A Journey With Alice

In honor of the 150th year since Alice T. Miner's birth I will take you along on her trip to Europe... Embarked upon on March 9, 1929 and recorded in a pocket-sized leather journal with "My Trip Abroad" and "A.T.M." embossed on the cover. Tucked in the journal is a small envelope (about 1.5 x 2.5 inches) with "Valentine Greetings" in gold, gothic font on the front... Inside the envelope is William's calling card... Perhaps the journal was his Valentine's Day gift to his Heart's Delight?

Alice and three friends traveled from New York City on the White Star Line for a Mediterranean cruise. Their ship was the S.S. Laurentic - an 18,000 ton ocean liner built in 1927 and powered by coal. Alice writes,
"Mar 9, 1929
Left New York in company with Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Haynes & Mrs. Silver for cruise on Mediterranean. The day was fine but cold. We met in the Waldorf Fri & sailed Sat. Mar. 9 having spent a very happy time in the City together. Will, Mr. Johnson & Mrs. Clapp were on hand to see us off. Flowers, fruit, telegrams & letters kept us busy for a long time. We were a happy crowd."

Not long after she took this trip Alice experienced great tragedy and change in her life, and in the lives of those she knew. October 1929 the stock market crash occurred... and in April 1930 her husband Will died suddenly while undergoing elective surgery at Physicians' Hospital in Plattsburgh. For these three months on her journey she experienced no hardship, but for missing her dear Will.

Mar 9th 1929

Left New York at noon in company with Mrs. Johnson, Haynes and Silver. Will was at boat to see us off. The day was clear but cold. Our flowers were beautiful. The Am. Ex. Co. had reserved nice table in dining room. Service fine - had brisk walk on deck in aft - Wrote letters & retired early Slept well.

The Waldorf in New York City

The ladies apparently did most (if not all) of their planning through the American Express Company, including reservations for lodging and even tour guides in the various sites they visited. Alice was 65 years old and interested in objects to collect for her museum, and in the historical sites and churches they would visit. This was not her first trip to Europe as evidenced by her comments later in the journal.

The White Star Line docks in New York City

The Plattsburgh Republican reports, "A party of North Country people, consisting of Mrs. Corydon S. Johnson, Mrs. Cassius D. Silver and Mrs. Irving S. Haynes of Plattsburgh, and Mrs. W.H. Miner of Chazy and Chicago, are leaving today for New York whence they will sail tomorrow on the S.S. Berengaria for France. They will be gone for two months." These ladies were all prominent local citizens married to - Dr. Cassius Silver... the beloved doctor of Alice and William Miner and the man who inspired them to build Physicians' Hospital... Corydon Johnson - a local politician and Irving Haynes - also a Plattsburgh doctor. Clearly the newspaper did not have the right ship name.

Mar 10th
Awakened feeling quite refreshed. All four ladies enjoyed the morning on deck - It is bitter cold. Arrived in Boston at 1:30 P.M. - Took passengers aboard stayed an hour and then started on our long voyage - Wrote and mailed Jim (perhaps her brother) a letter in Boston. The quartette had our first pleasant, chatty aft together. Retired at 9 P.M.

We'll catch up with Alice and her friends in a later post...

For the Bookish

Today would be a great day to find a shady seat and relax with a good book. Perhaps Alice Miner, after finishing her needle work, would have wandered from Heart's Delight Cottage toward a stately elm tree and cracked open a good book. It's clear she enjoyed reading - as evidenced by the large collection of her books here at The Alice. She read about many things - fiction, history, reference, biographies, travel journals... Much of her non-fiction collection deals with how things were made. Specifically, the books are about china, American furniture, English furniture, decorative arts, Japanese woodblock prints, porcelain maker's marks, silver, silver maker's marks - in other words, she read a lot about the objects she collected. These books are part of our reference library at the museum, as opposed to books that are part of the collection - Alice Miner gathered some amazing and sometimes rare books together to preserve in the museum collection.

Lately I have been revisiting some of the more extraordinary books Alice collected. Here I will tell you about six of them, organized by publication date from 1914 all the way back to 1498. They are just a few of the amazing tomes stored in my office and I love to occasionally take them down from the shelves and carefully wander through their pages. Right now you can see them exhibited on the first floor in the Weaving Room.

A Century of Fashions from Contemporary Magazines 1800 to 1900 by M.J. Levey, 1914
Includes 100 hand-colored engraved costume plates representing a century of ladies fashions from magazines of the time. 

Atlas to Cruttwell's Gazetteer by Clement Cruttwell, 1808
A gazetteer is a geographical directory or reference for information about places and place names, population GDP, etc. - used in conjunction with an atlas or maps. Cruttwell's Gazetteer is an atlas of the known world including numerous maps. Clement Cruttwell was well-regarded in his time and even corresponded with George Washington - to whom he sent his own translation of the Holy Bible. Our copy of this book is inscribed "Levi Platt Esquire", indicating perhaps that Alice Miner purchased the book from descendants of the Platt family as she did numerous other pieces in the collection. Levi Platt (1782-1849) was a son of Zephaniah (1735-1807) and Mary Van Wyck Platt (1742-1809). 

Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, 1768 by Jonathan Carver, 1781
The journal of Jonathan Carver's expedition into the interior of America. Carver (1710-1780) traveled further west than any British explorer before the Revolution. Illustrated with copper engravings. Carver was a captain in the Massachusetts colonial militia during the French and Indian war, enlisting in 1755. His expedition was sponsored by Major Robert Rogers (1731-1795 - of Roger's Rangers fame) with an aim to find a western water route to the Pacific Ocean. Despite the immense success of the book, Carver died a poor man in London in 1780.

The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director by Thomas Chippendale, 1754
A furniture pattern book illustrated with 161 engravings of Chippendale's own designs. He was the first furniture maker to publish a book of his own creations. The book includes furniture patterns in the Gothic, Chinese, and Rococo styles along with more plain domestic designs. The drawings established the fashion for furniture for the period and were used by many other cabinet makers. The term "Chippendale" is now regularly used to describe English Rococo furniture. This book sold well and helped to increase Chippendale's clientele. 

A Treaty with the Indians of the Six Nations compiled and edited by Benjamin Franklin, 1744
Also known as the Treaty of Lancaster between Virginia, Maryland and the Iroquois League. This is an original copy of the treaty published and sold by Ben Franklin from his printing office in Philadelphia. These treaty negotiations were held in Lancaster, Pennsylvania between June 25 and July 4, 1744. The Iroquois agreed to hand over their claims to the Shenandoah Valley in exchange for 200 pounds of gold. The demarcation lines were vague and not agreed upon by all parties, resulting in later treaties. Although the leather binding is a more recent addition, I like to think that perhaps Ben himself once held this book!

Enneades ab Urbe Condito ad Inclinationem Imperii Romani (History of the World) by Marcus Antonius (Coccius) Sabellicus (1436-1506), 1498
A history of the world from its inception to 1504. Published by Bernardinus and Mattheus de Vitalibus, commonly called Li Albanesoti, who were brothers. This is the only book they published together. They were active between 1494-1536 in Venice and Rome. Their printer's mark is shown below.

It is interesting that this history supposedly covers through the year 1504 when it was published in 1498. It is decorated with woodcut outline initials that have been hand colored, and printed in Latin. This wonderful book was purchased by Alice Miner from her friend and fellow collector, Frank Gunsaulus in 1919. 

Please come to see these amazing objects here at The Alice. Due to their delicate nature they will be on exhibit for only a short time and then carefully boxed and stowed away again in my office.