Metaboston

Can the Gardner Museum Overcome the Touch of Evil?

Abby Goodnough looks at how the Isabella Gardner Museum is trying to overcome the legacy of Gardner's restrictive will and the devastating unsolved theft.

"[T]he museum has labored in recent years to shed its fusty image and move past the theft that has, for better or worse, given it a reputation of being “touched with evil,” as Douglass Shand-Tucci, who wrote a biography of Gardner, once put it. Its latest goal, a 65,000-square-foot new building designed by Renzo Piano to sit behind Gardner’s century-old mansion, is the boldest yet.

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Now, in a victory the Gardner had been awaiting for months, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled on March 4 that the museum can depart from the strict parameters of Gardner’s prickly will. It called the expansion a “reasonable deviation” from the will because it is in the public interest to protect the building from overuse.

According to the will if the arrangement of any of the museum’s holdings changes, the entire collection, the building and the land beneath it must be turned over to Harvard.

Goodnough's article presents a museum that seems to labor under the legacy of a Jamesian secret history.  Although the thefts are a subject of recurring interest they seem to have infused the museum with melancholy in this presentation. 

It does seem too bad that very particular and eccentric museums like this have to be improved with the worst example being the plan to move the Barnes Collection.  That said, the Gardner's plans to expand and bring in new blood come across as a form of exorcism here.

A Family Confronts Its Slave-Trading History in Rhode Island

 What would you do if, like Katrina Browne, you found out your family, the DeWolfs, made their fortune as the U.S.'s most prominent  slave-traders?  It's quite a revelation, particularly if your family is not from Mississippi but from Rhode Island, the Deep North as she calls it.

Browne looked into her family's history and made a film about it.

Leonard Lopate discusses the movie with Browne in the show above.

One of her cousins Tom DeWolf has also written a book looking into his experiences with the revelation and investigation in Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History.

An interesting aspect of the whole story is the discussion of how invested the North was with slavery.

J. Press to Sell at Urban Outfitters (!)

 

New England preppy clothiers LL Bean and J. Press (!) may soon be selling their wares at Urban Outfitters as part of a new trendiness for American heritage brands.

With their tough, dry-finish tin cloth, worsted wool and traction-tread heels, these clothes are the antithesis of throwaway cheap chic, which makes them particularly attractive when dollars are short. They are nostalgic, playing into an insatiable appetite for all things retro. But they are also a blank canvas for a number of subcultures, including neo-grunge, preppy, hip-hop and surf 'n' skate, whose common value is authenticity.

Neo-grunge was the starting point for Urban Outfitters when it began buying into the Americana trend two years ago, trading $200 premium jeans by Diesel for skinny Levi's and flannel shirts. In the last year the store has added Filson, Red Wing, Bass, Sperry and Patagonia to the mix. This summer, it will introduce Reyn Spooner shirts with a younger, slimmer fit, and possibly some pieces from Pendleton, L.L. Bean and J. Press.

It's interesting to think of a purveyor of suits and bowties like J. Press selling at Urban Outfitters, purveyor of ironic Urkel t-shirts. via the very good A Continuous Lean.  (Image:  J. Press) 

Quirks and odd traditions of the Harvard-Yale game

Quirks and odd traditions of the Harvard-Yale game that overwhelm who wins (Harvard this year).

New York Observer visits New Haven for Harvard-Yale Game

New York Observer visits New Haven for Harvard-Yale game in search of snark

Malcolm Gladwell: Get Rid of Harvard (and Yale and Princeton)

Malcolm Gladwell:  Get rid of Harvard (and Yale and Princeton) part of a new trend:  Hating the Ivy League. 

The spur comes from Malcolm Gladwell who recently made a dramatic argument:  "that Harvard, Yale, and Princeton should be made extinct (the other five Ivies can, presumably, rest easy). The heart of his argument was that the Big Three do a lousy job of promoting social mobility. He also asserted that they have come to be valued as "consumption preferences" rather than places where people, you know, go to learn."

Marketing Toothpicks: Another Massachusetts Innovation

Charles Forster, of Charlestown, took toothpicks from whittled objects to mass manufacture through clever marketing: 

"To get toothpicks into restaurants, Forster hired Harvard men. After they had finished dining on Forster's dime at a local establishment, such as the Union Oyster House, they demanded wooden toothpicks. When they were told none were available, the students raised a ruckus and vowed never to eat there again. Naturally, when Forster came around some days hence, the restaurant manager purchased boxes of toothpicks to distribute to his customers." (Image:  Voodoo Toothpick Holder available from The Green Head)

Did Hooters Close in NE Because of Puritanism?

Hooters has shuttered its New England outposts in a rare setback for the popular casual eatery/oglery.  Marketplace turns to Bentley College marketing prof Andy Aylesworth for guidance and receives some dubious-insights: 

We're the home of the puritans, the Salem Witch Trials, Hahvud, Boston Bluebloods. From a demographic point of view, I'm not sure that Hooters in New England is a good fit.   

I think we can agree that cultural reasons lie behind Dubai's rejection of a proposed Hooters.  But the northeastern failure will more likely be traced to management or finance problems and not the disdain of Boston Brahmin descendants ensconced in Beverly Farms.

First of all, the Hooters at issue were in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York and Massachusetts so a Bostonian focus is too narrow.  Besides has this professor ever been to Lansdowne Street, Boylston Street, etc?  Second several Hooters are prospering in preppy Connecticut.  Third, Hooters is biggest in the Bible Belt and religious South which would seem to be a more vibrant cultural norm than puritanism up here.  Sounds like a cute story but doesn't make much sense.

Podcast Visit to Boston Athenaeum

The entertaining and intelligent Boston Behind the Scenes podcast pays a visit to the Boston Athenaeum on the occasion of their 200th anniversary exhibit.  It's a thoughtful look at this unique institution in Boston, a membership library housed in a beautiful building on Beacon Hill and founded by Boston Brahmins that is open to the public.  Host Adam Weiss explores the history of the Athenaeum and its relationship with the Boston Public Library, the MFA and the city itself before looking at some of the highlights of the exhibit.

View a digital selection of the exhibit that includes diverse material like paintings by Gilbert Stuart, 18th century charts of Boston Harbor, and etchings by Goya.

Granary Burying Ground and Guerilla Marketing

Another guerilla marketing campaign gone awry but this time one that actually threatened some harm to a historic Boston cemetery.  Unlike the Mooninite fiasco in which police mistook ad lights for bombs, "Dr. Pepper held a 23-city hunt for coins that would ultimately lead to a $1 million prize. Contestants would find codes under bottle caps, enter those codes into a special website and be given additional clues to physical locations throughout the 23 cities where they would find the coins."  One of the final coins was hidden in the Granary Burying Ground but Dr. Pepper "canceled the campaign after hearing Boston officials had closed the 347 year old Granary Burying Ground (originally closed due to icy paths, not the contest), the location of one of the final coins. The cemetery stayed closed once officials realized all the people trying to get in were in search of the coin, not to tour grave sites."

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Podcasts

Although the recent closing of Tower Records has gotten some classical music fans down, there are positive signs for classical music and new technology.  A prime example:  the music podcasts from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.  The Gardner is famous for its benefactor's requirement that nothing in the museum (her former house) change when she died.  Yet the Gardner is now getting attention with podcasts of its long-running concert series.  Not only are the concerts downloaded at a remarkable rate but the project is also getting attention from music critics and the high-tech business press. (via HubArts.com)

To be fair, the Gardner also has a program which brings in a contemporary artist to work within the museum's space and works.

Gardner podcasts are available here and from iTunes.

Boston's Rat Day

The campaign against Boston's rats that continues to this day began on February 17, 1917 in earnest when a group of reforming upper-class women formed the Boston Municipal Women's League and targeted rats (and flies) as the the enemies of  Boston's cleanliness.

Gourmet Magazine's Best Restaurants in Boston ... and the Area

Gourmet's October issue features the return of its list of the 50 best restaurants in the U.S.  The magazine composes the list every 5 years and there are a few changes since the last one in 2001. 

The Boston and New England members of the 2006 list are the revitalized version of old Boston landmark Locke-Ober (hopefully they'll update their website soon) jumping on to the list at (18) and stalwart No. 9 Park at (43).  Maine is the only other New England state to feature on the list with Arrows of Ogunquit at (14) and Fore Street of Portland at (26).

Changes since 2001
Fore Street has dropped from its 2001 rating of 16 and Arrows moved up from its 2001 rating of 26 but the more interesting changes come from restaurants closer to Boston. 

In 2001 Radius ranked (25), Clio (42), and Providence's Al Forno was at (39).  All of these have now dropped off the list.  Locke-Ober and No. 9 Park are new to the list.

No. 9 Park has been really good and we'll have a review of Locke-Ober up soon.

FBI's Page on the Gardner Museum Theft

The FBI has a quick summary of the 1990 theft (one of its Top Ten Art Crimes) from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum that stole away the following paintings:  "Vermeer, The Concert; Rembrandt, A     Lady and Gentleman in Black; Rembrandt, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee;     Rembrandt, Self-Portrait; Govaert Flinck, Landscape with Obelisk;     Manet, Chez Tortoni".  Value of the theft:  estimates as shockingly high as $300 million according to the FBI.  The FBI picked a suitably dramatic painting to illustrate their description, Rembrandt's Storm on the Sea of Galilee (left).  The Museum still keeps the empty frames hanging with explanatory notes.

Wikipedia on Boston Brahmins

Wikipedia, the  online encyclopedia that is written through innovative open-source contributions, takes a look back at a more rigid world with a short article on Boston Brahmins but a longer list of notable Brahmin personages and families.

What's a Boston Brahmin?

Slate delves into Boston social history to try to discover if John Forbes Kerry is a Boston Brahmin. Although the St. Paul's School and Yale (not Harvard) education, old money family roots, plus the Louisburg Square house probably comes to a "yes" for most people, Slate takes a strict line and thinks Kerry might not be as snooty as Henry Cabot Lodge (see above) after all.