New Acquisition
Image: Ceramic vase, Roselane Pottery, Pasadena, CA, circa 1945. Gift of Margaret House
(2012.12.01)
Did you know that Pasadena had a heyday in ceramics manufacturing? There were more than twenty pottery studios found in Pasadena in the late thirties and early forties. This industry was part of a larger trend in Southern California. By 1944, there were more than 300 potteries in the Los Angeles basin. Unlike the art pottery of the Arts and Crafts era, these Southern California potteries produced commercial wares for the mass market through the 1960s. Some were in existence for several decades, including Pasadena stalwarts such as Florence Ceramics, Winfield Pottery, and Twin Winton. By the 1950s, cheaper imports began to flood the domestic US market and the industry began to wane.
A new addition to the Museum's ceramics collection is a vase made by Roselane Pottery. This pottery, founded in 1938, was located in Pasadena for thirty years on Mary Street, very close to present-day PMH.
|
You can also keep up with PMH on the following sites:
  
|
|
About the Collections
PMH maintains the area's largest and most comprehensive collection of documents and artifacts relating to the history of Pasadena and neighboring communities.
The ever-expanding collection spans the years 1834 to the present and contains well over one million historic photographs, rare books, manuscripts, maps, architectural records, art, costumes and textiles, and objects.
The Mission of the Museum is to promote an appreciation of history, culture, arts, and sciences relevant to Pasadena and adjoining communities.
|
|
|
|
|
The Collections Quarterly, sent out four times a year, features new acquisitions as well as select items from the Archives, art and artifacts collection, and the Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo collections.
|
|
|
Archives Feature
Brown Family Scrapbook
On October 17, 1859 John Brown and his followers seized the federal armory and arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia - an action that led to the American Civil War.
The PMH Archives houses material on the Civil War including a rare scrapbook on John Brown's history, which contains a detailed narrative by Ralph Keeler from his interviews with John Brown's son, Owen Brown. The story was published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1874 before Owen Brown moved to Pasadena. Although this scrapbook has only a few pages, it is quite interesting to read the typewritten narrative and short biographies of the Brown siblings. It also has a picture taken in 1990 of Owen Brown's grave marker, which was rediscovered just recently. If you are interested in the Civil War or John Brown, drop by the Research Library and Archives to see this scrapbook. We are open from Thursday to Sunday, 1:00 to 4:00 pm.
Image: Owen Brown's grave marker, 1990. Photograph by Michael Dunnagan (Scrapbook 87)
|
|
Collections Feature
A "New" Old Icebox for the Fenyes Mansion 
More than two years after the landmark 1906 Fenyes Mansion was closed for extensive repairs, PMH docents will once again stand in the elegant foyer and bid visitors a warm welcome. PMH staff used the renovation as an opportunity to replace modern appliances with ones of the era. Pictured is the "new" icebox that now resides in the kitchen. It is the Leonard Cleanable one piece porcelain "Like a clean dish" model. While not original to the house, it is similar to what the Fenyes family would have owned in the early twentieth century.
PMH Members are invited to be the first to take a look at the newly reopened Fenyes Mansion. As part of our Grand Reopening, Members will have the opportunity to take a special " First Peek Tour" on four days this fall before public tours of the Mansion resume on Friday, December 7. Image: The Leonard Cleanable Icebox, Grand Rapids Refrigerator Company, Grand Rapids, MI (2010.006.01) |
|
Fenyes Feature
Duntley Vacuum Cleaner - 1909 Receipt
Maintaining the Fenyes Mansion has always involved some daunting tasks. In its early days the household cleaning was done by servants, and it seems Dr. Fenyes wanted to provide them with the latest technological assistance. This receipt, from Pasadena's H. L. Miller Electrical Contracting and Supplies, records the doctor's purchase of the Duntley Standard Vacuum Cleaner #3 with extra wall brush and extra clothing and dusting brush, all for the total cost of $95. An advertisement in the May 1909 issue of Popular Mechanics makes the claim that Duntley vacuums, "...embody every principle and every improvement known in the vacuum cleaner business-and combine all these advantages in a portable machine, weighing about 50 pounds, that can be easily carried from room to room...and remove every particle of dust and dirt, from every room, without taking up carpets or rugs-without removing furniture-without taking down curtains or portieres-and do it one-tenth time it could be done otherwise."
Image: Receipt, 27 August 1909 (Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo Papers, Box 9, Folder 12)
|
|
|
|
|
