Tag: Harriton House

Francis Perrigo, BMC 26’ 

Museum Studies Fieldwork: Harriton House

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: Harriton House 

Field Supervisor: Laura Carpenter 

Praxis Poster:

HART_FrancisPerrigo_Poster

 

Further Context:

As part of my praxis course, I interned at Harriton House, a local historical site once owned by Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Continental Congress. During my time there, I completed a range of archival projects that deepened my understanding of historical preservation and organizational recordkeeping. I organized and archived the records of Nancy Walker, a former president of the Harriton Association, as well as materials from two related groups: the Music Study Club and the Lower Merion Society for the Detection and Prosecution of Horse Thieves and the Recovery of Stolen Horses. I also transcribed handwritten correspondence from Paul Maier, another past association president, which offered insights into collection management and the vast number of uncatalogued materials that Harriton holds. In addition, I worked with Harriton’s book collection, helping to inventory and preserve its holdings. My work took place both in person and remotely, depending on the nature of each project, and I often juggled multiple tasks simultaneously. Beyond archival work, I had the chance to care for Harriton’s animals and interact with visitors.  

During my internship, I spent most of my time in the Archive Room, which is located in Harriton House. It was slow and meticulous work, but it taught me a lot. I learned quickly that attention to detail and focus are incredibly important, and you need to have a good idea of your organization system going in. Even little choices like how to group things or what to label a folder can make a big difference in your final product. As I sorted through the bins and file cabinets, I started to get a feel for how collections come together. I got better at recognizing different types of letters based on typeface and paper, and I could recognize different handwriting such as Nancy Walker’s. It was quiet and time-consuming work, but it made me realize how important backstage effort is when running a historic house.   

Without the efforts of archivists, many important documents like original blueprints or association bulletins could be overlooked during research. I also learned some basic preservation skills such as flattening, removing paper clips and paper pins, and sorting documents into acid-free folders and archival boxes. It was very illuminating to learn just how much work needs to go into preserving documents, even modern ones. I realized that my ability to focus is a valuable asset that I hadn’t previously considered. I also got better at trusting my judgment, staying organized, and managing multiple projects. It increased my already high regard for archival work and all the effort that goes into archival departments, no matter how large or small they are.

Lily Petteway, BMC 25′

Educational Research and
Interpretation at Harriton House

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: Harriton House 

Field Supervisor: Laura Carpenter 

Praxis Poster:

HART_LilyPetteway_Revised

 

Further Context:

My work at Harriton this semester was detail-oriented and research-focused, contributing to the house’s current goal of reinterpretation for its various visitors. Historical homes are often small, intimate spaces, and Harriton certainly falls into these categories. Located just a few minutes from Bryn Mawr’s campus, Harriton House has been standing since 1704 and is best known as the residence of Charles Thomson, Secretary to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1789. Harriton highlights the critical role that local histories play in shaping historical engagement, interest, and education. 

My work centered upon Hannah Harrison Thomson, the inheritor of the Harriton property and Charles Thomson’s wife. After his political career that took Hannah from city to city, Thomson decided to retire the two to Harriton. My goal was to find as much information on Hannah as possible, whether that be through memorandum books or epistolary commentary on Charles’ political affairs. This had me not just digging through Harriton’s archives, but also visiting Philadelphia-based institutions like the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the American Philosophical Society, and the Independence National Historical Park Library. I sifted through and transcribed any letter I could find that was even tangentially related to Hannah, often having to read between the lines given how much historical commentary is focused on Charles instead. This was quiet, independent work but with a scavenger-hunt edge. Hannah’s letters were frequently witty, irreverent, and full of personality, which made highlighting her story at Harriton an exciting undertaking. 

Towards the end of the semester, I began compiling a Girl Scouts “Playing the Past” activity curriculum for girls aged 9-11 visiting Harriton. This ended up being more challenging than I had imagined as I had to think about how I wanted to interpret and synthesize my research for a younger audience. For the badge, girls visit a historical site and step into the shoes of a woman related to the site. I wanted to include a mix of activities that showed the potential limitations for late-eighteenth-century women but also show how women could still carve out spheres of influence for themselves; after all, Hannah’s life experience was so variant given her sudden shift out of the urban, social sphere into the homestead setting of Harriton. Letter/diary writing, mock portrait making, and exploring the house to locate Hannah’s influences were some activities I incorporated. 

Something I came to appreciate throughout my time at Harriton was how community-oriented the site is. The house is very receptive to outside visitors, nearby residents, volunteers, donors, and members that I frequently got to interact with. Harriton has become a staple of the surrounding community and serves not only to preserve that community’s past, but also consider its future. By hosting numerous events that celebrate Lower Merion’s history, running children’s programs, and even simply caring for the goats so beloved by visitors, Harriton fosters engagement that keeps local stories alive. 

Cynthia Chen (BMC ‘25), Maika Kogawara (BMC ’27), Nayja Shah (BMC ‘27)

Centralizing Data Collection

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: DSCI 310: Data in Action

Faculty Advisor: Jennifer Spohrer

Field Site: Harriton House

Field Supervisor: Laura Carpenter

Praxis Poster: 

DSCI_Harriton House Praxis Poster_Revised

 

Further Context:

For this project, we collaborated with Harriton House, a historic house near the college that housed many influential figures, including Charles Thompson. The Harriton Association maintains it and was seeking access to funding so that it could retain its independent operations. To help Harriton House receive funding, we worked on centralizing their data collection systems, generating headcount forms, and creating guides for staff for easy maintenance.

We primarily used Excel forms, OneDrive, and Excel sheets as our tools for data collection and storage. To gather information from roamers, we created an Excel form with a QR code containing questions about demographics and group sizes. The QR code provides a convenient and accessible way to collect headcounts digitally, requiring only a few taps on a phone.

One major issue Harriton House faced was finding an efficient way to house their volunteer check-in and check-out system. Prior to this project, the Harriton staff had been using paper copies to track volunteer hours, which was not ideal for students in the nearby area to demonstrate their volunteer participation for credits and fund proposals.

We decided to explore Microsoft Excel as the macros function was perfect for our goal of creating an easy, simple, and quick method for volunteers to track their hours. Microsoft Excel is also free on the App Store for volunteers to download and check in and out from their devices. Through trial and error and adapting from codes we found on YouTube channels such as Barb Henderson, we were able to generate a fully automated Excel sheet that can track what time volunteers clocked in and out, and the total hours they worked throughout the week. We implemented volunteer ID numbers as a way for volunteers to clock in and out swiftly. These volunteer ID numbers are unique 4-digit numbers that Harriton staff can assign based on the volunteer’s birthdate. Our hopes for this Excel sheet is for it to relieve the workload off of Harriton staff and have quantitative data on hand for fund proposals. But this spreadsheet only works for regular volunteers. For event-specific volunteers, we created another Excel form for volunteer logins during specific events. Volunteers must record their start and end times on this form.

This project helped cultivate community connections with the Harriton staff, taught the importance of patience, and allowed for the practice of data governance. This praxis, Data in Action, focuses on a variety of topics, one of them being data governance. How do we ensure that the data is being stored safely, not being taken advantage of, and can be reproduced? To implement data governance, we worked to ensure that users consented to their data being used, the information was reproducible, and not identifiable. We informed the people filling out our headcounting survey about why we were asking for this information and asked for their permission to use their information for head counting. Then, in order to ensure reproducibility, we created guidelines, specifically for the volunteer check-in and check-out information. We created instructions on how to clean the dataset and conduct analyses for staff, as well as instructions for the volunteers who were going to fill out the form. The third aspect was fulfilled by creating four-digit ID numbers to identify data rather than using the personal information of people who filled out the forms, preventing re-identifiability.

This project aimed to help digitize the Harriton House’s data and to make it easier for them to fulfill data aggregation to receive funding. We are excited to see the staff use our materials and are hopeful that the Harriton Association will, in due course, receive funding for them to continue operating independently.

Theo Schefer, HC ’24

Early American Scavenger Hunt: Collection Review at Harriton House

Semester: Spring 2024

Praxis Course: HART B420 Museum Studies Fieldwork Seminar

Faculty Advisor: Matthew Feliz

Field Site: Harriton House

Field Supervisor: Laura Carpenter Myers

Praxis Poster: 

Theo Schefer_Poster_FinalSP24

 

Further Context:

At least once in your life you have probably been on a field trip to a local historical house or site. Harriton House is another one of those spaces. Built in 1704 by Welsh Quaker Rolland Ellis, the home is best known as the residence of Charles Thompson, Secretary to the Continental Congress. While the interpretation of the site primarily caters to that period of time, the land was also a dairy farm and tobacco plantation. The current leadership wishes to reinterpret the house to include these stories, but well before any of that can happen a comprehensive inventory of the house is required.

My job this semester has been to conduct a systematic review of the over six hundred pieces of Early American furniture, silverware, and ephemera stored at Harriton House. Moving from room to room, I ensure that the items are where the records say they are located. Once I confirm this information, I go back to the one computer onsite that contains their digital
database and update the metadata with any additional information about the condition of the object. Certain objects have been misplaced and others are not accurately reflected in the catalog. In addition to confirming locations, my job is also to standardize presentation of the data so that
future researchers and directors have an easier time accessing the information that they need.

Data entry is a grueling, but necessary process, built off of the efforts of past archivists and volunteers. Through this experience I have realized that meaningful change, especially for a small institution like that of Harriton House, is built on a meaningful foundation. In order for them to draft a site plan for the house, they must first reflect on what the collection allows them to accomplish. Harriton House is a site in transition, and alongside my primary work it has been an absolute pleasure to watch its current executive director, Laura Carpenter Myers, in action. My workspace is in her office, so I am privy to a large part of her day-to-day tasks. This includes fielding donor questions, coordinating tours, and even taking care of the on-site animals.

Historic houses forge deep ties to their local community and carry unique connections to not just one past moment, but several. Through my project, I am helping Harriton House provide a more in-depth educational experience for curious visitors.