LATE NEWS.
DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts
Gallery is closed. Is scheduled
to re-open December 16.
LATE NEWS. From the Colonial
Williamsburg website.
www.ColonialWilliamsburg.org
Check with this website for
latest information about the
current state of reconstruction..
The entire museum complex is
being reconstructed, This
includes The Wallace Museum,
Folk Art Museum and Public
Hospital, along with the Museum
Shop and Cafe. Some
museum programming (especially
those for our younger guests)
will continue during this
process, but may be relocated to
other sites around the
Foundation.
Once the final construction
schedule is available, museum
program and exhibition
information for the remainder of
2006 will appear on the Colonial
Williamsburg Web site events
calendar. As work progresses, we
will continually update this
information on the Colonial
Williamsburg web site and
will include information on
events for 2007.
The last of the reconstructed
18th-century Williamsburg public
buildings, the
Public Hospital,
opened in 1985 a full century
after it was destroyed by fire.
When the hospital originally
opened in 1773 it was the first
institution in America devoted
solely, as the law stated, "for
the Support and Maintainance of
Ideots, Lunatics, and other
Persons of unsound mind."
During the first year there
were only 12 patients who
endured the harsh conditions you
will become aware of as you tour
the Public Hospital. A
reconstruction of one of the
original 24 primitive cells
illustrates conditions prevalent
during the Age of Restraint,
which lasted from 1773 until
1835. The cell contains only a
straw mattress and chamber pot.
Patients were manacled. The
windows were barred and the
doors padlocked. A taped
vignette helps re-create the lot
of these early victims of mental
illness who were treated by cold
water plunge baths and harsh
drugs.
The opposite side of the
viewing room at the Public
Hospital has a 19th-century
apartment representing the
period of Moral Management from
1836 to 1862. This approach was
based on the realization that
the patient suffered emotional
problems, needed kindly and
respectful treatment, plus work
and recreational activities to
fill their time in confinement.
The room contains a
quilt-covered bed, table,
chairs, rug and even a violin
and newspaper.
Many of the "tools" of the
mental health trade were
recovered from the on-site
excavations. The museum section
of the hospital contains a
strait jacket, Utica crib (a
wire cage-like bed for violent
patients), a tranquilizer chair
and more benign objects like the
sports equipment and games used
in later years.
This new addition to
Colonial Williamsburg certainly
runs the gamut of "pain and
pleasure," because after the
horrors of the mental ward come
the delights in the adjoining
DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts
Gallery, built with
funds contributed by DeWitt and
Lila Wallace, co-founders of the
Reader's Digest Association.
The gallery is reached by
elevator or stairs from the
hospital lobby. On entering
this bi-level museum you go
through an introductory gallery
that suggests the scope of this
incredible collection. More
than half of the 8,000 items on
display have never, or only
rarely been shown, so it is
indeed a new look at some very
old items from the 17th, 18th
and early 19th centuries.
Around an attractive
central court you'll see the
master works exhibit with
selected pieces from the diverse
small study galleries which
branch off this core area. The
prize pieces are the matched
portraits of George III and
George Washington that flank a
throne-like ceremonial chair.
Painted in the same pose, the
two pivotal figures present a
study in contrasts; the King
with his full figure outfitted
in elegant finery and the
uniformed Washington with his
military bearing and piercing
gaze.
Study galleries at
the museum include textiles,
ceramics, glass, metals, prints,
paintings and maps plus special
rotating exhibits. A major
collection of early 18th-century
furniture and accessories was
donated to the gallery by
Miodrag and Elizabeth Ridgely
Blagojevich. This important
collection contains items too
splendid for the modest means of
the 18th-century Williamsburg
residents.
ABBEY ALDRICH ROCKEFELLER FOLK
ART CENTER.
Be sure to include a visit when
it re-opens. Mrs. Rockefeller,
mother of the late Governor
Nelson Rockefeller, was one of
the first to collect American
folk art. Her substantial
collection serves as the nucleus
for this small museum. The
exhibited work includes folk
painting, decorated household
furnishings, quilts, weather
vanes, toys, ceramics and
signs.
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