Wallace Nutting: Father of the Colonial Revival Movement

By Linda Palmer

Wallace Nutting was an American hero, who grew up in poverty without a father. He started his illustrious career as a Congregational minister, but was forced to retire due to ill health. Despite these hardships Wallace came to be known as the “Father of the Colonial Revival Movement.”
He is best known for his monumental “Furniture Treasury”, which became the Bible for every antique collector and dealer of American furniture. His collection of Pilgrim Century furniture was the finest in the country.
In this book you will learn the many facets of Wallace Nutting:
Congregational Minister
Photographer of hand-colored platinum prints
Author
Antique Collector
Historic Preservationist
Reproduction Furniture Maker
Benefactor
Lecturer

The author includes pictures of Nutting’s lovely hand-colored photographs and stories of the colorists who worked for him; details behind his Colonial Chain of Picture Houses; and photographs of his reproduction furniture - treasures for any household.
David McCullough, our beloved American historian, said, “History is a story.”
This is the story of Wallace Nutting.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Linda Palmer
• Release date: Jan 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781949085303

Linda Palmer

Linda Palmer admits it all started when she fell in love with Roy Rogers in the fifties. The family TV was boxy; the picture was black and white. That didn't matter. Roy's cowboy courage won the day and inspired her to  create elaborate scenarios when playing with her sisters and friends outside. Indoors, she read romances in every genre from Sci Fi to Gothic. Linda began writing for pleasure in the third grade, mostly poetry, and has letters from her grade school teachers predicting she'd be an author. Her poems eventually became short stories; her short stories became books. And even though a writing career was never actually a dream, it was something she pursued with intent after winning some writing contests and joining local and national writers' groups. Silhouette Books published Linda's first romance novel in l989 and the next twenty over a ten-year period (writing as Linda Varner, her maiden name). In 1999 she took a ten-year break to take care of her family, but learned that she couldn't not write. She began again in  2009, changing her genre to young adult/new adult paranormal romance. She has now written over a hundred novels and novellas ranging from traditional romance to erotica. Linda was a Romance Writers of America Rita finalist twice and won the 2011 and 2012 EPIC eBook awards in the Young Adult category. She was also a finalist in that category in 2013 and in 2014. Linda has been married to her junior high school sweetheart over fifty years and lives in Arkansas, USA with her family. Ever a hopeless romantic, she still falls for unattainable Hollywood heroes that inspire her to write romances about alpha males and the women who stand up to them. Linda hints that her current crush's name starts with Tom and ends with Hardy. Her website is www.lindavpalmer.com. You can also find her on Facebook: Linda Varner Palmer.

Book preview

WALLACE NUTTING

Father of the Colonial Revival Movement

Linda B. Palmer

No parts of this book may be reproduced or used in any form without permission except for brief quotations used for articles, posts or in review.

Linda Palmer contact information: [e-mail].

ISBN: 978-1-949085-30-3 ebook / 978-1-949085-28-0 hardcover / 978-1-949085-29-7 softcover

LCCN: 2020914275

Copyright 2020 by Linda Palmer

All rights reserved

CKBooks Publishing

P.O. Box 214

New Glarus, WI

53508

CKBooksPublishing.com

Introduction

My revelation of Wallace Nutting came on one of my visits to Framingham, Massachusetts. I stood on the former site of Nuttingholme, located at 24 Vernon Street, now the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church School. I walked down the steps to what was formerly the lower garden, now the Nutting Pathway. Then I walked across the Green to the Plymouth Congregational Church. Frederic A. Wallace, the Framingham Town Historian, drove me to 46 Park Street, the former site of the Wallace Nutting factory. It all made sense. I understood Wallace Nutting.

My research has taken me to:

Williamsburg and Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia

Washington, DC, the Library of Congress, Rare Book Section

Winterthur, Delaware

Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Providence and Cranston, Rhode Island

Berea, Kentucky

New Paltz, New York

Wethersfield, Hartford, Southbury, New Haven, Brookfield Center and Kent, Connecticut.

Saugus, Framingham, Haverhill, Newburyport and Buckland, Massachusetts

North Manchester and Augusta, Maine

Woodstock and St. Johnsbury, Vermont

Nova Scotia, Canada.

I have met wonderful people and learned so much history. My Wallace Nutting Adventures have taught me to appreciate the beauty around me and the importance of preserving history. I had the pleasure of meeting David McCullough at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He said history is a story, and this is the story of Wallace Nutting.

Two Wallace Nutting historians, Joe Duggan and Bob Masoner have allowed me to use some of their extensive research. I greatly miss the friendship and wisdom of George Monro and Willis White. I never had the pleasure of meeting Rudy Parent, but he researched Wallace Nutting genealogy, pictures and furniture on his website, The Wallace Nutting Library.

Thomas Andrew Denenberg, the author of Wallace Nutting and the Invention of Old America, was the former curator of the Wallace Nutting Collection at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut and now is the director at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. Brandy Culp is the curator of American Decorative Arts at the Wadsworth Atheneum. She showed me the Wallace Nutting Collection in storage. Christopher Miller, the Associate Director and Curator of the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky graciously showed my husband and me the Wallace Nutting furniture in the Hutchins Library, Lincoln Hall, administrative offices and in storage. I understood why Wallace and Mariet Nutting loved Berea College.

Unfortunately, I never had the pleasure of meeting Louis McKeil, who lived in Saugus, Massachusetts and met Wallace Nutting as a child. He wrote Wallace Nutting, booklet No. 2, for the Saugus Historical Society. He gave slide presentations with Wallace Nutting’s hand-colored glass slides.

My beloved grandmother, Helen Staub, gave me my first Wallace Nutting hand-colored photograph titled Slack Water taken in Connecticut. Almost every antique shop would have a Wallace Nutting picture hanging on the wall. Then in March of 1988, Dan and I saw an ad for a three-session Wallace Nutting auction in a church in Lee, Massachusetts. It was the famous Gordon Chamberlin Collection. We had never seen so many beautiful pictures! We met fellow collectors who shared our passion for collecting Wallace Nutting, and joined the Wallace Nutting Collectors Club. The Wallace Nutting Collectors Club was started by George and Justine Monro in New Jersey in October of 1973.

When people ask what I collect, I say Wallace Nutting furniture, pictures, books and ephemera. They ask, Who is Wallace Nutting? I hope this book will answer that question.

Wallace Nutting’s greatest accomplishment was his Furniture Treasury. This is the Bible of antiques, but Wallace Nutting did so much more and deserves recognition.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the following people and organizations for their help and guidance in making this book on Wallace Nutting possible.

Kate Ballou

John and Mary Bean

Marion and Harry Bejian

Nell Boucher, Mohonk Mountain House Archives, New Paltz, New York

Nancy Carlisle, Historic New England, Haverhill, Massachusetts

Lorna Condon, Historic New England, Boston, Massachusetts

Brandy Culp, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut

Charles and Doris Dahmen

Valerie Dawes, Manchester Historical Society, Manchester, Maine

Thomas Andrew Denenberg, Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont

Sarah Dennett, Kittery, Maine

Joe and Teresa Duggan

Melinda K. Elliott, Southbury Historical Society, Southbury, Connecticut

Jon Estey, Vermont Standard

Framingham History Center, Framingham, Massachusetts

Framingham Public Library, Framingham, Massachusetts

Anne Guernsey, Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum, Wethersfield, Connecticut

Roger Gonzales, Kent Historical Society, Kent, Connecticut

Bill and Gretchen Hamann

Christine Keleny, CKBooks Publishing

Georgianne Kent

Joan A. LaChance, former Mohonk Mountain House Archivist, New Paltz, New York

Shelley C. Lariviere, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire

Magee Lawhorn, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire

Eric Litke, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Phil Liverant

Louis M. Mackeil

Richard C. Malley, Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum, Wetherfield, Connecticut

Dorothy and Richard Manville

Marianne Martin, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia

Bob and Gladys Masoner

Christopher Miller, Berea College, Berea, Kentucky

George and Justine Monro, founders of the Wallace Nutting Collectors Club

Randy O’Rourke, photographer

Rudy and Pat Parent, Wallace Nutting Library

Baron Perlman

Richard G. Provenzano

Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, Rhode Island

Lucille Riddle, First Parish in Framingham Unitarian Universalist Church

Marie Rovero, Library Acquisitions, Hartford Seminary, Hartford, Connecticut

Donna E. Russo, Historic New England, Boston, Massachusetts

Saugus Iron Works, Saugus, Massachusetts

Jeanne Solensky, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Winterthur, Delaware

Stacy Stachow, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut

Ruthann Tomassini, Framingham History Center, Framingham, Massachusetts

Frederic A. Wallace, Town Historian, Framingham, Massachusetts

Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum, Wethersfield, Connecticut

Wentworth-Gardner House, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Willis White

Cliff Wilson, President of the Ashland Historical Society, Ashland, Massachusetts

Woodstock Historical Society, Woodstock, Vermont

Chapter 1

Who Is Wallace Nutting?

Wallace Nutting was a big man with a booming voice. He was tall and imposing, standing over six feet and weighing more than 200 pounds. He was a perfectionist, practical, with a sense of humor and dry wit. He was known to have a temper. One furniture maker related a story of Wallace Nutting entering the furniture factory to check on production. Not pleased with the workmanship, he picked up a piece of furniture, threw it across the room, and used profanity. He has been described as composed, cultured and handsome with grey hair and darl complexion. He looked you straight in the eye when he talked to you. Wallace Nutting cherished his wife, Mariet, and called her his balance wheel. Wallace Nutting loved doughnuts and usually came to work each day with a bag in hand.

Justine Monro, co-founder of the Wallace Nutting Collector’s Club said, …he was one great man and did a lot in his own way to preserve the world, as it was 1900 to 1930.

Whenever I tell people that we collect Wallace Nutting hand-colored prints, books and furniture, they usually ask, Who is Wallace Nutting?

Wallace Nutting deserves to be recognized and appreciated for all of his contributions to the world of antiques. Antique dealers would tell us, We don’t handle ‘reproduction furniture’.

He has been referred to as the Father of the Colonial Revival Movement. Leigh and Leslie Keno in their book Hidden Treasures state, Nutting was an early and extraordinary collector, and he compiled nearly five thousand images of American furniture, hardware, and household utensils in a three-volume set, first published in 1928…it was our bible.

Congregational Minister

He was a Congregational Minister who retired due to ill health and exhaustion and took up photography. His hand-colored platinotypes hung on almost every wall in America.

Preservationist

He was a Preservationist who purchased and restored five historic homes in his Colonial Chain of Picture Houses.

Antique Collector

Wallace Nutting purchased antiques to furnish his Colonial Chain of Picture Houses with period furniture. He bought an antique shop in Hartford, Connecticut and an antique shop in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Author

Wallace Nutting was an author. His greatest accomplishment was his two volume Furniture Treasury originally published in 1928. Nutting said it cost him $75,000 to publish. Wallace Nutting describes the Furniture Treasury (Mostly of American Origin) as including all periods of American Furniture with some foreign examples in America, also American Hardware and household utensils. It included five thousand illustrations with descriptions. He published ten States Beautiful books. These books included photographs and commentary about eight states and two foreign countries. In 1933 he was an associate editor for Webster’s New International Dictionary and wrote 1200 definitions on furniture and iron hardware. Two copies of his picture book Old New England Pictures, published in 1913, are in the rare book section of the Library of Congress.

Wallace Nutting published his first book, American Windsors in 1917. He describes it as comprising illustrations & descriptions of Windsor Furniture of all periods including side chairs, arm chairs, comb-backs, writing-arm windsors, babies’ high backs, babies’ low chairs, child’s chairs, also settees, love seats, stools & tables.

Lecturer

He was a lecturer who went around the country with his hand colored lantern slides. These were hand colored glass slides of photographs taken by Wallace Nutting. His lectures included historic homes and furnishings, the States Beautiful, gardens, furniture, and colonial scenes. The lectures were given between October 15 and May 15.

Furniture Maker

Wallace Nutting was a furniture maker. He reproduced furniture for the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, which included the Raleigh Tavern, The House of Burgesses and the vestibule of William and Mary College.

Benefactor

He was a benefactor to Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. In 1900 Wallace Nutting delivered the Commencement Address at Berea College. In 1923 he donated $25,000 to Berea College. When Mariet Nutting died in 1944, she left the majority of her estate to Berea College, which included Nuttingholme at 24 Vernon Street, and the furniture factory and business at 46 Park Street, Framingham, Massachusetts.

Genius

Wallace Nutting has been called a genius by Charles T. Lyle, the former Executive Director of the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum in Wethersfield, Connecticut.

Photographer

Wallace Nutting took up photography due to ill health and was on a Quest for Beauty.

He …took some 50,000 pictures in twenty-six states and thirteen foreign countries. They included such subjects as birch trees, apple blossoms, autumnal streams and roads, pastorals, gardens, Colonial interiors of old houses, marines, mountains, churches and architecturals. He destroyed all but approximately 10,000 [glass negatives] that met his rigid standards.

In his own words, I was determined to record, revive and preserve the best in old America. The sale of ten million pictures throughout his lifetime is ample evidence that he accomplished his purpose. In 1980 Willis B. White wrote in his introduction to his book, Wallace Nutting Pictures, Wallace Nutting’s life was the sermon he would have liked to preach from the pulpit, much more than the appreciation of beauty he inspires through his pictures.

Phillips Exeter Academy

Wallace was encouraged by a minister to attend Phillips Exeter Academy, located in Exeter, New Hampshire, from 1880 to 1883, where he decided to become a minister.

Harvard College

Nutting attended Harvard College from 1883 to 1886, but did not graduate.

Campobello Island

During the summer of 1883 Nutting worked in hotel management on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada.

Nantucket, Massachusetts

During the summer of 1884 Nutting worked in hotel management on Nantucket Island at Ocean House, now the Jared Coffin House.

Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts

During the summer of 1885 Nutting worked in hotel management on Martha’s Vineyard at Prospect House, Lagoon Heights, Cottage City.

Seven Lakes, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

During the summer of 1886 Nutting worked in hotel management at Seven Lakes, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado.

Hartford Theological Seminary

Wallace Nutting became a Congregational Minister and attended the Hartford Theological Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut from 1886 to 1887.

Union Theological Seminary

He attended the Union Theological Seminary in New York from 1887 to 1888.

Belleville Avenue Congregational Church

He served as pastor of the Belleville Avenue Congregational Church in Newark, New Jersey from 1888 to 1889

Marriage

He married Mariet Griswold Caswell on June 5, 1888 in Colrain, Massachusetts.

Park Congregational Church

He served as pastor of the Park Congregational Church in St. Paul, Minnesota from 1889 to 1891.

Plymouth Congregational Church

He accepted a call from the