: Motivated by concern that "our New England antiquities are fast
disappearing because no society has made their preservation its
exclusive object," Boston blueblood William Sumner Appleton and a
group of like-minded citizens founded the Society for the
Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) in 1910. The
first organization of its kind in America, from the start its
mission has been to protect the region's architectural and
cultural heritage.
Today, SPNEA, which recently changed its name to Historic New
England, maintains 35 historic houses open to the public and
sited on 1,350 acres. The organization's vast collections
comprise more than 110,000 items, running the gamut from
furniture, household objects and needlework to costumes,
decorative arts and paintings. Historic New England owns more
than 1.5 million historical photographs, architectural drawings
and other documents relating to New England.
Drawing from these extensive holdings, Historic New England
curator Nancy Carlisle has organized Historic New England's first
major traveling exhibition, "Cherished Possessions: A New England
Legacy," currently on view at the Bard Graduate Center. More than
175 objects were chosen not only for their visual and aesthetic
appeal, but also for the stories they tell about nearly 400 years
of regional life.
