Archive for Blog

Partnering with Students to Expand the Mansion’s Educational Offerings

In 2013, Victoria Mansion launched a school program for elementary school learners entitled A Century of Change. This program, allowing teachers to choose from 8 topics to tailor a lesson and visit for their students, has proven to be a successful model. We look to expand this programming, yet…

Conservation Update: Parlor Project Begins in Earnest

‘The Aesthete and the Abolitionist: Ruggles Morse and Emanuel Leutze’ by Charisse Gendron

 

Remembering Jack Evans

The Mansion lost a very dear long-time friend and supporter in John J. Evans III (Jack), who passed away peacefully surrounded by his family on February 16. Originally from Lancaster, Pa.,  Jack attended the Lawrenceville School, where he met his future wife of 67 years, Noreen Blakely. Jack…

Conserving the Mansion’s Magnificent Gasoliers

With the excitement of the Christmas season now behind us, Mansion staff shifts focus to the two major conservation projects in the Reception Room and the Parlor. One recent advancement was the re-installation of the Reception Room’s gasolier (originally gas-powered lighting fixture), and the de-installation of the Parlor’s. The Reception…

Conservation Upkeep: The Dining Room Ceiling

While strides are being made in our major projects, we also have smaller upkeep projects in the planning for the off-season. Last conserved and restored in the late 1980’s, some may have noticed the tromp l’oeil decoration on the Dining Room ceiling has exhibited paint loss and flaking…

Love is in the Archives: Details on a Mansion Wedding Rediscovered

As part of a larger project to move and rehouse portions of the Mansion’s archives, Director of Education Stacia Hanscom recently happened upon an article written around 1967 by Maine Historian and long-time friend and supporter of the Mansion, Earle Shettleworth Jr. The short article documents the reminiscence…

‘Unpacking’ the Parlor: A Cupid by Any Other Name

Most visitors to the Mansion immediately recognize all the room’s figures as “cherubs”- those angelic, winged and usually haloed unearthly abettors to God. Though we know these figures to be one in the same today, it wasn’t always so– particularly in ancient times. And as much of the Mansion’s decoration harkens back to the ancient word, it often commands an ancient unpacking.

The Numbers Are In! Recapping Christmas at Victoria Mansion: Christmas Through a Child’s Eyes

We are pleased to report the Mansion enjoyed a very healthy 2018-2019 holiday season overall. Evening events Night of the Nutcracker and A Taste & Tipple with Mr. Dickens enjoyed sold-out crowds and over 360 people visited the Mansion for the First Friday Art Walk on December 7 alone. We ended the…

Conservation Ramps Up in the Off Season

For the first time in Mansion’s history, there are two major interior conservation projects happening concurrently. In the Reception Room, conservators have completed the conservation of the magnificent gasolier (originally a gas-powered lighting fixture), which will be reinstalled in the room in the coming weeks. Planning continues to restore the…