The Museum Girls Visit Rock Hall Museum

On this past Sunday, a group of friends and I went out to Long Island to visit Rock Hall Museum, a historic house from c. 1767 that none of us had ever heard of.

It was so worth the trip, you guys.

From getting to pet chickens to learning about some more Revolutionary War history to conspiracy theory conversations at a kitschy German food hall to having to climb into a building through the window, one thing is for sure - it's never a dull day when the Museum Girls get involved!

I've had a lot of love in my heart for house museums since working at Winchester, and you all know I love Revolutionary-era history, so of course I was all over it when Lindsey suggested this place for our next Museum Girls (and Guys and Guests) meetup. I was surprised none of us had ever heard of it before - especially with how conveniently close to the Lawrence LIRR station it was! (The walk took less than 5 minutes and passed some other very cute houses!)

Rock Hall is the historic home of Josiah Martin, a former plantation owner from the island of Antigua in the Caribbean. (Yes, this means he was from a slaveholding family - even Rock Hall itself had slaves until slavery was made illegal in New York in the 1820s.) When he started getting up in age (he was 68), he moved with his family to the American colony of New York, leaving his sugar plantation in the care of a manager, and had this home built in about 1767. When Revolution broke out not long after, the Martin family were loyalists.

The harp in this photo is original to the Martin family

Josiah's eldest son Samuel was a doctor in the region, but Josiah positively doted on his granddaughter (I'm not sure if she was Samuel's daughter or what), Mary Elizabeth. In 1771, Josiah called upon Massachusetts painter John Singleton Copley - who also had loyalist sensibilities, though of course the revolution hadn't quite broken out yet - to paint Mary's portrait, a copy of which still hangs in the house just where the Martins would have had it displayed.

Mary's portrait in the dining parlour

A fun fact about the portrait, however - only her head was painted from life. We know this because the spaniel dog (which Mary did not own) and the dress are seen in other Copley paintings, so its likely the body in the painting was a mannequin or another child model. Copley was working in New York City at the time, which was quite a trek to Rock Hall at the time.

When the Revolution broke out, Dr. Samuel Martin was arrested and briefly imprisoned for his outspoken loyalist opinion, and the house was occupied by rebel forces, with Josiah, his wife, and their slaves forced to live among these patriots. (I guess since he was a little old man by this point they weren't exactly threatened by him.) Josiah died in 1778 - so he never got to see his side lose the war - and the house passed to Samuel.

This bedroom was restored to how it may have looked in the Hewlett era

In 1824, the house was sold to the Hewlett family to be used as a summer home. At this point, this section of Long Island - with ocean views - was becoming a bit of a resort town, and Hewlett turned some of the rooms into guest rooms. The Hewletts were not a slave owning family, but they did have an Irish servant girl who slept in the attic, as was common in this time period.

One of the rooms in the museum displayed multiple samplers, some done by the Hewlett girls, my favourite of which was this one done by Susan Hewlett - because it includes a Brooklyn brownstone and I think that's just charming as hell:

One fascinating thing about this museum that I haven't really seen done a lot was its downstairs exhibit on archaeology of the site. Many museums have displays on their archaeology, but with artefacts entombed in glass.

Rock Hall has an open excavation unit, with artefacts displayed in situ, which I think is just an absolutely wonderful way to show kids what archaeological excavation is really like!

Also there were CHICKENS!!!

Eliza and I bee-lining for the back door as soon as our guide asked if we wanted to see the chickens

Rhode Island Reds

Eliza is truly a bird whisperer - this hen came right up to her, clucking softly as Eliza gently lifted it. I think my friend might be a fairy, y'all

We were all starving at this point (for my part, I hadn't eaten since 10 am) so we made our way to a German restaurant called Plattdeutsche Park - German culture filtered through 1950s-era Lawng Island culture. (surprisingly, though - and luckily for me - they had quite a few more vegetarian options than I am used to seeing at a German restaurant!)

Over potato pancakes, giant pretzels, and beer, we spoke for hours about historical interpretation, aliens, ghosts, and conspiracy theories. We caught a couple people listening in to our conversation but I can't fault them for that. What can I say? We're interesting.

Honestly it was such a good excursion for a Sunday. I love these people so much, I'm so incredibly lucky to have such kind and intelligent and unique friends who share my interests and teach me so much!

photo via LindseyLovesHistory - peep me laughing in the background

I'm so excited to see what the Museum Girls, Guys, and Guests do in 2019. And I can't wait to share it with all of you.

-Nym