Opening Day at the Counting House Museum
At Counting House Museum
Opening Day at the Counting House Museum
South Berwick, Maine- The Counting House Museum opens for the season on Saturday, June 4th with extended hours from 10am-4pm. A variety of textile demonstrations will be at the nearby Counting House Park in celebration of the opening of the new textile exhibit, “Material Culture: Domestic Cloth-Making in 18th Century New England”. The demonstrations and the museum admission are free to the public, donations are gratefully accepted.
The Old Berwick Historical Society’s 2022 exhibit explores the material culture of early domestic textile arts and the tools used to produce linen and woolen cloth in rural New England homesteads. Material goods provide a window into standards of living, self-sufficiency, economic diversification, and the transition from frontier life to settled communities.
The specialized tools used to process flax and wool, and the spinning wheels and looms on display, reveal the necessary individual skills and the collaborative family roles in creating yarn and cloth. Loans from the collection of Guest Curators Peter and Nancy Cook and selections from the permanent collection of the Old Berwick Historical Society reflect the art of creating homespun textiles in common use throughout the 18th century. This exhibit will be on display for the 2022 season.
A new permanent exhibit, “Berwick Begins”, is also open for this first time. The exhibit explores the founding of the Berwicks almost 400 years ago. The culmination of a quarter-century of local archaeology and historical research, it tells the story of lives uprooted and rebuilt on Berwick soil in its turbulent first century.
The Counting House Museum is regularly open June-October on Saturday and Sunday from 1pm-4pm. More information is available by calling 207-384-0000 or visiting www.oldberwick.org.
