By Lauren Shirley
Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, Massachusetts, houses multiple historical sites that belonged to the Adams family, including the John Adams Birthplace, the John Quincy Adams Birthplace, and the House at Peace field. The John Quincy Adams Birthplace is where the family resided during the Revolutionary War, and the family moved to Peace field during John Adams’s presidency. The Park preserves the homes and the features of the land while providing tours, self-guided tours, waysides, a visitor center, and events.
The Birthplace homes are primarily decorated with replica furniture designed to simply showcase the house by its presumed layout. At present, these sites provide simple information about the homes, the Adams family’s lifestyle, their time during the war, and the family farm, but the information posted within the home does not explore much further. Historical stories and more information about the Adams family are typically provided by Ranger Talks and guided tours through the homes, but such information is not usually available on the self-guided tours. The layout of the John Quincy Adams Birthplace home demonstrates how the home might have looked during the time that they were residing there, but it does not demonstrate how the family truly lived their lives in the home.
The inspiration for my internship project emerged from my visit to the JQA site and an insightful Ranger Talk inspired the idea for my internship project; I hoped to present rich stories within the space itself. The Ranger Talk focused on Abigail Adams’s entrepreneurial savvy and her financial skills that allowed her to take care of the family while John Adams was away during the Revolutionary War. My project would focus on transforming a space within the JQA Birthplace to reflect Abigail’s entrepreneurial pursuits and describe the story of how she provided for the family financially.
Initially, I eyed the possibility of placing this story in John Adams’s law office in the JQA, as the space where Abigail housed an informal shop to sell goods and products made from the farm. This choice responded to current relevance with the approach of the 250th celebrations of the Revolutionary War, and in turn, the 250th anniversary of Abigail’s “Remember the Ladies” letter. By reinterpreting a space for John Adams into a space for Abigail, who was the one spending the most time in the home at that time, we would feature the efforts that Abigail made for her family.
However, research did not reveal definitive evidence that Abigail used the law office as a shop. This was a central challenge I encountered in the internship; I had to either reconsider how to interpret this space with an alternative theme, or we had to shift the space used for telling Abigail’s entrepreneurial story. Ultimately, we decided to focus on Abigail’s entrepreneurial skills instead of the law office.
My research now focuses on using one of the backrooms of the JQA, presently interpreted as a dining area, to showcase the many goods that Abigail strategically collected and sold through friends and family members. Abigail Adams crafted goods from her farm production, primarily dairy products, cider, and linen made from flax grown on the farm. Whatever excess materials and products she had from these were stored and then sold to neighbors and family. Additionally, in her letters to John, Abigail sent lists requesting that he send her specific items from his locations in Europe, typically linens, cloths, laces, gloves, and china sets. These were items that she almost singularly used to upsell locally. She kept her non-perishable goods and materials in dressers, trunks, and barrels in the house before she sent them out to be sold. So, the new proposition based on our shift in research, is to reinterpret the dining area in the John Quincy Adams Birthplace home to house examples of items that Abigail sold to portray her efforts to financially provide for her family.
In the reinterpretation proposal, we are including examples of items the Park would require for the display of the room, such as baskets, stoneware, barrels, trunks, and the goods, like fabrics and china sets. This could require using and acquiring more replica pieces. Additionally, the proposal will include the themes, goals, and objectives for the reinterpretation, justification for the reinterpretation based on sources and visitor-experience, exhibit text, and a distilled version of the research. Overall, this reinterpretation proposal is designed to honor the Park’s mission, and commemorate the notable members of the Adams family who have lived at the sites at the Park. By presenting Abigail Adams’ story in the space she spent her time in during the Revolutionary War to mark the 250th celebration of her iconic “Remember the Ladies” letter, we can highlight her notable efforts to support her family in place of her husband.
