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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240124T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240126T130000
DTSTAMP:20260606T065855
CREATED:20231229T182329Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240124T151005Z
UID:10000041-1706094000-1706274000@wdsmuseum.org
SUMMARY:NYC Trip to The Winter Show and More
DESCRIPTION:TICKET SALES ARE CLOSED FOR THIS EVENT. \nThis January 24-26\, join Executive Director Brenton Grom for a multi-generational experience during Americana Week\, New York’s annual celebration of decorative arts and design! Our VIP itinerary includes a lecture by Sarah Coffin (former Senior Curator at Cooper Hewitt)\, visits with dealers at the 70th Winter Show\, and a tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The general itinerary will be followed by a special segment for the upcoming generation\, who will join Brenton at the Winter Show’s chic Young Collectors’ Night party\, followed by drinks at Chapel Bar\, and the Taylor Swift: Storyteller exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design the next morning. \nThe Winter Show\, held at the stunning Park Avenue Armory\, is America’s premiere art\, antiques\, and design fair\, and features many of the world’s top experts in the fine and decorative arts. Learn more HERE. \nGENERAL ITINERARY (JANUARY 24-25) / \nInformation continues below for the Young Friends portion of the trip. \nWednesday\, January 24\, 2024 \n\n11:00 AM / Lunch at Inside Park at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church (included in registration fee).\n12:45 PM / Lecture by Sarah Coffin (St. Bartholomew’s Chapel)\, retired Senior Curator and Head of the Product Design and Decorative Arts Department at Cooper Hewitt\, Smithsonian Design Museum: “Dining and Diplomacy: Tablescapes and Cuisine as Political Messengers in Empire France.”\n2:00 PM / Tour of historic St. Bartholomew’s Church with church staff\n3:00 PM / The Winter Show (Park Avenue Armory)\, including special commentary from exhibiting dealers.\nDinner and evening activities on your own.\n\nThursday\, January 25\, 2024 \n\n10 AM / The Metropolitan Museum of Art with Brenton Grom and Elizabeth Fox\, Marcia Brady Tucker Fellow at the Yale University Art Gallery. This exclusive tour through the American Winng and recently-renovated British Galleries will focus on the history of period rooms and antiques-collecting\, the future of museums\, and what all of this means for our own Webb Deane Stevens Museum. Participants from the Young Friends’ itinerary will join us n this stop.\n\nTICKETS\nNSCDA-CT & Museum Members: $300 per person. Non-Members: $350 per person. \nIncludes admission to The Winter Show\, the Metropolitan Museum of Art\, and lunch on January 24. Prices do not cover transportation\, lodging\, or meals not included in the itinerary. Click the registration link for information on lodging options. \nPlease note that tickets are non-refundable unless the event is cancelled by the Webb Deane Stevens Museum. It is understood that participation in this event/tour releases The Webb Deane Stevens Museum\, NSCDA\, NSCDA-CT\, WDS staff and volunteers from any responsibility whatsoever for injury or death\, or loss or damage of personal property sustained in connection with an event/tour. \nYOUNG FRIENDS ITINERARY (JANUARY 25-26) \nThursday\, January 25\, 2024 \n\n10 AM / The Metropolitan Museum of Art with a multi-generational group led by Brenton Grom and Elizabeth Fox\, Marcia Brady Tucker Fellow at the Yale University Art Gallery. This exclusive tour begins in the American Wing and continues through the Afrofuturist Period Room and the British Galleries\, which reopened in 2020 following an innovative redesign by Roman and Williams\, a firm acclaimed for its work in hotels\, restaurants\, and retail spaces. We’ll talk about the history of period rooms and antiques collecting\, and what all of this means for contemporary design and the future of museums.\nLunch and afternoon activities on your own.\n6:30 PM / Young Collectors’ Night at The Winter Show (Park Avenue Armory)\, where young design enthusiasts\, collectors\, and philanthropists step out for a night of mingling\, perusing\, and extraordinary fashion. We’ll chat with some dealers along the way in about objects in their booths and meet young leaders in decorative arts and design.\nDrinks at the beautiful Chapel Bar\, a Gothic-revival Sunday School chapel designed in 1867 by James Renwick\, Jr.\, and redesigned as a bar in 2018 by Roman and Williams\, the firm responsible for the British Galleries at the Met!\n\nFriday\, January 26\, 2024 \n\n10:00 AM / Taylor Swift: Storyteller\, an exhibition of the artist’s costumes\, props\, and ephemera at the Museum of Arts and Design. Our tour will be led by MAD staff\, with additional insider commentary from Miranda Head\, Events and Rentals Manager at the Webb Deane Stevens Museum\, who was a member of the team making magic on Taylor’s global concert tour until she joined our team last fall!\nOptional informal lunch and visit to Roman and Williams Guild\, the flagship store of the design firm responsible for the Met British Galleries and Chapel Bar.\n\nTICKETS\n$300 per person. Includes admission to Young Collectors’ Night (a $250 value)\, the Metropolitan Museum of Art\, and the Museum of Arts and Design\, as well as a complimentary 1-year Webb Deane Stevens Museum membership. Price does not include transportation\, lodging\, meals\, or drinks. Click registration link for information on lodging options.
URL:https://wdsmuseum.org/event/nyc-trip-to-the-winter-show-and-more/
CATEGORIES:Members,Trips
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260516T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260516T150000
DTSTAMP:20260606T065855
CREATED:20260220T051902Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260508T175353Z
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SUMMARY:FEUDING FOUNDERS COLLECTIVE | Wethersfield Symposium: The Making of Silas Deane
DESCRIPTION:Walk the rooms where history unfolded. Then hear from the historians who know them best. \nSCHEDULE \n10:00 AM | Welcome & Orientation \n10:30 AM | Tour: Webb and Deane Houses \n12:00 PM | Lunch in the Webb Barn \n1:00 PM | Historian Roundtable \n3:00 PM | Walk to Wethersfield Cove Warehouse with the Wethersfield Historical Society \nRoundtable also available via Zoom—$8 \n\nTICKETS  \nFull Day + Lunch: $55 | $50 Members \nHouse Tours & Roundtable Discussion: $20 In Person | $15 Members \nVirtual Roundtable Discussion: $8 \nMember pricing available to members of all four partner institutions. \nPurchase Tickets \n\nAbout the Symposium \nWe tend to remember the founders as marble men — monumental\, unified\, certain. The truth is messier and more interesting. The Feuding Founders Collective is a multi-site public history initiative that humanizes Silas Deane\, John Jay\, and the Lee brothers of Virginia—men who were in conversation\, in collaboration\, and sometimes in conflict with one another. \nMeet the men behind America’s founding in this daylong exploration of Deane and his relationship to John Jay and the Lee brothers. Tour the Webb and Deane Houses\, then join a roundtable featuring historians from Jay Heritage Center (NY)\, Menokin & Stratford Hall (VA)\, and the Webb Deane Stevens Museum (CT). This is the first in a three-part series across three states. \nHow does a man of middling origins rise to become America’s first diplomat—then plummet to disgrace? How did the Lee brothers leverage Virginia’s planter aristocracy into political influence? How did Jay’s legal prowess place him at the center of revolutionary diplomacy? This is a day for people who want the real story—not the tidy one. \nBegin with a guided tour of the Webb and Deane Houses—stand in the rooms where political debates unfolded and military strategy was weighed. Share a meal in the Webb Barn. Hear from historians representing each partner institution as they build a more layered\, more human portrait of Jay\, the Lees\, and Deane—their relationships to power and to one another. The day closes at the Wethersfield Cove Warehouse\, the very waterfront where Deane built the merchant trade that launched everything. \nIn an era of weaponized media and public takedowns\, these 250-year-old stories feel less like history and more like a mirror. \n\nAttend All Three \nEach roundtable discussion will be livestreamed on Zoom. Attend all events onsite\, online\, or a combination! \nWebb Deane Stevens Museum | The Making of Silas Deane—May 16\, Wethersfield\, CT\nJay Heritage Center | John Jay\, Diplomat and Spymaster—September 26\, Rye\, NY [Register your interest with an email to Suzanne Clary: jayheritagecenter@gmail.com]\nStratford Hall & Menokin | The Lee—Deane Conflict and the Political “Bloodbath” of 1778—November 8\, Stratford\, Virginia \n\n 
URL:https://wdsmuseum.org/event/founders/
LOCATION:WDS Museum\, 211 Main Street\, Wethersfield\, CT\, 06109
CATEGORIES:Learning Series,Lecture,Members,Trips,Colonial History,Special Event,America 250
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ORGANIZER;CN="WDS Museum":MAILTO:info@wdsmuseum.org
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260926T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260926T150000
DTSTAMP:20260606T065855
CREATED:20260312T115143Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260508T175912Z
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SUMMARY:FEUDING FOUNDERS COLLECTIVE | Jay Heritage Center\, NY: John Jay\, Diplomat and Spymaster
DESCRIPTION:Register your interest with an email to Suzanne Clary: jayheritagecenter@gmail.com \nThis event takes place at Jay Heritage Center in Rye\, NY. Attend the full day in person\, or purchase a virtual ticket for the roundtable discussion.  \nWe tend to remember the founders as marble men — monumental\, unified\, certain. The truth is messier and more interesting. The Feuding Founders Collective is a multi-site public history initiative that humanizes Silas Deane\, John Jay\, and the Lee brothers of Virginia — men who were in conversation\, in collaboration\, and sometimes in conflict with one another. \nPresented in partnership with Jay Heritage Center (NY)\, Friends of John Jay Homestead\, and Menokin and Stratford Hall (VA)\, this series destabilizes the one-dimensional portraits we’ve inherited and invites audiences to sit with the full complexity of these lives: the ambition and the insecurity\, the idealism and the grudges\, the smear campaigns and the shared cause. \nIn an era of weaponized media and public takedowns\, these 250-year-old stories feel less like history and more like a mirror — and understanding how the founders navigated political polarization\, character assassination\, and the tension between principle and self-interest may be one of the most useful things the past can offer us right now. Three sites. Three perspectives. Not a story of heroes and villains\, but of imperfect people trying to build something that had never existed before. \nRye Symposium: John Jay\, Diplomat and Spymaster \nHow did our earliest American diplomats accomplish their secret and very delicate assignments abroad? The Jay Heritage Center symposium will focus on the interactions of John Jay\, Silas Deane and the Lee brothers\, Arthur and William\, as illustrated by the decipherable records and cyphers that they left behind. What was the Jay-Deane code and why is John Jay credited by the CIA as being the first chief of US counterintelligence? What controversy put Jay at the center of a legal defense of Deane’s actions in France?  Learn firsthand about the security concerns that prompted the Lee brothers of Virginia to launch public accusations that Deane was a traitor. \nThis is an experience for people who want to hear our whole history. Join us and fellow history lovers for a daylong exploration of 18th century political quandaries and fragile allegiances.  Stand on the very spot where Jay looked out at the horizon during the Stamp Act and imagined a new nation and his own role in shaping it. Contemplate the contradictions he faced in seeking freedom from British rule while his family denied freedom to others who worked the land. Tour the historic Jay Estate gardens followed by lunch at the same place where Jay celebrated the end of the Revolutionary War and his negotiation of the Treaty of Paris. Then hear from scholars representing each partner site as they paint a more layered\, more human picture of Jay\, the Lees\, and Deane — their relationships to power and to one another. The program closes with a walk of the property that inspired James Fenimore Cooper’s Revolutionary War novel\, “The Spy.” \n  \n10:00 AM: Welcome and Orientation (210 Boston Post Road) at Jay Mansion  \n10:30 AM: Jay Mansion Tour  \n11:00 AM: Jay Estate Gardens and Grounds Tour  \n12:00 PM: Lunch break on the Veranda  \n1:00 PM: Round Table Discussion at the Wachenheim Center  \nHour long round table discussion plus Q&A.  Discussion will focus on the early lives and background of the Lee Brothers\, Silas Deane and John Jay.  Each site will give a brief introduction to their founding father(s) and historic site(s).   \n3:00 pm: Tour of the 18th century Lyon Farmhouse exterior and archaeological area.  \n  \nAttend All Three! \nEach roundtable discussion will be livestreamed on Zoom. Attend all events onsite\, online\, or a combination! \nWebb Deane Stevens Museum | The Making of Silas Deane:  May 16\, Connecticut \nJay Heritage Center | John Jay\, Diplomat and Spymaster: September 26\, New York \nStratford Hall & Menokin | The Lee—Deane Conflict and the Political “Bloodbath” of 1778: November 8\, Virginia
URL:https://wdsmuseum.org/event/feuding-founders-collective-jay-heritage-center-the-untold-drama-of-silas-deane-john-jay-and-the-lees-of-virginia/
LOCATION:Jay Heritage Center\, 210 Boston Post Road\, Rye\, 10580
CATEGORIES:Learning Series,Lecture,Members,Trips,Colonial History,Special Event,America 250
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261108T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261108T180000
DTSTAMP:20260606T065855
CREATED:20260312T113657Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260508T180219Z
UID:10000113-1794132000-1794160800@wdsmuseum.org
SUMMARY:FEUDING FOUNDERS COLLECTIVE | Stratford Hall & Menokin\, VA: The Lee—Deane Conflict and the Political "Bloodbath" of 1778
DESCRIPTION:This event takes place at Stratford Hall and Menokin in Virginia. Attend the full day in person\, or purchase a virtual ticket for the roundtable discussion.  \nPresented in partnership with Jay Heritage Center (NY)\, Friends of John Jay Homestead\, and Menokin and Stratford Hall (VA)\, this series destabilizes the one-dimensional portraits we’ve inherited and invites audiences to sit with the full complexity of these lives: the ambition and the insecurity\, the idealism and the grudges\, the smear campaigns and the shared cause. \nHow did a diplomatic dispute become one of the first political media storms in American history? \nJoin us at Stratford Hall in Montross\, VA for a Semiquincentennial conversation on the aftermath of the Lee—Deane Conflict. In 1776\, Silas Deane of Connecticut was sent to France to secure crucial wartime support. He came under fire when Arthur Lee\, a Virginian also posted in Europe\, accused Deane of profiteering and fraud. The matter exploded into the public sphere when Deane fired back\, charging Arthur Lee with spying for the British and sharing information with them. Virginia congressmen Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee found themselves defending their family’s reputation amid a fierce smear campaign that played out in the pages of newspapers up and down the Eastern seaboard. John Jay\, then president of Congress\, was drawn into the dispute as well\, with consequences that would shadow his diplomatic career for years. As accusations and defenses spilled from private correspondence into newspapers\, the reputations of all four men were tested before a watching public. \nThis is a day for people who want to see how the Revolution unfolded not only in congresses and courts\, but in print and in public opinion. Begin the morning with a tour of Menokin\, Francis Lightfoot Lee’s home\, before traveling to nearby Stratford Hall to walk the grounds and tour the house where the Lee brothers grew up. Share lunch and conversation\, then hear from scholars representing all four partner sites—Menokin\, Stratford Hall\, the Webb Deane Stevens Museum\, and the John Jay Historic Site—as they examine how the Deane controversy reverberated through the early republic. This Affair affected the reputations of other “feuding fathers” including Thomas Paine\, Ben Franklin\, and John Adams. It offers a window into the rough-and-tumble politics of the 1770s—and a reminder that the tensions between press\, politics\, and personal reputation are as old as the republic itself. \nSCHEDULE (subject to updates) \n10:00 AM-11:30 AM: Tour Menokin house and grounds\, Warsaw\, VA \n12:00 PM-1:00 PM: Lunch at Stratford Hall\, Montross VA \n1:00 PM-2:30 PM: Hour long round table discussion plus Q&A on the Lee—Deane Conflict with representatives from the historic homes of John Jay (NY)\, Silas Deane (CT)\, Richard Henry Lee (VA) and Francis Lightfoot Lee (VA). \n3:00-4:30 PM: Tour of Stratford Hall \n5:00-6:00 PM: Wrap-up Reception and NNK Symposium Kick off\, Stratford Hall \n6:30-7:30 PM: Talk |  NNK Symposium Keynote [add-on $10] \nPricing: \n$30 | Sun\, 11/8 Day Pass: Includes Menokin tour\, Stratford tour\, Roundtable\, Reception \n$10 | Add-on: NNK symposium keynote on 11/8 and NNK Symposium ticket for 11/9 \n$15 | Roundtable only \n$5 | Virtual admission only to Roundtable \nSpecial: $60: Pass to 11/8 Feuding Founders Symposium + Pass to 11/9 NNK Symposium \nFor more information or to register interest\, email Connie Rosemont at crosemont@menokin.org or Hunter Peal at hunterp@stratfordhall.org \n  \nAttend All Three! \nEach roundtable discussion will be livestreamed on Zoom. Attend all events onsite\, online\, or a combination! \nWebb Deane Stevens Museum | The Making of Silas Deane:  May 16\, Connecticut \nJay Heritage Center | John Jay\, Diplomat and Spymaster: September 26\, New York \nStratford Hall & Menokin | The Lee—Deane Conflict and the Political “Bloodbath” of 1778: November 8\, Virginia \n\nAbout Stratford Hall  \nStratford Hall brings together people from around the world to experience two-thousand acres of natural and human history\, preserved and presented so that we can all learn from the courageous struggles of our ancestors\, taking inspiration both from what they endured and what they accomplished. There are few places in America where people can travel down small\, rural roads to arrive at a vast site that preserves so many aspects of early-American life\, from the Great House where the influential Lee family helped to forge a new nation\, to the fields worked by enslaved Africans\, to the waters of the rivers that fueled trade\, to the ground\, which still yields secrets about the people and animals that lived before. Come experience this extraordinary place and learn about a layered history that began millions of years ago—a history that continues to educate\, inspire\, and influence Americans to the present day.  \nAbout Menokin \nThe Menokin Foundation uses the historic ruin of Francis Lightfoot Lee’s 18th-century home — and the surrounding built and natural environments — as a living laboratory for preservation and public engagement. Rather than recreating the past\, Menokin employs contemporary methods to invite visitors into an active exploration of how America was built and what that history means today. One of the most distinctive historic sites in Virginia\, Menokin reimagines what a house museum can be — and what honest\, provocative engagement with our nation’s founding ideals and realities looks like on the ground. \n 
URL:https://wdsmuseum.org/event/feuding-founders-collective-the-untold-drama-of-silas-deane-john-jay-and-the-lees-of-virginia/
LOCATION:Stratford Hall\, 483 Great House Road\, Stratford\, VA\, 22558
CATEGORIES:Learning Series,Lecture,Members,Trips,Colonial History,Special Event,America 250
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ORGANIZER;CN="WDS Museum":MAILTO:info@wdsmuseum.org
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