Collection Spotlight: Butter Cooler

Inside a cabinet in the Gibson House dining room, a new (technically old) object sits upon one of the shelves. The object is an opulent silver butter cooler, acquired by the Gibson House in November 2024. The butter cooler was a gift to Mary Crowninshield Warren Hammond in 1867 from her father, Dr Jonathan Mason Warren. Mary was Rosamond Gibson’s older sister; she and her husband, Samuel Hammond, lived across the street from the Gibson House.

Butter cooler, Vincent Laforme, Boston, c.1850 
Collection of Gibson House Museum

This beautiful silver butter cooler, still in excellent condition, is stamped with "Lincoln & Foss," the symbol of the sellers Charles Foss and Albert Lincoln. While the actual manufacture date is unknown, this stamp reveals a potential timeline: “Lincoln & Foss” was renamed “Haddock, Lincoln & Foss” in 1859 after an independent silversmith in Boston named Henry Haddock joined the firm, suggesting that the cooler was made in the early 1800s. 

The maker of the dish was prominent Boston silversmith Vincent Laforme; the gothic “L” and eagle hallmarks stamped on the underside are his marks. Laforme was the son and brother of silversmiths. Born in Germany in 1823, he and his family moved to Boston in 1833 where his father trained him and his brothers in silversmithing. A decade later, Vincent set up his own shop at 5 Water Street where he worked with his brother Francis—their business name was Laforme and Brother. In 1854 the name was changed to F.J. Laforme & Co. after the brothers parted from the company, but three years later the business went out of operation. During Vincent’s time at the company, the Laformes would wholesale their products to larger companies including Lincoln & Foss. Vincent continued to work as a silversmith where he was cited as a good craftsman but a poor manager. 

To Mold or Not To Mold: A History of Food Molds from the Victorian Era to Today

The kitchen pantry at the Gibson House stores an extensive collection of food molds. While the preponderance of these molds are metal, their form and decoration change depending on their purpose. Ranging from simple lady finger pans to ornamental scaled fish, they provide insight into how function and entertainment converged upon Victorian food culture.

One notable feature of these objects is their versatility. Molds made of copper, pewter, or tin could be used for the baking, steaming, and setting of jellies, cakes, custards, and puddings. One type of mold in the Gibson kitchen is an ice cream mold, a technology pioneered by Agnes Marshall. Her 1885 seminal work, The Book of Ices: Including Cream and Water Ices, Sorbets, Mousses, Iced Souffles, and Various Iced Dishes, showed readers how to use her inventions, including molds and ice cream freezers, alongside recipes. Molded foods were conveniently labor saving for kitchen staff and women homemakers. They could be prepared around a day before the meal, then the mold could be removed just before serving.

The Mystery of the High-Backed Chair

Tucked into a corner of the dining room at the Gibson House sits a high-backed armchair. In 2018, long-time museum patron Robert Severy offered to fund a restoration of this chair, as the red upholstery had cracked and faded. But what, exactly, would we be restoring? To solve this object mystery, we needed the help of two esteemed curators, a fabric reproduction specialist, and a restoration studio.

Thomas Michie and GHM board 
members examine chair.
Photo: Laurie Thomas

Faking the Family Tree

Dining room at the Gibson House.

A family crest hangs over the dining room fireplace at the Gibson House. The vivid red and gold shield on a bright black background is eye-catching. Dinner guests would be unlikely to miss its not-so-subtle implications about the importance of the family lineage. In a scroll along the bottom, the motto reads “In the name of Gibson.” 

The tradition of coats of arms (of which the crest is the top part) dates to the medieval period in Europe, where knights would carry shields with specific designs. The design elements were intended to convey the achievements of the person who carried the coat of arms. Later, families would take a coat of arms as the family logo.  Typically, only noble families were permitted to do this and so the coat of arms came to be associated with the aristocracy. 

Boys in White Dresses: Childhood Gender Expression in the Nineteenth Century

Based on today’s norms, the children in the above photographs might appear to be girls. Even early museum records reference the drawing on the right as “Portrait of Two Young Girls” and the painting on the left as “Little Girl with Dog.” Many visitors are surprised to hear, however, that two of the three children pictured above are boys.

The hyper-gendering of young children’s clothing in the U.S. today is a recent phenomenon, not common before the 1940s. Previously, little boys wore dresses and long hair until the age of six or seven. White dresses, since they could be bleached clean, were the most functional clothing option for all children.