New At The Foster-Tufts House, Our Final Stages of Life Exhibit

This past week we've completed the final installation in our stages of life exhibit at the Foster-Tufts house this year.

Our last exhibit focuses on death and depicts an 1830's country rural mourning scene. This is direct in contrast to the high mourning of the Victorian era that is often depicted at the museum.

In the exhibit, set in the home’s dining room, you’ll  find coffin draped with black cloths and bundles of herbs as well as covered mirrors, mourning pictures and a table set for visitors coming to pay their respects to the family.

You can engage in conversation about the signifigance of the shape of the coffin, herbs used and 19th century burial techniques. Our interpreters know why the mirrors are covered and can contrast this scene with other aspects of mourning that can be seen around the village.  This is the first time we've done this exhibit and are excited to share it with you. 

We hope that you've had the chance to visit all three installations at Foster-Tufts  this season and hope you  found them interesting and informative!

Question & Answer Column- A Reader Asks About Infant Care in the 19th Century

As part of our blog contest last month we invited readers to submit their questions to us about the museum or life in the 19th Century. We will take some time this month to answer each of them.

Our first question deals with infant care.

Nell Asks: My question is about infant care in 19th century America. What did they eat? What were the norms around breastfeeding? Who cared for babies and very young children? What did they wear?

Answer: Breast feeding was the norm for infants up to 18 months of age. Sometimes less if a mothers was not particularly productive. In these cases wet nurses were available for hire.

Mothers cared for babies and young children unless of course the mother died in child birth which was not infrequent. In that case, a wet nurse was hired and siblings or female relatives cared for the child.

Babies wore cloth diapers, a diaper cover, a gown, and a piece of flannel wrapped around the mid section plus various caps, flannel for winter and cool weather cotton and linen for warmer weather.

As part of our Stages of Life Program at The Foster-Tufts House this year, we have a hand made baby layette available for you to see & touch.

Have a question? drop us a line through the email link or via our comments. We will answer all that we receive!

Historic Paint Colors Make Their Debut On Foster-Tufts & The Jones Farm

Foster-Tufts New Look

This year we are making great strides in returning some of our buildings to their original and authentic paint colors.

Wonder how we determine what colors to use on the buildings?

Steve Jordan, our conservation specialist and historic paint expert takes small pieces from the houses where paint would have accumulated over time and then studies the layers of paint under a microscope. Along with the sequence of paint colors he is also able to tell us approximately how long a building was bare wood before being painted as well as if a certain sections have been replaced with newer wood.

Once the original colors are determined a decision needs to be made on what color to use. Many factors are weighed when making the decision such as the paint colors popular for the time period that the building is being interpreted as, as well as the current use of the building in the village. For instance, at one point in time our town hall had been a red tavern. It's use as a town hall necessitates a color other than red!

Jones Farm

One of the most notable changes is the dramatic color change to the Foster-Tufts house. You may also notice that the large hinges on the sliding door to the left have been painted over. This is not a mistake but what would have been the norm in the 19th Century! The Jones Farm has also been given a new (old!) look and the Brooks Grove Church is currently being painted.

In addition, this season we will be changing the shutters on many of the buildings in the village square to bright green, a popular color in the Mid 19th Century. These shutters are already visible on St Feehans Church and the Romulus Female seminary.

Green Shutters On The Seminary

For those interested, the paint colors used on Foster-Tufts and The Jones Farm are:

Foster Tufts:
Main Color-Grand Teton White-Benjamin Moore

Jones Farm:
Main Color: Edgecomb Gray-Benjamin Moore, Historic Color Collection
Doors: Spiced Berry-Dunn-Edwards Paints
Trim: Alexandria Beige- Benjamin Moore, Historic Color Collection

New at the Foster-Tufts House

This year, the Foster-Tufts house will feature 3 different exhibits that revolve around the stages of life. These will change as the season progresses.

The first theme will focus on Birth and will feature discussion on all aspects of a country birth in the early 19th century.
A rocking chair, cradle and a custom made baby layette will all be part of the exhibit. The layette pieces are beautifully done in linen and wool with rolled edges all around so as not to bother a newborn baby's skin. They are truly a masterpiece and were made to be handled so please do! There is also a name game to take part in. This program will run from opening day until the 4th of July.

The next theme, Marriage and Courtship, will run from July up until the fall. Find out how people met, courted & married and how that differs from today. The back bedroom will be adorned with typical dowry items and we even have a marriage manual that you can consult!

Finally, in September, we will introduce our program on death. The program will depict an 1830's country rural mourning scene. This will be in contrast to the high mourning of the Victorian era that is often depicted at the museum and will be complete with discussion of burial techniques and customs as well as a real coffin!

For each topic, there will be items in the kitchen that correspond with that theme. For instance, a wedding cake for our marriage program will be featured.

The quilters, who have been housed in the Foster-Tufts home are being moved to George Eastman's Boyhood Home for 2010.

Also, keep your eyes out for the change of color this building will undergo in 2010! Based on its paint history, we will be restoring it to one of it's original colors! We'll let you wait and see what color it's going to be!

Welcome to the Genesee Country Village & Museum Blog

Welcome to The Official Blog of the Genesee Country Village & Museum, Life in a 19th Century Village.

Opening day is May 15th and we have much in store for you this year with new programs in the Foster-Tufts House, Kieffer's Place, the Romulus Female Seminary, the Davis Opera House & the W. Grieve Brewery where we will be brewing beer for the first time ever!


Please join us on this blog daily to learn about museum programs, features and little known facts as well as an exploration of life in the 19th century.

In addition to that, you can also follow us on Facebook.

We invite you to read and participate in the conversation with us. Please make comments! If you have specific questions related to the museum or 19th century life please feel free to contact us via email on the right hand side. We will be compiling interesting questions into a monthly Q& A column.