Eyeglasses, small gold wire bifocals, probably a woman's, for farsightedness, faint makers mark inside nose piece. With leather covered metal case, purple velvet inside, trademark on case: Stag above circle with words H.E. MURDOCK, Y.M.C.A. BUILDING, PORTLAND MAINE; from Preble house
Description: Eyeglasses, small gold wire bifocals, probably a woman's, for farsightedness, faint makers mark inside nose piece. With leather covered metal case, purple velvet inside, trademark on case: Stag above circle with words H.E. MURDOCK, Y.M.C.A. BUILDING, PORTLAND MAINE; from Preble house
Eyeglasses, small metal wire single prescription. With leather covered metal case, blue velvet inside, from Preble house. Separate broken earpiece found entangled with the glasses
Description: Eyeglasses, small metal wire single prescription. With leather covered metal case, blue velvet inside, from Preble house. Separate broken earpiece found entangled with the glasses
Used by Wilfred S. Trussell and Harvey Everett Bulger. Tool, boat compass in wooden binnacle box with window (brass, wood, paper, iron and glass). Compass card diameter 3.5", gimbal ring 5", interior box: 6.25" x 6.25"; exterior box: 7" x 11" x 8.5" H. North arrow has fleur d' lis motif. Compass was used by Wilfred S. Trussell (1869-1911) and/or Harvey (Harry) Everett Bulger (b.1883-d.<1911), who were husbands of Sadie Anna Harding (b.1879- d. after 1911) who once lived in the Cox now Dalton house (2016) on GCI. Sadie Harding married Trussell 1898 and Bulger 1919. No visible manufacturer or maker marks. Ralph Stanley examined this compass 2016 and believes it's a liquid (alcohol) compass after locating the corroded nut covering the fill-hole in the rim of the compass bowl. He also noted the quadrant markings on the sides of the compass. Per Stanley, Trussell had a sloop and this type of compass was used in boats of that size. It may indeed have been the compass that guided Trussell home during one particular storm (see Stanley's forthcoming book 2017). Stanley thinks it's a liquid compass about 100 years old and could have been purchased at any local marine goods store, but the box was specially made perhaps by Leslie Rice. Michael Macfarlan believes this could be a Ritchie compass and the hole in the wooden case with the shield above it would have been for a battery-powered light (not a candle). One or two large batteries would have been housed in the box's rear compartment. (Box hardware is too corroded to remove and investigate.) Stanley believes a wire to the light would have been wired to the engine. By email 2016, Ben Fuller at Penobscott Marine Museum suggests this compass would be suitable for small schooner or sloop large enough to be sailed at night, suggesting the Smithsonian's NMAH website: amhistory.si.edu/navigation/type.cfm?typeid=3 for further investigation. NMAH Website states: "Simple marine compasses have a magnetized needle attached to the bottom of a paper card, and are inherently unstable. Since the 1850s, scientists and instrument makers have struggled to solve this problem. One solution, pioneered by E. S. Ritchie in the United States, was to float the magnetic needle in a bowl of liquid...." (For genealogy see 2016.337.2103 Index p. 3 and p. 15, records p. 400 and 400A) (See also 2015.350.2115 for possible photo of Wilfred Trussel.)
Description: Used by Wilfred S. Trussell and Harvey Everett Bulger. Tool, boat compass in wooden binnacle box with window (brass, wood, paper, iron and glass). Compass card diameter 3.5", gimbal ring 5", interior box: 6.25" x 6.25"; exterior box: 7" x 11" x 8.5" H. North arrow has fleur d' lis motif. Compass was used by Wilfred S. Trussell (1869-1911) and/or Harvey (Harry) Everett Bulger (b.1883-d.<1911), who were husbands of Sadie Anna Harding (b.1879- d. after 1911) who once lived in the Cox now Dalton house (2016) on GCI. Sadie Harding married Trussell 1898 and Bulger 1919. No visible manufacturer or maker marks. Ralph Stanley examined this compass 2016 and believes it's a liquid (alcohol) compass after locating the corroded nut covering the fill-hole in the rim of the compass bowl. He also noted the quadrant markings on the sides of the compass. Per Stanley, Trussell had a sloop and this type of compass was used in boats of that size. It may indeed have been the compass that guided Trussell home during one particular storm (see Stanley's forthcoming book 2017). Stanley thinks it's a liquid compass about 100 years old and could have been purchased at any local marine goods store, but the box was specially made perhaps by Leslie Rice. Michael Macfarlan believes this could be a Ritchie compass and the hole in the wooden case with the shield above it would have been for a battery-powered light (not a candle). One or two large batteries would have been housed in the box's rear compartment. (Box hardware is too corroded to remove and investigate.) Stanley believes a wire to the light would have been wired to the engine. By email 2016, Ben Fuller at Penobscott Marine Museum suggests this compass would be suitable for small schooner or sloop large enough to be sailed at night, suggesting the Smithsonian's NMAH website: amhistory.si.edu/navigation/type.cfm?typeid=3 for further investigation. NMAH Website states: "Simple marine compasses have a magnetized needle attached to the bottom of a paper card, and are inherently unstable. Since the 1850s, scientists and instrument makers have struggled to solve this problem. One solution, pioneered by E. S. Ritchie in the United States, was to float the magnetic needle in a bowl of liquid...." (For genealogy see 2016.337.2103 Index p. 3 and p. 15, records p. 400 and 400A) (See also 2015.350.2115 for possible photo of Wilfred Trussel.) [show more]
Black (wedding?) dress with cape said to be from 1800s. (A 2014 visitor, a costume conservator herself, feels this dress dates to the 1920s.) Donor's son states the dress came from the Spurling side of the family not the Stanley side and believes his great grandmother Josie Stanley Bunker (b. 1870 on Cranberry) wore it more than once.
Description: Black (wedding?) dress with cape said to be from 1800s. (A 2014 visitor, a costume conservator herself, feels this dress dates to the 1920s.) Donor's son states the dress came from the Spurling side of the family not the Stanley side and believes his great grandmother Josie Stanley Bunker (b. 1870 on Cranberry) wore it more than once.
Clothing. Parisian dress - outfit with eggplant-color skirt and jacket. Worn by Mrs. Gertrude Cutts Storey, wife of Moorfield Storey (1845–1929), the first Rusticator on Great Cranberry Island. Storey was a prominent Boston lawyer who was nationally known. He was president of the American Bar Association, an active member of the Anti-Imperialist League, and the first president of the NAACP. He was also active in gaining independence for the Philippine Islands. Storey arrived in Northeast Harbor after the Civil war, building a house there. In 1887 he built a house on Great Cranberry that eventually became the property of his grand daughter, Trudy Bancroft, who donated this outfit.
Description: Clothing. Parisian dress - outfit with eggplant-color skirt and jacket. Worn by Mrs. Gertrude Cutts Storey, wife of Moorfield Storey (1845–1929), the first Rusticator on Great Cranberry Island. Storey was a prominent Boston lawyer who was nationally known. He was president of the American Bar Association, an active member of the Anti-Imperialist League, and the first president of the NAACP. He was also active in gaining independence for the Philippine Islands. Storey arrived in Northeast Harbor after the Civil war, building a house there. In 1887 he built a house on Great Cranberry that eventually became the property of his grand daughter, Trudy Bancroft, who donated this outfit. [show more]
Description: Funeral card, E.S. Fernald d. 4 Jan 1894 age 53, with envelope indicating Jean gave this item to Ruth Westphal to give to Historical Society
Doll: common hair china doll, 22" tall with underclothes, pink skirt and shirt, leather arms andn cloth body. Ceramic head is cracked and mended, leather hands frayed, underclothes probably original; donor believed the pink floral, ruffled skirt and top were original and the doll was at least 100 years old. This doll is from the Towns house, a.k.a. Crosby farm, Bayview Farm, or Red House.
Description: Doll: common hair china doll, 22" tall with underclothes, pink skirt and shirt, leather arms andn cloth body. Ceramic head is cracked and mended, leather hands frayed, underclothes probably original; donor believed the pink floral, ruffled skirt and top were original and the doll was at least 100 years old. This doll is from the Towns house, a.k.a. Crosby farm, Bayview Farm, or Red House.
Pin, bouquet of flowers made of human hair. Possible "sailor's treasure" - token of remembrance. Large daisies and smaller flowers on black wrapped stem.
Description: Pin, bouquet of flowers made of human hair. Possible "sailor's treasure" - token of remembrance. Large daisies and smaller flowers on black wrapped stem.
Furniture. Rocking chair with swivel tray. Wood. Original black rocker with gold scroll work on seat and back has been modified with addition of a swiveling, wooden tray affixed to the chair arms. Rocker blades may have been shortened. Rocker may have had a signature, Stanley, visible on it at one time. Phil Whitney recollects in 2015 that this rocker was rescued from his family's house (across the street from his present home) during their house fire. It may have been his mother's rocker (d.o.b. 1911), or perhaps his great great grandmother Sidney Hamor Bunker who died in 1918, or his great grandmother, Julia Bunker Spurling. (From Ladies Aid 2000)
Description: Furniture. Rocking chair with swivel tray. Wood. Original black rocker with gold scroll work on seat and back has been modified with addition of a swiveling, wooden tray affixed to the chair arms. Rocker blades may have been shortened. Rocker may have had a signature, Stanley, visible on it at one time. Phil Whitney recollects in 2015 that this rocker was rescued from his family's house (across the street from his present home) during their house fire. It may have been his mother's rocker (d.o.b. 1911), or perhaps his great great grandmother Sidney Hamor Bunker who died in 1918, or his great grandmother, Julia Bunker Spurling. (From Ladies Aid 2000) [show more]
Ship's log, used as child's notebook by Emery Richardson, poor condition (found in Bob LaHotan's barn when he cleaned it 2001). A child used it for practicing letters and drawing sailboats.
Description: Ship's log, used as child's notebook by Emery Richardson, poor condition (found in Bob LaHotan's barn when he cleaned it 2001). A child used it for practicing letters and drawing sailboats.
Quilt. Cotton, white with pink basket motif on front, all white reverse. Pink border around three sides, one end with folded inward seem, no pink border. Sculpted in broad T shape on one end. Note from donor, Susan Bunker, reads: "This quilt was made by my father's, Raymond Bunker who was born in 1906, grandmother. She could have been a Bunker or a Spurling."
Description: Quilt. Cotton, white with pink basket motif on front, all white reverse. Pink border around three sides, one end with folded inward seem, no pink border. Sculpted in broad T shape on one end. Note from donor, Susan Bunker, reads: "This quilt was made by my father's, Raymond Bunker who was born in 1906, grandmother. She could have been a Bunker or a Spurling."