It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like - Holidays at the Cushing House!

Images by Bob Watts, text by Bethany Groff Dorau

For the past half a century, the Cushing House has been transformed into a holiday paradise by four local garden clubs and talented wreath-makers. Many of you will come to see the finished product, as we open for Holidays at the Cushing House this Saturday and Sunday from 10-4, but Friday morning is when the miracle of this transformation takes place.

Members of the Horticultural Society pay homage to Margaret Cushing in Margaret's Parlor.

They are a whirlwind of activity. Some haul in huge boxes and bags of fresh greenery while others cut the mylar sheets that protect the furniture. Scissors are sought. Two groups trade battery-powered lights. The museum staff scurries from room to room ensuring that amid this seeming chaos, museum collections are moved out of harm's way, and everyone gets the paper, tape, scissors, coffee, and encouragement they need.

The West Newbury Garden Club is small but mighty and set a gorgeous holiday table in the Dining Room.

Before the doors open at 9 a.m., a dozen decorators are already waiting outside, eager to place their creations in their assigned rooms. Within the hour, they will be joined by others, until some thirty people are gathered in every room of the first floor.

The Newbury Garden Club festooned stairways and hallways with fresh greens and garland.

The China Trade Room looks good enough to eat, thanks to the Newburyport Garden Club.

Wreaths on the Fruit Street door and the Carriage Barn gate (top of page) were hand-made by Judith Wilkinson and Phyllis Orem.

Upcoming MOON Events

Please join us:

• December 7 & 8: Holidays at the Cushing House
• December 8: Member Holiday Party - Registration required!
• December 8: Annual Garrison Lecture at Old South Church
• December 20: Night Added! Solstice in the Cemetery: Night Walk Through Oak Hill

Visit www.newburyhistory.org/calendar for details and to reserve your spots!

Thomas Nast and the First American Santa

by Bethany Groff Dorau

When I first "met" the Museum of Old Newbury's Santa textile, I thought it was an old linen tea towel. It was in a fallen-apart frame in a back room of the museum, faded and blotchy. The inside of the frame was moldy, and so I liberated the textile from the frame and had a good look at it.

Let me just say, a framed tea towel would not have been a surprise to me. I recently opened the frame of a beloved print given to me by my great-aunt Emily Noyes Poore to discover that it was a cut-out of a cereal box. For a long time I believed that an early version of the Gerber baby was a relative as this was also cut out of a magazine and framed. The Poores lived simply and found beauty in unexpected places.

But I digress. The fabric with the Santa print was mounted and had been carefully stitched to a rigid paperboard backing. It was in better condition than it had seemed at first glance, and on the sleigh Santa held in his left hand was printed "Oriental Print Works", a clue to its origins.

But it was our friend Scott Nason, once again, who cast a sidelong glance at the piece of cloth, said "oh, that looks like Thomas Nast!", and blew open the case.

Thomas Nast, Self Portrait, Library of Congress

Thomas Nast was born in Bavaria, Germany in a military barracks where his father was a trombonist in the Bavarian 9th regiment band. Nast moved with his mother and siblings to New York City when he was 6 years old, and his father joined them four years later.

While I would love to share the entire story of Nash's fascinating life with you, it was his later career as an illustrator for Harper's Weekly that set him on a path that would end with this image framed in the museum basement.

1863 Illustrations from Harper's Weekly. Private Collection.

It was January 3, 1863, and the Civil War was raging. Two Nast illustrations appeared in Harper's Weekly. The first depicted a figure who is recognizable as Santa Claus, though smaller and a bit more elf-ish than our modern incarnation, handing out presents in a Union Army camp. If there was any doubt about which side Santa was on, he is handing out a jumping jack of Confederate president Jefferson Davis with a rope around his neck.

In the second illustration, a woman and a soldier separated by the war are featured, with Santa in the background doing what we now identify as Santa-specific activities - going down a chimney and riding in his reindeer-drawn sleigh with a heaping bag of presents. By contrast, the stark realities of war - danger and death - are represented below.

Thomas Nast was a man of strong political convictions, and his illustrations were a national platform. Union General Ulysses S. Grant said of Nast that he “did as much as any one man to preserve the Union and bring the war to an end." His depictions of Santa drew on German depictions of Saint Nicholas, and his own reflection of the round, bearded man in the mirror. They also frequently carried a political message.

Thomas Nast’s illustration titled “Santa and His Works” was published in 1866. Library of Congress

In 1868, Edward Peck, designer for Oriental Print Works of Warwick, Rhode Island, produced this textile, a variation of Nash's contemporary illustrations of Santa. The Oriental Print Works was best known for printing handkerchiefs, so our textile is often described as such, though it is large, at 26" tall. Known as "Patriotic Santa", Peck's version sports the rosy red nose and cheeks and pipe of Nash's jolly old elf, and waves an American flag. The colors of the face and flag are nearly faded away in our textile, but are much brighter in this example, owned by the Cooper Hewitt Museum.

Our Thomas Nast/Edward Peck Santa handkerchief/tea towel remains a bit of a mystery. We do not know who preserved it so carefully or why it was tucked away. We now know, however, that it is over 156 years old, and is a very early depiction of a uniquely American Santa Claus. It has gone off to be mounted and re-framed in the style befitting an icon. You can "meet" him yourself at the museum in a few weeks!

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Something Is Always Cooking...

This gingerbread is my favorite – good for construction and tasty, too. It differs from many recipes in that you DON’T chill the dough. This quantity of dough is enough for a house 6”x7”x9”. When rolled out, it will give you about 320 square inches (equivalent to four 8”x10” rectangles), provided that you roll it to a thickness no more than ¼”. Aim for a thickness of 3/16” as the ideal. (submitted by Mary Dissette)

Port Gingerbread Festival All-Purpose Gingerbread Cookies

DRY INGREDIENTS

7 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 + 1/2 teaspoons ginger

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg]

WET INGREDIENTS:

1 + 1/2 cups molasses

5 tablespoons water

1 + 1/3 cups dark brown sugar

1 cup butter

In mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients, stirring until blended. Put wet ingredients in saucepan on medium heat and stir until butter is just melted. Do not allow to boil. Remove from heat. Put wet ingredients into the bowl of an electric mixer with a dough hook and gradually add in dry ingredients until well blended. If mixture is too dry, add more water, one tablespoon at a time until the dough clings together in a ball, with no crumbliness. Remove the dough to your floured work surface and knead by hand to achieve a uniform consistency. If dough is too sticky, sprinkle a little flour on it and knead it in. If dough feels too dry, wet your hands and knead some more. Divide the dough into quarters, and form each quarter into a smooth patty. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap or wax paper.

DO NOT REFRIGERATE. Just set it aside to rest. (You rest, too.) If you want to wait a day or three before the next step, you may refrigerate, but then let the dough come back to room temp (allow 2-3 hours) before rolling. Bake time varies according to size and thickness: 20-24 minutes for house walls and roof. For cutout cookies, about 12-14 minutes.

Puzzle Me This...

Click the image to do the puzzle

The 2nd Annual Port Gingerbread Festival takes place December 13-15 at Central Congregational Church, 14 Titcomb Street, Newburyport.

The Festival features a contest and exhibition, where visitors can feast their eyes on 45 homemade gingerbread houses and other imaginative creations, vote for their favorites, and take part in a visual scavenger hunt. The event is free and open to all, with donations requested to benefit Nourishing the North Shore, a farm-to-food-bank program. Hours: Friday, 4-7pm; Saturday 11am-6pm; Sunday, 12-4pm. Details at www.portgingerbreadfestival.org.