REVOLUTIONARY PIECES TO SEE
suggesting that it descended through the James Prince family of Newburyport. Most likely part of a dining room set, the chair is a symbol of Prince’ s status and wealth as a prominent merchant, banker, and shipowner. American antique and furniture collector George Alfred Cluett, whose shirt-making business in Troy, New York, became the Arrow Shirt Company, acquired the chair around 1930.( Cluett was a Williams College alum.) His daughter Florence Cluett Chambers inherited the chair upon Cluett’ s death in 1955 and donated it to the Clark in 2001.“ As luck would have it,” explains Goodin,“ there’ s a wonderful painting at the Historical Society of Old Newbury of James Prince and one of his sons, in which he is sitting in a chair with black horsehair upholstery. It’ s not the Clark chair, but it gives us a sense of the type of furniture in the Prince household, what the upholstery would have looked like, and how they might have decorated their house. I’ m excited about reupholstering this chair in the near future.”
The seed for the Burrows Gallery and its extraordinary collection was planted in 1975 when Henry Burrows, also a Williams College alum, was asked to lend his American silver to the Clark for a display to mark the Bicentennial the following year. Henry and Libby Burrows agreed to anonymously lend pieces in their collection to the Clark, a relationship that continued after Henry died in 1988 until Libby’ s passing in 2003, when she bequested the entire collection to the Clark.
“ What started in 1976 grew throughout the years,” says Goodin.“ The Burrows would stop at the Clark as they traveled between their homes in New Jersey and Vermont, swapping new purchases for display with older items that had been on view. As an engineer and antique car collector, Henry was interested in the mechanics of the silver pieces. Libby was a fantastic researcher. They were thoughtful collectors and very good friends to the Clark.”
A selection of the Burrows silver collection was originally displayed in the Clark’ s Museum Building, with much of
Gilbert Stuart, George Washington, 1796 – 1803, oil on canvas, Clark Art Institute.
REVOLUTIONARY PIECES TO SEE
Gilbert Stuart’ s portrait of George Washington( 1796 – 1803)
A silver tankard created by Joseph Richardson, Jr. and Nathaniel Richardson commemorating the first national celebration of Thanksgiving( 1782)
A portrait by Christian Gullager of Revolutionary War veteran Major Benjamin Shaw( c. 1789)
An earthenware coffeepot by Enoch Wood and Sons commemorating the Marquis de Lafayette( 1825-1840)
A case highlighting tea and coffee wares, including pots, cannisters, and tea and caddy spoons
Paul Revere, Jr.’ s silver, including the cann( 1775), a sugar bowl and cover( 1795), caster( 1775), porringer( 1780), papboat( 1794), and punch ladle( 1797)
it in storage until the Burrows Gallery opened in the Manton in 2017, where nearly the entire collection is now on view. Several years later, then Decorative Arts Curator Kathy Morris and Goodin started to dig deeper into the objects on display, exploring their history.
“ We wanted to tell the stories that are not readily accessible; stories that are often not pursued because they are difficult,” explains Goodin. In the fall of 2022, they began replacing a selection of the original labels with new ones that address questions of labor, natural resource extraction, and other social and political concerns. How were tea, silver, and mahogany harvested or extracted and under what conditions? Was enslaved labor used to acquire raw materials, fashion objects on display, or finance the purchase of a silver piece?
“ The new labels, identified by the symbol of a goblet, detail the larger political and social context during which these objects were made,” Goodin continues,“ and the effort to expand our narrative is ongoing.”
The Clark is just one of several museums in the state that are part of the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism’ s MA250 commemoration. In the Berkshires, Norman Rockwell Museum’ s exhibit Visions of a Nation: 250 Years from the Revolution to Rockwell opens June 6, embodying American ideals of democracy, diversity, and everyday life.
The Stockbridge Library, Museum & Archives is home to documents and artifacts from the Revolutionary War. The Bidwell House Museum in Monterey provides encounters with history and early American home life from Memorial Day to October, including battle reenactments. In the eastern part of the state, The Concord Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and other museums offer myriad MA250 programs, events, and exhibits, including significant Revere silver and the lantern from his midnight ride that can be viewed in the Concord Museum. In addition, historic sites, trails, and parks across the Commonwealth are celebrating America’ s birthday with special events that continue well past July 4th. Visitors will find MA250 labels all across the state in a variety of venues. n
For a complete listing of MA250 events, visit massachusetts250. org. And for up-to-date information on the talks at the Clark, go to clarkart. edu.
32 // BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE Spring 2026