The Mercer Museum of Doylestown

This museum in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is housed in a concrete castle designed by Henry Mercer, an early archaeologist, collector, and ceramicist. Mercer collected historic tools and other artifacts that demonstrated American industry and crafts, including blacksmithing, butchery, hat-making, and many more.

Cradles and chairs on the ceiling.
Butchery and sausage-making tools.
Firebacks and more firebacks.
Ceramic tiles!

Art and Design of the New York Central Railroad

The other fab Jazz Age exhibit at the Albany Institute of History and Art is Romancing the Rails: Train Travel in the 1920s and 1930s, which focuses on the New York Central Railroad.

It’s cool to see the original paintings for some of their now classic advertising posters. There’s also a lot of items from industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss’s work on the 20th Century Limited, “The Most Famous Train in the World.” Dreyfuss designed everything from the streamlined locomotives to the dinner plates.

Romancing the Rails is on display through February 2022.

Original oil on canvas painting by Walter L. Greene, c. 1927 (right), next to a printed poster used by the New York Central Railroad (left).
Original oil on posterboard painting by Chesley Bonestell, c. 1929.
Glassware (by Libbey) and ceramic dinner plate designed by Henry Dreyfuss for the 20th Century Limited, 1938.

Original designs for the 20th Century Limited’s cars by Henry Dreyfuss, gouache on paper, 1938.
Bar Lounge design for the 20th Century Limited by Henry Dreyfuss, gouache on paper, 1938.

Featured image: Observation Car design for the 20th Century Limited by Henry Dreyfuss, gouache on paper, 1938.

Jazz Age Adventurers: Fashion Edition

At the Albany Institute of History and Art: Fashionable Frocks of the 1920s showcases the adventurous dresses of the Jazz Age.

Silk Evening Coat, 1929.
Quintessential flapper dress in silk and rayon exemplified the “relaxed morals” of the decade.
Chiffon “Bab” dress, c. 1925, Paris.
If you couldn’t afford a Paris original, Montgomery Wards and other department stores provided fashionable alternatives.

Featured image: Silk dress with flower, worn by former Girl Driver of Hospital Truck, D.T.A. Cogswell.

Smithsonian Open Access Program: Martha

Passenger Pigeon mount
Martha the Passenger Pigeon. Source: Smithsonian Institution, CC 0.

To celebrate the Smithsonian Institution’s formal announcement of its Open Access program, which makes almost 3 million digital images and 3-D models freely available, here’s one of Martha (a.k.a. USNM 223979), the last passenger pigeon. Viewed from this angle, she has a bit of an attitude.

Egyptian Artifacts at Glencairn

Some of the Egyptian artifacts on display at Glencairn, a mansion turned museum outside of Philadelphia.

stone head of Sakhmet
Head of the goddess Sakhmet, Karnak, Temple of Mut, New Kingdom, Egypt. Glencairn collection. Source: TCM
Relief of Horus on Lotus and Papyrus Clump. Glencairn collection. Source: TCM
Crocodile mummy, Egypt. Glencairn collection. Source: TCM

Extinct Birds in Ceramic

The New Jersey State Museum‘s Fine Feathered Friends exhibit combines mounted birds from the natural history collection with ceramic birds from the fine arts collection. Two extinct birds, the Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) and the Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), are immortalized by the Stangl Pottery Company/Fulper Pottery Company of New Jersey.

Taxidermied and ceramic birds
Taxidermied Carolina parakeet, ceramic passenger pigeon, and ceramic Carolina parakeet gaze at a life display of two passenger pigeons on a nest. Source: TCM
taxidermied and ceramic Carolina parakeets
Taxidermied and ceramic Carolina parakeets. Source: TCM
Passenger pigeon and Carolina parakeet created by the Stangl/Fulper Ceramic company of New Jersey. Source: TCM
Carolina parakeet
Carolina parakeet. Source: TCM

Medieval Arms at the Cleveland Art Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art has just made over 30,000 images from their collections available for reuse under a creative commons zero license. Here’s a few examples of Medieval arms in their Armor Court.


Crossbow of Elector Augustus I of Saxony, c. 1553-1573. Source: Cleveland Museum of Art, Creative Commons CC0 1.0
Battle Axe, 1400s. Source: Cleveland Museum of Art, Creative Commons CC0 1.0

Left-Handed Dagger or “Main Gauche” c. 1650. Source: Cleveland Museum of Art, Creative Commons CC0 1.0