Take A Seat… With Hitchcock

Some brand names have become so identified with their products as to represent an entire industry: as Currier & Ives represents popular printmaking in the United States, so too does Hitchcock represent the chair.

Newtown Historical Society will examine the development of the Hitchcock chair on Monday, November 10, at 7:30, in the community room at Booth Library, 25 Main Street (Route 25).

Guest speaker Anne Guernsey will explore not only the famous Hitchcock chair, but will also examine the life and art of the innovator and entrepreneur Lambert Hitchcock. A highlight of the presentation will include a discussion of the Hitchcock acquisitions made by the Unionville Museum in Farmington.

In 1818, two years removed from an apprenticeship to a cabinetmaker, young Lambert Hitchcock headed for northern Connecticut, an area where abundant virgin timber and the power of free flowing streams afforded him the opportunity to start his own woodturning shop.

Concentrating on making chair parts to be assembled by the buyer, he soon had shipments going out as far as Georgia. Soon he began to offer finished chairs to the public, and by 1826 he had expanded to a three-story brick factory employing more than 100 men, women, and children. Men were the woodworkers and turners, children applied the background coats of black or red-over-black paint, and women did the final stencil decoration.

Hitchcock became so successful that he had to outsource manufacture of some of his parts to the state prison. Many of the chairs were sold on credit, however, and the larger his business grew the more vulnerable he became to slow payments. By 1829 the company was bankrupt.

Hitchcock was not deterred, and with several reorganizations over the next few years he was able to expand his product line to include other furniture items. Bothered by recurring financial reverses, Hitchcock left the firm a few years before he died in 1852. The company ceased making furniture and was sold in 1864.

Ms Guernsey is an exhibit developer with the Connecticut Historical Society. She has worked on award-winning exhibitions such as “History Is All Around Us” at the Old State House in Hartford and “September 11, 2001: Connecticut Responds and Reflects,” which will continue to travel the state every year until 2010. She is currently developing an exhibition on the history of women’s basketball in Connecticut, scheduled to open at CHS in late January.

Ms Guernsey previously held positions in several museums, including the Museum of the City of New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She continues to teach art history at Middlesex Community College.

Newtown Historical Society programs are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served following the presentation.

For further information leave a message for the historical society at 426-5937.