Old Sturbridge village

by Kent McCallum

Old Sturbridge Village presents a vivid and unforgettable portrait of life in a country village in early-nineteenth-century New England. It takes the reader from the rustic farmhouse kitchen to the genteel parlor in the finest house on the Village Common, from the blacksmith shop with its ringing hammers to the rural printing office with its bookstore, stopping along the way to examine and explain home furnishings and decorative arts, costume and dress, food and cooking. Utensils, and implements and devices of all sorts. Eight well-illustrated chapters explore the historical background of changing New England: farming with its seasonal tasks and customs; women's lives and their households; mill neighborhoods; artisans and rural industry; the center village, more attuned to the winds of change emanating from the cities; community events; and the story of Old Sturbridge Village itself, where a rural community of the 1830s has been. Re-created down to the smallest details. This outdoor mu