A Glimpse Into My Historical Collection Pt. 1

I am an amateur collector. I love things from history, old things that have stories to tell and lives to still live. I have been collecting for only a couple of years but I have some pretty interesting artifacts. I thought it would be a lot of fun to share a glimpse of my collection with you.

Some things in my collection are genuinely old, but some are reproductions. For me, it’s more about having usable historically inspired items so, I am not ashamed to have reproductions or things that only hint at the vintage. 
In this post, I’ll talk a little bit about the history of two of my favorite items and I’ll also go into a little detail about them. For me, like I said, collecting these historical and historically inspired things is just a hobby, adding touches of my personality into my space, so all of the items I have I actually use. 

This first item is the oldest in my collection. It is an original Hitchcock Chair dated between 1820 and 1832. This item lived through a lot, it may have been manufactured before Australia was called Australia, before Missouri was a U.S. state, while Keats and Beethoven were still at the height of their careers, and over 20 years before the Bronte Sisters published any of their work. Yeah, this chair is old, and I’m sitting on it as I write this.

Hitchcock chairs are a very early example of mass production. Lambert Hitchcock, the inventor of this chair, was from Cheshire, Connecticut, and went to school at Cheshire Academy, just missing an opportunity to be taught by the revolutionary teacher Amos Bronson Alcott who taught at the academy in the 1820s. (Yes I needed to talk about the Alcott family somewhere in this post. It was absolutely essential.)

Hitchcock’s chairs were a part of the craze called “fancy chairs.” These were affordable chairs that looked quite high-end. At the time of production, chairs cost between 45 cents and $1.75. The chairs were revolutionary in manufacturing and development, using stencils to paint on the iconic floral, fruit basket, and pastoral scenes on the backs of the chairs. 
    
Unfortunately, Hitchcock used child laborers in his Hictchcocksville, Connecticut (now Riverton) factory. 
    
Hitchcock was quite the businessman and had retail in Hartford as well as selling on the road through Yankee Peddlers (traveling salesmen).
    
​Though Hitchcock eventually went bankrupt, his chairs lived on becoming a picture of New England Ingenuity and paving the way for more affordable furniture in the future (IKEA, you can thank Lambert Hitchcock).

Like many historical artifacts, there are lots of fakes out there, or items that aren’t as old as you think.
    
For Hitchcock chairs, the stenciling on the back is what helps to date them. 

​Hitchcock chairs from the 1820s have this stenciling on the back that reads - L. Hitchcock. Hitchcocks-Ville. Conn. Warranted.

The stenciling on the back of the chairs changed as time passed, changing the town name and other details. Some of the chairs from the 1830’s have two backwards ‘N’s in Conn and many believe that this was due to illiterate workers. 

​Because these chairs were mass produced, they don’t have much value, but I think it isn’t monetary worth that makes something historical worth having, it’s the story behind it. I love the story of these chairs, and I love wondering where my specific chair has lived. I also love that I can see an identical chair to mine in this painting -

{image credit - The Henry Ford}

The next item is, unsurprisingly, a book. This book is The Story of Evangelina Cisneros Told by Herself. Her Rescue by Karl Decker Introduction by Julian Hawthorne. Yeah, it’s a long title and has me unsure of who exactly wrote this book.

This book was actually a gift to me, and from my research at the time of receiving it, I deduced that this book was actually quite influential in its time.

It’s about Evangelina Betancourt Cosio Y Cisneros, a Cuban woman who was placed in prison after being charged (some say falsely others say not) for the attempted murder of a Colonel during the Cuban revolution. Her prison escape, aided by Americans blew up in American Newspapers, quite overshadowing other events of the revolution because of the romance the story was laced with. Many people say that the fame of Evangelina was affected by yellow journalism - the practice of reporting extreme and sensational stories with few facts. 
​
Despite my never hearing of Evangelina, it seems as if her name was a household name back in her day.

Her book was published in 1897 by a New York Publishing company, and the books currently sell for pretty high prices (though not as high as more notable books of the era.) I couldn’t find many of them for sale on the Internet. A quick search yields a few editions of this book and then listings for Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and first editions of Sarah J. Mass’s Throne of Glass series - I do not understand why this comes up, but it’s beside the point.

My copy is in pretty good condition, though it's a little battered and the spine is coming undone. It is an absolutely beautiful book with illustrations throughout. I haven’t read this book yet, but would eventually like to.

​So there is a little glimpse of my personal collection, I have more to share (typewriters and poetry books, and vintage inspired items) and would love to know if you would like to see more.

Do you have any items of historical significance? Do you want to start a collection? Is there anything specific you would love to have in a collection?

sources -
https://connecticuthistory.org/the-fancy-chair-craze-of-the-1800s-lambert-hitchcock-and-the-story-of-the-hitchcock-chair/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambert_Hitchcock
https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/the-hitchcock-chair-an-american-innovation
https://www.lovetoknow.com/home/antiques-collectibles/hitchcock-chairs
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1820s
https://ourpastimes.com/how-to-identify-hitchcock-furniture-12169017.html
https://www.americanheritage.com/perils-evangelina

Belle Thomas

​Belle is the writer behind An Old Fashioned Girl. She is passionate about Jesus, good books, and living a beautiful life.