(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Inside this old inn are objects that date back to the American Revolution.

We'll dig deep into archives that reveal how current events around town and around the world were being chronicled here.

And later, a look into the homestead of one of the most effective American generals of the War for Independence.

This is "Treasures Inside the Museum."

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) Inside of every museum is a world full of stories from the past, and each piece in a collection unlocks secrets from different chapters.

At Longfellow's Wayside Inn, and in the other buildings on the nearby campus, visitors are invited to step back in time.

- It's a special place, and it is everything.

I mean, you can go in each room and look at each little artifact and everything we have, and you know, there's a story behind each one.

But the entire place, because it's been here 300 years, is just special.

All these famous people walk through these hallways and who have visited here, from presidents to movie stars to, you know, all types of celebrities, sports figures, whatnot.

- This inn itself was built around 1702, and it started as a two room homestead, and probably became a tavern around 1716.

And the first family that ran the tavern was David and Hepzibah Howe, and David is the one who's responsible for actually building the inn.

- An inn and tavern was situated on the Boston Post Road halfway between Boston and Worcester, so I guess it was a perfect spot to stop and water your horses and feed them and stop, especially if you wanted to stay overnight.

- [Narrator] The collections here include pieces of art and period furniture, an old piano, and several items that belonged to the original family.

- We're known as the Wayside Inn, but hundreds of years ago, we were known as Howe's Tavern.

And so here we have just some objects that was owned by the family.

And so this piece actually is a recent donation from a Howe descendant.

It was our first donation from 2023 and is a mortar and pestle which would've been here at the inn.

And so this would've been used to grind any spices or grains used to flavor some cooking here at the inn.

And it's one of the only objects actually that we have of the first generation of innkeepers.

If we follow the next generation, a son of David and Hepzibah was a man named Colonel Ezekiel Howe.

He's probably one of the most well-known of the Howe family innkeepers.

And this was his hunting sword.

And he's probably most well known for his involvement in the Revolutionary War.

On April 19th, 1775, when the British had walked from Boston or Concord to try and seize military supplies from the American colonists, a Concord express rider had come and sounded the alarm, and so Sudbury received the alarm around 3 or 4:00 AM, and immediately, all the men mustered into service.

And so Colonel Ezekiel Howe led two of these companies, and by 9:00 AM, they had reached Concord.

And so we have his hunting sword here.

This is different from a military sort in that it was smaller and much lighter, and would've been just used on any type of hunting expedition, but it also kind of was used for ceremonial and decorative purposes, so you have a really beautiful ornate handle.

We also have a silver pocket watch.

This belonged to Colonel Ezekiel Howe's son, Ezekiel Jr. Now, Ezekiel Jr. was not an innkeeper, but he did also participate in the Revolutionary War.

And so one of the most pivotal battles was the Battle of Saratoga in Upstate New York in 1777.

And according to family lore, Ezekiel Jr. was severely injured in that battle, and fearing that he would die, he purchased this pocket watch from an officer in Burgoyne's army for 30 silver dollars, and with the intention of sending it back to his betrothed, Sarah Reed.

But of course, he did not die.

He recovered and returned home, and they were married.

We can't verify the accuracy of that story.

It's been passed down through generations of family lore.

But part of my job here as the archivist and historian is to sort of parse through the lore and tell fact from fiction.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] For museum curators, the detective work is never done.

Take the case of this pianoforte.

In the 1860s, the last of the Howe innkeepers passed away, and much of the belongings were sold off at auction.

This piece was bought by a local antique dealer, and it stayed in the area.

60 years later, Henry Ford purchased the inn with the intention of creating a living museum.

Ford was looking to reacquire pieces that had left the inn.

He bought back the piano and had it refurbished.

But that's only part of the story.

- This pianoforte belonged to Jerusha Howe, who was of the last generation of the Howe family, owners of the Wayside Inn.

And this pianoforte would have been made by Alpheus Babcock in 1821.

When we've had analysis of this piece, we've learned that there are some markings on the keys, which lead us to believe that this is the fifth instrument that Babcock made in Boston.

Boston and Philadelphia around the early 19th century were the places that pianos were being made.

Prior to that time, pianos would've been imported, so this is an American made piece.

And if someone were to own a piano, it would show your wealth, a place of refinement.

The early 19th century was the age of refinement.

And I should say that this is the first piano to have arrived in Sudbury, and Jerusha was probably in her 20s at that point, and so she would've used this piano to entertain guests.

She would've played the piano in the parlor for those staying over.

Popular songs would've been "The Copenhagen Waltz" or "The Battle of Prague".

And she also, we know from newspaper accounts and stories, that she had a beautiful singing voice as well.

So, that was her role, as one of the early hostesses, you know, inviting guests to enjoy.

It must have been wonderful to hear her playing, you know, because it was such an unusual sound to have available.

(whimsical music) (whimsical music continues) (whimsical music continues) - [Narrator] Piecing together over 300 years of history has been the collective work of generations of archivists and curators.

Even today, the staff at Longfellow's Wayside Inn is still uncovering new stories.

Archives that sat for years undisturbed are getting a fresh look.

Reexamining the numerous documents and photographs is the job of archivist, Lauren Prescott.

- This is one of the highlights from our archival collections.

Between 1929 and 1950, the women, the hostesses who ran the front desk, were writing these daily journal entries about what was going on at the inn.

Now, this could be very mundane, from what the weather was to something of national importance, say, the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

And they're really almost like a scrapbook.

So we have entries, but sometimes we have photographs as well.

So here we have photos from the very first wedding that took place in 1940 in the Martha-Mary Chapel.

Some beautiful old images of the inn that some of the staff took.

This talks about the outbreak of World War II, and it talks about conscription in 1940.

We have some mention of King Edward VIII's abdication in 1936.

We have an entry about the Lindbergh baby kidnapping in 1932.

(gentle music) Wednesday, March 9th, 1932.

"The attention of the whole world is centered upon the safety and return of one little baby boy.

One editorial expressed it in such a way to convey the idea that this world isn't such a bad place after all, when the affairs of the nation are forgotten temporarily while the search is being carried on.

Inn folks are greatly concerned over the outcome of the affair because we feel as if we knew the Lindbergh family as a result of the interesting visit Mrs. Evangeline Lindbergh made with us a few years ago."

This really gives you an idea of what was going on at the inn and what people were talking and thinking about at that time, and it's a great way to step back into history and see what was going on.

What people were thinking, what was important for people, why, you know, what the guests were talking about at the time.

Henry Ford wanted people to, the people who worked here, to keep journal entries.

He also required the boys of the Wayside Inn Boys School to write daily journal entries as well.

Unfortunately, those are not digitized, but they are in our archive.

I'm not sure why he required it.

There also, I believe, is a copy in Detroit at the Henry Ford Museum of these journal entries, but these are the originals.

And it's so great that he did require it because this is one of the key highlights from our collections here at the inn.

- [Narrator] In another display on the second floor, two fans and a small ticket are part of an exhibit designed to add clarity to an often misunderstood resident.

= This tiny scrap of paper is over 200 years old, and you know, it's surprising that it hasn't been lost to history or just thrown out over the years.

It's a ticket to Adam Howe's ball.

Adam and Jerusha Balcombe-Howe, they were the third generation of Howe innkeepers, and they loved to entertain and host guests here at the inn.

And so they built a much larger ballroom in the early 19th century, and to celebrate that, they had a large ball on January 27th, 1819.

So we have this, I'm not sure when we got it into our collection or when it was donated, but it's one of, I think, a prize item even though people might just look at it and just overlook it for something more interesting like one of the fans.

These fans belonged to Jerusha Howe.

She was the eldest daughter of Adam and Jerusha Balcombe-Howe.

And she's probably one of the most misunderstood people here at the inn.

So people know her as the Belle of Sudbury.

They also know her as apparently the ghost residing in room number nine.

But one thing that we wanted to do here was really uncover who she was as a person.

So we know that she was into music and singing.

She played the piano.

She loved to write, she was a family historian, she did a lot of genealogy research on her family.

We're just very lucky to have some of her objects in her collections.

And fans in themselves were kind of interesting because they had practical purposes, obviously you wanted to cool off, but you could use it for nonverbal communication.

You could signal to someone across a crowded room.

You could show approval or disapproval to a potential suitor.

And so fans had several uses.

This one in particular is my favorite just because it does have this beautiful scene depicted, but also there's this really beautiful mirror here, so I think of it as a 19th century fancy compact.

(gentle music) - And here we have our temporary exhibition gallery, the Jerusha Howe Gallery.

And one of our favorite pieces to show in this exhibition is the presidential sap bucket.

And this sap bucket belonged to Calvin Coolidge.

It would've been made around 1780 for Calvin Coolidge's great-grandfather, John Coolidge.

And John Coolidge was one of the founders of Plymouth, Vermont.

So in 1924, Henry Ford was going on a northeastern state tour with his friends, Thomas and Mina Edison, his wife, Clara, too, and Harvey and Russell Firestone, and they all went up to Plymouth, Vermont, to meet up with Calvin Coolidge.

And one of the things that Ford wanted to do when he got here was outfit the inn with antiquities of everyday life.

And so Coolidge, knowing this, gave Henry Ford his prized sap bucket.

And so while the gentlemen were all together, they all took turns signing the bottom of the bucket.

And Calvin Coolidge himself had inscribed it with these words, made for and used by John Coolidge, one of the original settlers of Plymouth, Vermont, died 1822.

Also used by Calvin Coolidge in sugar lot when he was a boy at home.

So what you're looking at is the bottom of the bucket.

There is a hook on the top side that would've hung from the trees to collect the sap.

After the visit and after the tour, Henry Ford took the sap bucket back to Dearborn, Michigan, where he had amassed a great collection.

While he was there, one of his friends came to visit.

It was the Prince of Wales, Edward VIII.

And in showing the sap bucket to Edward VIII, Prince of Wales said, "I'll sign the bucket too."

So we also have his signature as well.

(gentle music continues) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] In 1923, when Henry Ford bought the inn, he expanded the property to almost 3,000 acres with the intention of creating a living museum.

He added a one room schoolhouse that was reportedly the inspiration for the rhyme, "Mary Had a Little Lamb".

A fully functioning gristmill was built on the site, and to this day, the flour and cornmeal is still used to make rolls and muffins at the inn.

And in 1940, a small church was built.

- So this is the Martha-Mary Chapel.

When Henry Ford came to Sudbury, to the Wayside Inn property, he wanted to build a village.

And this village would have been one of the first outdoor history museums in the United States.

Every good New England village has the quintessential white chapel.

But in 1938, that was the year that a major hurricane stormed its way through New England.

And on this grassy knoll, where the chapel now stands, there were tall white pine trees.

After the hurricane, the day after, all that was there was the litter from the big trees all around.

And so Henry Ford, with some instructors from the Wayside Inn Boys School and with students from the Wayside Inn Boys School, endeavored to build the chapel from the wood, from the trunks, from the felled trees.

And there we have the Martha-Mary Chapel, so named for his mother and mother-in-law, Martha and Mary.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) The whole church would've been modeled after an English style church.

Christopher Wren was the architect for the church of the style that Henry Ford fell in love with.

And this Martha-Mary Chapel is the fifth of sixth that he built around the country, all named Martha-Mary Chapel.

- [Narrator] More than three centuries after travelers were first welcomed here, Longfellow's Wayside Inn is still hosting guests.

And in the tradition of Longfellow, Thoreau, and others, artists are still drawn to this place, where a piece of America's past is being preserved for future generations.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) This is the homestead of Revolutionary War hero and native Rhode Islander, General Nathanael Greene.

The home is filled with period pieces and treasures that tell the story of one of Rhode Island's famous families.

- So this house was actually built in 1770.

This right here is Nathanael Greene, Major General Nathanael Greene.

He was actually Washington's number two throughout the Revolutionary War, starting at Valley Forge in 1778.

This particular painting right here is the only known portrait that he actually sat for.

- [Narrator] This original painting has survived for over 200 years, as well as an important part of this uniform.

- The red piece that you're seeing right here, most called it a sash.

It started with General Washington.

He actually grabbed a blue one that he called a ribbon.

And it was a ribbon to distinguish himself, is what he said.

Both General Greene, and Colonel for most of the war, but General later on, Knox, had a red sash that they would wear.

So this red sash is right here, right in front of me.

This is a red silk sash that has actually lasted through the time and been passed down.

So this sash is over 250 years old.

It was made during the Revolutionary War.

And the fact that you can see some red in here is very amazing, 'cause both velvet and silk, and especially the color red, don't last any kind of light hitting on it.

But here we are, we're looking at it red, and you can see some of the gold, which much of the color it should be after it fades after a while.

So we're really lucky to have this in the first place, but also have it with the color shown as what he was wearing it, We're really excited to have it on display here.

And this is Nathanael Greene's actual powder horn that he carried through the Revolutionary War.

So two of the things that he carried for the whole eight years when he was in the war is right here on his table.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Much of what we know about Nathanael Greene and his family come from the letters he wrote, and the correspondence written here in his Coventry home.

- This piece here is actually a desk that was owned by the general himself.

He's said to have sat here and wrote many of letters to friends, to the general, to George Washington.

To us, it's important just because of the fact that we know it was owned directly by the general.

I think some of the simplicity in this desk is the fact that they did kind of, being a Quaker family, Quakers weren't flashy people, so they weren't very often, you know, with the most fancy things.

And I think that it really was just the simplicity and the use of just, it's a desk.

It doesn't need to be an elaborate, grand, beautiful thing.

And to think that we have something that he would sit here at and study and read and write all of these wonderful letters such as this one here, it's just really cool to think that this was personally used by him at some of his most hard times, and even good times.

- [Narrator] Today, a treasure sitting on Greene's desk is a reminder of the family business.

- The family was known for making ship anchors.

Being, again, of a Quaker family, they didn't believe in making tools of violence, so there was no cannons being manufactured here, no things of that nature.

They were known for making their ship anchors.

Nathanael would often make small trinkets such as this, kind of as like an original Rhode Island souvenir, if you will.

He would often either sell them or trade them for extra book money.

At the time, he had a large collection of books, about 250 books, one of the largest collections at the time.

So he would sell these to kind of help fund his book habit.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - [Narrator] On the second floor of the home are several bedrooms, each interpreted as it might have been used by different members of the family.

Also tucked away in some of these spaces are hidden heirlooms.

- Right now, we are in General Greene's bedroom.

We know this to be General Greene's bedroom because in the 1808 will of Jacob Greene, Nathanael's brother, who also lived in this house at the same time he did, it is listed that he gave this room, which was known then as the study chamber, also the room of his late brother, Nathanael, to his daughter, Julia Greene.

We do have a shirt that we have been told belonged to him as well.

It's very important to make sure that the oils on your hands don't get on delicate fabric like this, especially 'cause these shirts are over 200 years old.

So this shirt here, this shirt we believe was belonged to Jacob Greene.

It was made sometime in the late 1700s, early 1800s.

It's very difficult to place it with an exact date without like a, you know, a year embroidered somewhere on it, or his name or anything.

But it was definitely a much nicer shirt than your average everyday work wear shirt.

It's made out of a very nice fine linen.

Has a beautiful heart here embroidered on the chest piece.

And it has all little hand embroidered pieces going all through it.

And then also on that end as well, we have the very nice gathered under the collar here, and the fabric covered button as well.

This is one of the pieces that you wouldn't always necessarily see in our museum displayed.

Part of that is due to the fact that it's very difficult to actually properly display items such as this because they often require a very large, large footprint to set down on.

We don't always have that kind of room here, but we do have a lot of very nice, very old pieces of textiles that we keep stored away that we try to keep on top of making sure that they stay safe for preservation and for study.

More for the educational aspect of it too as well.

I like to consider these things treasures because they seem to be the most personal of all the effects that we have in the house.

You know, you look in a bed, you look in a dresser, and it's a bed or a dresser.

But then you look at a shirt like this and you see sweat stains and blood stains and you see all these different things that actually showed that these were used by people, it's just something that over time, it's something that you really, truly kind of lose if you don't have that kind of access to being able to see it and study it and learn about how it was made.

It's a different way of life than we actually know nowadays.

People go to the store nowadays and buy clothes, they throw them away in two years.

I mean, these people were using clothes that, first of all, they made the fabric for, had to sew, and then from there, they held onto them until they fell apart.

There's dresses in places I've seen in different museums that were made in, like, 1780, that were altered all the way into the 1880s, and they were just continuously altered and changed and remade until they weren't useful anymore.

(no audio) - [Narrator] The Nathanael Greene Homestead is rich in history.

Each exhibit is a reflection from a different chapter of the American story.

There are countless examples of original period pieces.

Many of them are original to the home, and many are very personal.

(gentle music) - This fan here was a gift from Nathanael to his beautiful wife, Catharine Littlefield Greene when they were married on July 20th of 1774.

The fan is made of a beautiful silk and baleen, or for those not familiar, like, whale teeth, if you will.

Very beautiful piece, very lucky to have it.

Nathanael's wife, when they were married, she was 19, he was 33.

She was said to be the love of his life.

She was a very outgoing woman, very flirtatious, kind of charismatic, if you will.

So this was a piece given directly to her from him.

- [Narrator] Another part of the textile collection not often displayed is this set of delicate lace baby bonnets that belonged to the great granddaughter of Nathanael's brother, Jacob.

They helped to piece together the story of one family that had a lasting influence on the local area and the new nation.

Stories that have been passed down through generations and are now preserved in this house museum in Rhode Island.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (gentle music) (upbeat music)