Home » Headline, Museums

Living History Weekend

on June 17, 2010 – 3:08 am

Old Sturbridge Village is one of the United States largest living history museums and a “must-see” destination to experience early New England life from 1790-1840.

Throughout the weekend of June 19-20, Old Sturbridge Village will present singing, dancing, artwork demonstrations and musical performances as part of their Music & Art Weekend. Dads get 50 percent off the Father’s Day admission on Sunday June 20th.

Old Sturbridge Village potters will stoke the Village’s massive 24-foot-high brick kiln to 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday, June 19th and fire a year’s worth of vintage-style redware pottery hand-crafted at the museum. Daytime visitors can watch the preparation; visitors to the evening kiln firing can try their hands at “throwing” a piece of pottery, enjoy appetizers and drinks in redware mugs, and watch the glow as sparks fly into the night sky. Evening event: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. June 19; $35 per person; $30 for museum members. Pre-registration is required: www.osv.org, 1-800-SEE-1830.

Visitors can learn to play the jaw harp and tin whistle, have their silhouette made, learn 1830s-style contra-dancing, and enjoy musical performances, including: Tasteful Tunes and Devil’s Ditties, fife and drum music, a recorder concert, and a performance on the antique pipe organ in the Center Meetinghouse.

Artist Michelle Temares will demonstrate 19th-century portrait painting, and the New England Plein Air Painters will demonstrate their “in the open air” landscape painting throughout the Village, and have an art show of their work.

 

“Of all the activities we demonstrate at Old Sturbridge Village, firing the potter’s kiln is surely the most dramatic,” notes Jeff Friedman, of Princeton, Mass., head of pottery interpretation at OSV. “It’s a rare opportunity to see an oven of such size roaring and glowing.”

Built with 15,000 bricks, the Old Sturbridge Village kiln is an “updraft bottle kiln,” of the style used in the early 1800s. When fully loaded for firing, the kiln holds 800 freshly glazed pots stacked 10 feet high. It takes three cords of wood stoked over 24 hours to bring the kiln to maximum firing temperature of 1,900 degrees. At that temperature, the kiln bricks glow and the flames roar, rising 24 feet high to come out of the top of the stack. The pottery is fired all night, and it takes another 40 hours for the kiln to cool before the dramatic “drawing the kiln” – unloading the finished wares.

Old Sturbridge Village celebrates New England life in the 1830s and is one of the largest living history museums in the country. The museum is open daily 9:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., offers free parking, and a free return visit within 10 days. Admission: $20; seniors, $18; children 3-17, $7; children under 3, free. Active military personnel get a 50% discount on admission by showing their ID and members of their party get 25% off. For information: www.osv.org or call 1-800-733-1830.

Victorian Christmas

971 Comments »