Monday's View from the Moo

Woo-wooo everybody! We have a special edition of the View from the Moo today. Are woo ready for the tour of the Gilbert Stuart Museum to continue?

Gilbert's mother told him he was born in this room. (walls have been left exposed to show construction method). See that wonderful doggy painting? Gilbert did that when he was 14 years old to thank a doctor for saving his life when he was a boy.

This fireplace is in the master bedroom. The docent says probably the entire family slept in one room in the winter to keep warm. There is a trundle bed underneath the main bed, which was found boarded up in the attic.
Another corner of the master bedroom - Stuart painted many presidents & their wives. The "unfinished" portrait is First Lady Martha Washington.
This is the dining area in the formal great room. This room was used for business rather than family life. The family's daily activities took place on the lower level.

This great room fireplace has an interesting invention: a Colonial "microwave". Plates of food were bought up from the downstairs kitchen an placed inside the metal box. The door was closed & it was kept in front of the fire to stay warm till people were ready to eat.

The lower level was the "business" level - can woo guess what this is?
This is the snuff mill. Gilbert's dad ground snuff here, right in their main living space. The air was probably full of snuff dust all the time. Gilbert was addicted to it, and its no wonder, after spending his first 6 years breathing it every day!

The kitchen prep area is on the otherside of the room - remember whenRI had those historic floods this past spring? (highest floods in 100 years) The Museum flooded, and the water and silt filled this room up to the level of the windows! They've worked very hard to clean it up!

This is the spinning corner. Colonial women had a tremendous amount of work to do to keep the family clothed and fed. The yarns on the back wall have been dyed with local vegetation. They used ground up beetles for the red color!
The family would probably have found having a pack of Siberians very helpful - just think of all the fluff we generate for spinning yarn for nice warm winter clothing! (Just sayin'.)

Yesterday JackDaddy asked us where the museum is - I guess we forgot to say-- its in Saunderstown RI. Here is their website. If woo are ever around, it really is an interesting place to see. And if woo ever ARE around, give us a woo, we're just up the road, er, I mean across the bay.

And that's today's View from the Moo, hope woo enjoyed your tour!

Toodle-woo,

Miss Moo