Welcome to the Second Floor: A Photo Tour Continued

For those of you who've been waiting on pins and needles for the second installment of my photographic tour of the mansion, I am finally making good on my promise.  In the Part One we toured the first floor of Clermont.  To be honest, these are the most glamorous spaces; upstairs we are more homey.  In 1930, there were eight bedrooms for family and guests at Clermont, and we still show two of these as bedrooms.  Others are used as our exhibit gallery, reference library, and storage.

First things first: I will lead you up the steep servants' stairway off the main hall.  This stairway was added in the 19th century, as part of a larger national trend to conceal the work of servants in the home.  Because the staircase was added after the original building of the house, it had to be fit in as best as possible.  Consequently, it only goes about three quarters of the way to the second floor; it joins the main staircase at the landing.  The servants' stairs are steep.  I always joke that there weren't many concerns about servants' knees.

At the top of the stairs you are greeted by a little gate to keep children and dogs on the second floor.  The second floor hallway is broad and shady, the walls lined with doors.

To your left, a little hallway leads you to one of my favorite rooms, the historic bathroom.  Actually, there are eleven bathrooms at Clermont, but this is the only one restored for your viewing pleasure.

This little hallway also takes you out to the four comfortable bedrooms John Henry Livingston had added for his family in 1874.

(I'm adding a  picture of the wall sconce here because I just love the river scene on the shade.  These are located in numerous places around the house and have a great Colonial Revival look.)

There are two bedrooms on the second floor, then up a steep little staircase to two more charming bedrooms in the attic.  Each of these bedrooms was quite modern, with its closet and three bathrooms to serve all four rooms.  The historic photo here shows one room as it looked in 1965, when Alice had been using the house in the warm months to house guests.  You can just see the reflection of the the bathroom in the mirror at left.  When Alice Livingston began to run out of money after John Henry's death in 1927, she closed the wing up to save money on heat.

Alice then moved her own bedroom across the hall to this large space on the second floor. Note the small daybed where she took her afternoon naps. As was common for its Empire style, it was designed to be pushed against the wall, and the back side is consequently undecorated.

I also love to point out the exotic little screen that Alice kept in her fireplace when it was not in use.  Broad decorative screens like this had been commonly used since the house's building in the 18th century.  They were often used in the summer when the fireplace was cleaned and put to bed for the warm months.  I like this one because of the ogee arches and strong contrast between the black and gold.  It has a flair of the exotic that was popular are the turn of the century.

From Alice's bedroom, we head into the gallery.  This room was formerly a large bedroom with a view of the Hudson River.  Now it has become a space for us to exhibit some of the many treasures that are commonly in storage at Clermont.  One of these days I'm going to write a post about that dynamite chair in the corner.  It has a very curious history...


The sewing room is at the end of the hall.  In fact you can see the doorway in the very first photo in this blog.  This tiny little room was closed off from the main hall in the 19th century, and large cabinets were installed at that time.  You can just see one of them to the right of this picture.  The room has a stellar view of the river.


At the next doorway, we come to the guest bedroom. 

When Janet and Honoria were infants, this was their shared nursery.  It was later the room in which Rex McVitty staid when he came to visit Honoria (before they were married).  Like almost all of the other bedrooms in the house, this one has a bathroom adjacent.  This time it's the blue bathroom we've already seen.

(I love a historic bathroom.  It's so human to see the hum-drum day-to-day parts of people's lives).

So that about wraps up the second floor!  While heading back down the stairs, it's a good idea to pause on the landing and enjoy the view of the front hall.  I think if I can get some time with my camera (always a tricky proposition once the Tour Season has started), I will snap a few behind-the-scenes photos for you of the 18th century basement details and the 19th century servants' spaces in the attic.  Stay tuned!

History Mythical Enemy No. 1: Times Were Simpler Back Then

Lot's of people say it. Lot's of people think it: "I wish I lived back then, when times were simpler."

I remember the first time the absolute balderdash of this saying really hit me. I was watching a television show (which shall go unnamed), where the host was staying with an Indonesian tribe, who happened to practice cannibalism, for a week or so, trying to convey to the audience a sense of their lives and culture. And at the end, when summing it all up, he described their lives as simple as they cooked over an open fire and hunted for subsistence and slept in elevated dwellings in the trees.

Except, ten minutes earlier he had been describing the fact that this tribe had, only two years before, eaten a man from the neighboring tribe because they believed he was possessed with evil. Now there was a social need to interact with the people of tribe #2 again, and they were dealing with that awkward "Hey, I ate your cousin" problem.

What about that is simple!?

The fact is that human lives are messy and always have been.

As best as I can tell, the idea of a "simple" life seems to be one that is not necessarily easy and devoid of work, but rather one where the choices and conflicts of social life are absent. A Simple Life is one where you know what you have to do, and you do it: You get up in the morning. You plow your field. You bake your bread. You go to bed satisfied at a job well done and know that you will do it again tomorrow.

Sadly as far I can tell, this has never exisited. One has only to look at the twisted web of Nancy Shippen Livingston's, ill-fated marriage and custody battle for her child to find examples of this. Or what about Harriet Livingston Fulton's rather awkward marriage?  Her husband seemed more devoted to his friends the Barlows than he did to her. When he died, she remarried, left her children with relatives, and ran away to England with her new husband.  That could not have been simple either--for her or the children.

Or consider the complex nature of the relationships developed within the Livingston's household as a result of slavery. Slaves might have been loved by their owners and sometimes viewed very much like a pet (and I use this analogy with belief that keeping children enslaved as errand runners or dressing adults up in clothes you find cute is a pretty misguided way to view and treat a fellow human being), but they did not free them. The reasons not to free slaves were also complex, ranging from a widespread belief in African Americans' childlike intelligence to an understanding that without protection from the law, they were vulnerable and economically at risk. Or possibly it was the fact that you were essentially setting free an expensive piece of livestock. Treating slaves with dignity (when it happened) may have been nice and all, but those people were still enslaved.

This yearning for simplicity is nothing new.  When Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz visited Chancellor Livingston 1797, he wistfully described a tenant farmer sitting on his porch and surveying his corn field.  "This was a farmer who, from the position of overseer or manager, has today become the owner of an excellent homestead.  Considered the best farmer in the whole neighborhood, he has now passed his cares on to his son, leaving for himself only supervision and rest... We left him untroubled in sweet contemplation."

This passage always seemed to me like Niemsewizc was wearing uncharacteristically rose-tinted glasses.  Worries about crop success or failure, what prices he could get, whether or not his sons were ready to be entrusted with the farm, etc. cannot have been absent from this man's mind. Nagging wives, lost friends, and social injustices, whether nearby or afar may have plagued his thoughts.  He had lived through the American Revolution, and war too leaves long-lasting marks on people.

Each generation has had its own proponents of the Simple Life.  "From the cradle to the grave, in his needs as in his pleasures, in his conception of the world and of himself, the man of modern times struggles through a maze of endless complication," wrote Charles Wagner--and that was all the way back in 1901.  I wonder what he would think of today's 24-hour news channels, Facebook, and smart phones?  But his age was also bombarded with intimidating new technologies: telephones, monstrous ocean liners, and (very soon) airplanes.  I have no doubt Mr. Wagner felt just as assailed by his world as we do today.

Some musings about the Simple Life have become proverbial, such as the famous Walter Scott line, published in 1808 "Oh what a a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive!"  Here is complaining about the complexities we bring on ourselves as opposed to those from outside forces.

And if you want to go way back in time, you can remember Hamlet.  As with all of Shakespeare's work, it is the human complexity that makes the play ring so true today.  Hamlet is compelled to avenge his father's death by killing King Claudius, but his own fears make it take half the play just to make up his mind.  Shakespeare's characters are forever trapped in their own tangled webs, which Hamlet intones to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern:

What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! 

For Shakespeare, nothing is ever simple.


So the next time you find yourself musing about the Simple Life, keep in mind that at no period in history has life ever been simple--at least not since humans developed these big brains.  But you don't have to feel bad about it.  You can be counted in with many great thinkers wishing for the same. There is nothing wrong with trying to create a Simple Life scenario in your head, just remember that the only way you're ever really going to see the real Simple Life, is if you take steps to simplify your own life today.

The Chancellor's Sheep & Wool Showcase 2012!!!

Sat., April 21st

(raindate April 22nd)

11am-4pm

$8 per vehicle

Hmmm....Maybe those exclamation points were a little bit of overkill, but I get a little revved up for the Showcase. Maybe it's all the caffeine, or maybe it's the weeks of contact with vendors, performers, and demonstrators, but for me it is a high-energy kick-off to the summer season at Clermont. What is there to do at the Showcase? Let me show you:


Shop: Alright, so we're all watching our pennies these days, but there is something delicious about shopping in a farm-market atmosphere filled with small, independent vendors. I have 28 vendors this year, selling everything from raw fleece (Dutchess County Sheep & Wool Growers Association) to finely-finished handmade products (Crippenworks needle case pictured at right). For knitters and crafters, who look for yarn and roving, it's a brain-tingling explosion of color. I can never get over the colors of all those hand-dyed wools that are stacked in baskets, overflowing tables, and hanging tantalizingly from tent poles (Jill Draper Makes Stuff pictured at right).


Even if you're not a crafter, you can still find plenty to fill your canvas reusable shopping bags; handmade soaps, baskets, trinkets, and jewelry can all be procured, and because all of the vendors are local, you can rest assured that your money is supporting the Hudson Valley.


Touch: If you have kids, you are probably on the lookout for new experiences. As a new mom myself, I am always looking for ways to get my daughter to learn about animals and her environment. The Sheep & Wool Showcase offers children and grown-ups alike to come face-to-face with sheep (of course), llamas, goats, ducks, and herding border collies.


We also have a Kids' Crafts tent set up with activities for children ranging from three years to ten, and all of them give children a chance to see what they can do with their own hands. this year, the highlighted craft this year is making your own felted beads, which have been a hot seller for many stylish Etsy sites.


I have to be honest and tell you that one of the favorite kids' attractions is just our landscape. On a beautiful day, nothing burns off energy like letting them just run across acres of sun-drenched grass.


Learn: There are lots of new things to see and do at the Showcase. If you think you need to learn something to keep your hands busy while you are watching TV, the Showcase is a great place to learn or even perfect your existing skills. You have a host expert knitters, crocheters, spinners, and more laid out in front of you like a big Mall of Education. many of them are willing to share their knowledge with you. So if you're stuck on a sock heel or can't figure out how to finish off a cuff, bring your project along, and someone will know what to do.


If you prefer to just "watch how it's done," and you're not ready to do it yourself yet, there're plenty of opportunities for you as well. Spinning and weaving guilds will be on hand to demonstrate their arts, and sheep herding and sheering will be going on all day too! See a quick clip of our fantastic sheering demonstrator Fred DePaul below. Fred's knowledge of historic techniques (and his dry, dry humor), make him known far and wide as the sheep shearer to see.

Relax: If you can squeeze a moment out of your busy weekend to stop by the Showcase, you might just find yourself refreshed by a day of relaxation. Eat a sausage and pepper sandwhich (the Germantown Sportsmen are selling them to raise money to help local families buy toys at Christmas). Listen to live traditional music by Tamarak (clips from some of their members here) and the Acoustic Medicine Show. Breath fresh spring air, and share time with people you love (since we charge by the carload, not the person, we recommend filling every seat). You might be amazed by how good you'll feel at the end of the day, strolling back to your car with a full belly, a little bag of Cat's View Soaps, and that good tired that comes from walking all over the fair grounds.

Quick Curiosity about Nancy and Otto

In paging around through the internets for information on my last Nancy Shippen blog (part 11 of the ongoing tragedy!), I happened across a reference to The Sylph on "The Dutchess of Devonshire's Gossip Guide to the 18th Century." It's one of my guilty history pleasures (okay not so guilty because it is well-researched, just guilty because of my prickly, no-romance exterior).

Long story short, it was written in 1779 by the ill-married Georgiana Cavendish, Dutchess of Devonshire (pictured at right with the fabulous hairdo and ostrich feathers). It's a novel about "the naive country girl, Julia, who marries a rich aristocrat but soon discovers him to be a rake who spends all his money on gambling and mistresses. To distract herself from her woes, Julia involves herself in the ton and fashion, making friends and frenimies with the elite. Meanwhile her home life only gets worse when her husband gets more and more abusive. Her fellow wives of the ton bring little consolidation because they are just as ill-used by their husbands. In her worst time of need an anonymous person calling himself The Slyph (a sylph was a mythical invisible spirit) writes to her offering her advice. Eventually, Julia is forced to run away from her husband (who promptly commits suicide) and she discovers the true identity of The Slyph and the two wed." (summary borrowed from the blog)

See the paralells to Nancy?

And Julia! Julia was what Louis Otto had begun calling Nancy in the throes of romantic passion in early 1790. "...the Julia, whose letter I can not peruse too often..." he wrote after their meeting in New York that spring and later, "forgive it Julia" in August.

Louis Otto and Nancy Shippen had long called each other by nicknames borrowed literature or mythology. She called him Leander in their youth. He had at least once called her Amanda.

Is this sudden adoption of the name Julia a reference to the tragic heroine of the Dutchess of Devonshire's novel? Is Louis suggesting that he is going to rescue Nancy from her terrible marriage? To be sure, Julia is a name that had many applications over the decades, going back to Ancient Rome. But the timing and popularity of The Sylph does make me wonder.

Although I can never be sure, the possiblity adds an interesting perspective to their perseption of the romance and their hopes for it.

Love and Divorce: The Sorrowful Tale of nancy Shippen, Part 11

Louis Otto had been Nancy Shippen Livingston's dearest love since she was a bouncy teenager ballancing the attentions of several suitors. It seemed that their lives had parted irreparably when, in 1781, Nancy followed her parents' advice and married the wealth Henry Beekman Livingston and Louis Otto contented himself with a bride of his own and returned to France.

But now seven years had passed. Nancy's marriage was in a shambles. She was estranged and caught in a conspiracy of deceit to hide her daughter from her husband since the law could offer no shelter.

Louis Otto's wife had passed away suddenly, and he was making return trips to New York. His once shakey career prospects had now morphed into a "future Minister to the European courts." And then he bumped into Nancy. The old flame was not extinguished.

Sometime in the spring of 1788, the two began corresponding again, and letters went between them reliably every two weeks. By February of 1789, Louis wrote to Nancy "Let me [hope] to receive at least every fortnight a Letter from you. I am now so used to this charming corresponance that I expect with anxiety every new testimony of your rememberance."

Nancy needed this kind of love and support. Her marital situation had entered a new chapter: she was finally ready to sue for divorce. This was a controvercial decision and was not supported by everyone in Nancy's life. Because "irreconsilable differences" was just not acceptable reason to break the marrital bond, she was going to have to prove her husband's cruelty to a court presided over by men who as a whole share the common belief that divorce was immoral in the first place.

Nancy's uncle Arther Lee once responded with harsh sarcasm to her request for assistance, insinuating that her divorce was a symptom of the loathsome fashions of the time. Nancy's parents weren't supporting her either. This must have been highly distressing since Nancy was living with them at the time. You have to wonder what dinner conversations were like in the Shippen household when Nancy sat down across the table from her father and his strong opinions.

Oddly enough, her mother-in-law Margaret Beekman Livingson (whose own happy marriage she heralded to whomever would listen) was one of her greatest supporters. She offered moral support, information, influence, and an active public relations campaign on Nancy's behalf. Several time she referenced attempting to get "the ladies" on Nancy's side as a way to influence the opinions of their powerful husbands.

"I dare say no more to you altho their [your parents] conduct is reprobated by every Body for their sordid interestedness," wrote Margaret (more evidence of her lobbying her society friendy on Nancy's side). Another time she comforted her, "Keep up your spirits...Do not sink under your afflictions." She was also writing long letters to Nancy's parents, presumably to prevail upon their sympathies. "I have written 5 pages to your father and now my pen is bad and my hand is tired."

Henry was out to destroy Nancy. Knowing the depth of her attachment to their daughter, he sought every tool possible to get little Peggy away with him. He pushed his brother the Chancellor to intercede, to no avail (the Chancellor was on Nancy's side in all this). He pushed Nancy's father to send the child up (Dr. Shippen agreed, but for whatever reason did not succeed in sending little Peggy out of his house). Peggy did not even make her annual pilgrimage to Clermont because Margaret was afraid that Henry would come and forcibly take her away. "I am not fit now at this period, to encounter the salleys of his turbulent temper," she wrote.

Henry even employed friends to spy and possibly even steal the little girl. "Do not be secure [in your distance from him]. Remember who are his friends..." Margaret advised.

In December of 1788, Maragert also informed Nancy that her son was preparing to spread rumors to ruin Nancy's public persona. Reputation in this society was everything, and loose sexuality could get Nancy branded a pariah and destroy any hope of her gaining legal custody over her daughter. This rumor was going to involve everyone: Nancy, his mother, and Louis Otto.

"He has he says proof of your infidelity before marriage & after this if I am rightly informed (for him I have not seen) He says he will publish Mr O is named &c &c and says he will Publish the treatment he has received from his own family," Margaret informed Nancy. Thankfully, throughout the winter social season, the rumor was slow to carry. When Nancy wrote Louis Otto in February or March of 1789, the rumor had not been published.

Louis Otto was trying to understand the situation only through gossip and letters since he hadn't seen Nancy more than briefly during this whole period. The danger to her reputation and his (including his career) was real if they were to meet. Their early correspondance was restrained, more formal, and Nancy held back some information. When Nancy wrote him of Henry's plan to slender them, she must have made only vague and anxious references to it and the divorce, because Otto responded "...I am at a loss how to advise you. even the enclosed letter does not inform me sufficiently of your situation..." He suggested hopefully, gently that after all his encouragement to reconcile with her husband (the conventional and prudent way to solve this problem), she was finally attempting to free herself through divorce.


But their letters were becoming increasingly impassioned as Nancy gained hope that she could escape her husband and free herself up to be with her first love, Louis Otto. Even acknowledging the highly-stylied and romantic language of the day, they were becoming increasingly more open with their endearments. "I am so good natured that I believe every flattering word you tell me, therefore do not write more than you feel. your affectionate Friendship is now my only ressource and if I could think that you deceive me I should be miserable," Louis wrote her that February.


When Henry redoubled his efforts to create a scandal around them, it destroyed any hope of their being able to meet again soon. "Somtimes...I am pleased to indulge dreams which can never be realised, I wish to go to Philadelphia [to see Nancy] and soon after i think it better not to go," moaned Louis to Nancy. Her mother-in-law continued to advise cautious behavior in Nancy's social life, "Calumny with her thousand toungues can only be escaped by the wary and wise. By them no male Visitants will be permitted to extend their Visit beyond the hour limited by propriety in its strictest sense, especially if the Lady be alone." In other words, "don't do anything that might cast doubt on your reputation."

The following spring (1790), when it was finally safe enough to deliver Peggy to Margaret Beekman Livingston in New York, Nancy wrote to Louis Otto that there was a chance they could meet. He awaited her arrival for weeks, on tenderhooks lest the opportunity to see his beloved be smashed.

But the meeting was brief and strained by the need for propriety. "So much reserve seems to be incompatible with Friendship and if I was not acquainted with the motive of your sudden departure, I should have atrributed it to a change in your sentiments... At least my dearest Friend, I have seen you, I have conversed with your charming little daughter, I have recalled to my rememberance the delightful moments of former times."



This time was a strained and hard one for Nancy, filled with anxiety about protecting (or losing) her daughter, fear of her husband, distress at the lack of support from her parents, and tantalizingly tempted with the faint possiblity of happiness with Louis Otto. If she could only prove her husband's fault in the failure of the marriage, she could extricate herself and finally find emotional fulfillment beside Louis. But the law favored her husband, and she could in the process lose her eight-year-old daughter Peggy, the one person she loved more than anyone else in the world.




Two painted images have been borrowed from the 18th Century American Women Blog, a womderful source for imagery and analysis of 18th century life.