Artifacts

This subseries contains weather vane artifacts and related material, in addition to two awards. Only the supporting documentation for weather vanes is microfilmed. Weather vane artifacts include several hand-carved wooden weather vane molds of L. W. Cushing & Sons, a prominent nineteenth-century manufacturer, along with a copy of the firm's catalog. During the 1940s, Mrs. Halpert noticed an influx of weather vanes on the market, purported to be nineteenth century and priced accordingly; she doubted their authenticity and searched for the source of the questionable antiques. Molds for those weather vanes and others were discovered in 1953 in the yard of a Chelsea, Massachusetts, scrap metal dealer. Mrs. Halpert learned the dealer, who had acquired them from the last surviving owner of L. W. Cushing & Sons, was the innocent source of the "authentic" weather vanes sold in Boston, Maine, and New York. Mrs. Halpert collected the wood and iron molds, wooden models, and tools, and after a year of organizing and assembling the weather vane components, the American Folk Art Gallery arranged for authorized reproductions of the six most aesthetically important models, each in a limited edition of fifty. The wooden weather vane molds found here are rare. While copper weather vanes were created by pressing sheet copper directly onto the molds or hollowed-out forms, wood was not durable enough for repeated use and popular demand soon required mass-production. These highly detailed molds are in fragile condition. Most are incomplete forms such as the heads, legs or torso of various animals; there are also parts of jockeys, wheels, and Columbia (Lady Liberty). Most were identified and numbered by the American Folk Art Gallery. Supporting documentation consists of L. W. Cushing & Sons Catalogue No. 9, circa 1883; a nineteenth-century printed sheet of weather vane designs; and three display boards containing photographs and printed matter regarding weather vane exhibitions and reproductions. The trophy found in this subseries is the First Annual International Silver Prize Medal trophy awarded by the University of Connecticut to Edith Halpert for distinguished contribution to the arts. Established with a grant from the International Silver Company of Connecticut, the award coincided with an exhibit of works from the Downtown Gallery held at the university in 1968. The medal found here is undidentified.