuck into the hands of the painted kids.
More photos from this place, and other places we stopped during the day here
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Comments: 15
You continue to provide us with excellent narration and great pictures. If you would, please tell us what kind of a digital camera you are using down to its model number. You're getting great shots - especially with that available light shot of the darkened hallway. (Yeah, I know, even a simple camera produces great pictures in the hands of an artist ... )
[L] He hasn't.
[Aus] Anyhow, we're using the camcorder's video function for filming (like that video we posted of L's poetry reading), and its still function for pictures for most of our touristy needs.
[L] We're really liking it so far.
[Aus] It's using a 1 GB SD card (because I like having a separate storage space for photos, so that if I'm filming I won't find I used up too much space on photos at a bad time.) The only thing bad about the camcorder is that it includes a battery that only lasts 1.5 hours while filming (judicious operation while taking only still shots makes it last longer). We're planning on buying the battery that lasts 5.5 hours when convenient, which'll cost about $30.
For the concert we're going to be using our Optio, since...er...most concert venues don't like you bringing in a camcorder. We have photo passes, but aren't allowed to videotape. But since we have that shiny 1 GB SD card, we can use the Optio in max resolution mode (4.1 megapixels - not the best on the market, but still nift) and still get several hundred pictures if we're in the mood.
And thus ends my pedantic babble about our photography. ::grin::
[L] I just think it's shiny. I point at stuff and Aus takes the pictures, usually.
[Aus] ::nods:: And I try my best to find interesting shots. As you can see if you look at the entire set of pictures, I'm not always great at it (my arms don't stay steady all the time), but I do get some really nice shots in here and there, and the best ones are the ones L includes in her articles. ::grin::
[L] And there you have answers from both Cushings.