Casey's Patch Collection

Longfellow House / Washington's Headquarters

Pretty soon after I moved to Boston -- well, I actually spent my first few months in Waltham -- I took the commuter rail one day from the Waltham station to Porter Square and got on the Red Line to Harvard Square. It was my first time in Harvard Square, and I was not familiar with the area. I made my way down Brattle Street, and low and behold, I found myself standing in front of the home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

It was not until after I had taken the tour of the house that I realized its history was significant in other ways as well. It was at this house where George Washington assumed command of the Continental Army, and it served as his headquarters during the Siege of Boston from 1775-1776. During Longfellow's residence at the house, notable visitors included Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, Charles Dickens, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

Although he is most well known for his poetry and as a scholar, Longfellow was also an abolitionist and published Poems on Slavery in 1842. While working on the Abolitionist Map of America, the Longfellow House / Washington's Headquarters partnered with us to populate the map with historical materials. You can find a lot of their archival images and documents pinned in the Cambridge, Massachusetts area, or by exploring their collections online. 

Longfellow's birthplace is located in Portland, Maine, and the house is operated by the Maine Historical Society. I have visited the historical society on two occasions but have yet to take a tour of his house.

Dartmouth College (and pit-stop at Robert Frost's Farm)

Last Sunday I ventured into New Hampshire to meet up with my mentor/professor/former supervisor/colleague, whom I first and foremost call my friend. We met in Hanover for a lovely visit and walked around the campus of Dartmouth College.

Before she arrived, I found the nearest university memorabilia store to pick up this patch. It was the only one they had, and to be honest, I had no idea what "Tuck" meant or the significance of 1900. This would typically go against my collection development policy -- the acquisition of a patch that may not be relevant to my experience in a city; however, in this case I argued that my visit with my friend gave the patch symbolic value (Who is James O'Toole?)**, and that superceded its lack of evidential or informational value (Who is T.R. Schellenberg?)**. I later discovered that Tuck is the name of Dartmouth's School of Business, founded in 1900. I'm sure my dad (also a patch collector extraordinaire) is shaking his head right now. 

After my friend and I strolled through campus and toured the marvelous Baker-Berry Library, we had lunch at the Pine Restaurant at Hanover Inn. I had such a wonderful visit with her, and I am so glad that we have continued to stay in each other's lives since I finished school. 

After we parted ways, I began the 2 1/2 hour trip back to Boston. Part of the drive is through the White Mountains of New Hampshire and includes one amazing scenic overlook. Once I got back onto I-93, it was still only 2:30 in the afternoon, so I had a lot more time in the day before I needed to get home. I kept my eyes peeled for brown signs along the highway. New England is so full of history that if you travel more than 20 miles on a highway, you're bound to come upon a historic site. And you know what that means -- PATCHES. 

I was almost to Derry, New Hampshire when I came upon a brown sign that said "Robert Frost Farm." I took the exit. I arrived at the farm and was greeted by a very friendly staff person who told me the last tour of the day had just begun, so I paid my $4 and joined the group. Frost lived at the farm in Derry from 1900-1911, and many of his later poems are attributed to his years spent there. Unfortunately, they didn't have any patches at the farm's gift shop, but I suggested it as an addition to their merchandise. Perhaps when I take my pops there next time, we'll have a patch to collect. 

**For those who do not understand, this is archives speak, specifically archival appraisal theory (although I'm actually partial to archival access theory). To learn more about the SLanguage, read my post about LSU or SListers Geaux toux Chicageaux.

Newport, Rhode Island

In January, my boyfriend and I took a weekend trip to Newport, Rhode Island. Also known as the "City by the Sea," the "Sailing Capital of the World," and "America's Society Capital," the small city sits right on the southern coast of Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island. I hear that the city is mobbed all summer by vacationers, so I really enjoyed our jaunt during the winter off-season.

Known for its famous mansions along the water, we first took a tour of Cornelius Vanderbilt's 70-room, 65,000 square foot summer home called "The Breakers." After the tour, we strolled along the gorgeous Cliff Walk, a public walkway bordering the shoreline of the city. Throughout the afternoon, we hosted our own pub crawl and ended up at the oldest tavern in America for dinner, the White Horse Tavern, which opened in 1673.

The next day we visited several other notable historic sites. We took a tour of the oldest synagogue in America, Touro Synagogue, which in 1946 was designated a national historic site. We then took a walk to see one of the oldest baseball fields in the United States, Cardines Field. A local historical debate continues as to whether baseball was played on the field prior to 1900, or if baseball wasn't played there until 1908 -- which is the earliest documentation of the stadium's construction. As we continued our walk, we stumbled across the oldest house of worship in Rhode Island, the Quaker Meetinghouse, established in 1699.

By that time, we thought that we had seen all of the significant historical sites that Newport had to offer. That was until I realized we were walking by the oldest lending library in America, the Redwood Library and Athenaeum!!

Before we left Newport to head back to Boston, we played a round of Geo-caching and found a micro-cache hidden behind the town movie theater, we stumbled across the grave of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and we picked up some truffle oil for Aaron at a local gourmet food store. On our way back to Boston, I navigated us through New Bedford, Massachusetts so that we could make an important pit stop -- Frederick Douglass' first home as a free man.

All this being said, we had a wonderful weekend in Newport! This is just one example of the many adventures we have been on so far and with many new patches to prove it!

LBJ State Park and Historic Site

During the summer after I graduated high school in 2006, I journeyed again with my dad and about 40 middle school and high school history teachers on an NEH Teaching American History Teachers grant summer bus tour. On this trip we visited a number of historic sites all across Texas. On our way to Lyndon Baines Johnson's Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, we made a stop at his boyhood home in the Texas Hill Country near Johnson City.  

In 1965, LBJ donated the land where he grew up to the State of Texas and is now part of the LBJ National Historic Park. The park includes several sites including a visitor's center, his boyhood home, the Johnson Settlement, LBJ's first school, the "Texas White House," the Johnson Family Cemetery, and a beautiful field of wildflowers commissioned by Lady Bird Johnson.  

LBJ's great-grandfather settled there in 1860, and LBJ lived in his home near the original settlement until he graduated high school in 1924. LBJ's first school is located on the ranch, which is also the site where he signed the landmark Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. After Johnson was elected president, he built his Texas White House so that he would have a place to come home to during his administration, and Lady Bird Johnson lived there until her death in 2007. It became open to the public in 2008. LBJ had a deep attachment to his home in the Texas Hill Country and was laid to rest there at the Johnson Family Cemetery in 1973.