Wisteria House is a North Andover, Massachusetts landmark, named for the vigorous vine that has flourished on the veranda for more than 150 years. More properly known as the Field-Hodges House, it belonged to only two families. The last owner, Sarah Moore Field, died in 1988, leaving her home completely furnished and packed to the rafters with the accumulated belongings of three generations and hoping that it would become a historic house museum. It did not. A variety of circumstances required a more creative solution. Wisteria House: Life in a New England Home, 1839-2000 is a key element of that solution. It is a permanent record of the lives lived in a particular house in a particular town at a particular time based on the buildings, furnishings, clothing, personal effects, photographs, correspondence, and financial papers of two upper-middle class families. The text and illustrations address gender roles, childhood and education, household economy, health and medicine, work and leisure, and community history. The themes of public history, preservation, and stewardship underpin the narrative. The story of the Field-Hodges Houses lies at the intersection of well-meaning, devoted amateurs trying to save a beloved old house and professionals charged with the dispassionate consideration of the financial viability and public relevance necessary for a successful historic house museum. The book is unique in that it is the final component of a preservation project. After the building and grounds were secured, the significant collections safely in the hands of public institutions, financial obligations met, and the intent of a Last Will and Testament fulfilled, Wisteria House preserves the history itself. As an example of stewardship, the entire project occupies a notable position in the current debate over the future of historic house museums in America.
About the Author: Susan J. Montgomery has worked in art and history museums for thirty years. While still in graduate school, she was hired as a consultant to evaluate the extensive collections of the Field-Hodges House in 1992, a project that has become a labor of love ever since. While curator at Strawbery Banke Museum, she directed the furnishing and interpretation of Shapiro House, including an NEH-funded interactive CD, Becoming Americans, which earned an American Association of Museums Gold Muse Award. As an independent scholar, she curated exhibitions at the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Hood Museum of Art, the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, and the Henry B. Plant Museum. She has published widely in the field of American Arts and Crafts era ceramics