The Billopp Gallery (Conference House Museum)
Treasures of George Way at Conference House April – December 2022
American Redware Collection April – December 2022
Threads: Flax to Linen, Field to Fabric – April 2019 – December 2019
“Threads” examines the history of linen production from field to fabric. Visitors can examine the Conference House collection of antique tools of the trade such as flax break, hackle, carder, and spinning wheel. The exhibit includes dried flax plant samples, yarn, and linens.
Linen, a natural textile used and valued by humans for thousands of years for its useful properties, was the fabric of choice in colonial America. Linen fabric is made from the cellulose fibers that grow inside of the stalks of the flax plant. Linum usitatissimum is one of the oldest cultivated plants in human history.
Coming to America – March 2018 – August 2018
The “Coming to America” exhibit allows visitors to peek into the American immigrant experience from Colonial days to the present. Visitors to the exhibit are invited to step into the life of a newly arrived immigrant through the door of some personal artifacts. A collection of antique trunks that held precious belongings are part of the exhibit. Historic regional maps and artistic world maps help relate the story. The exhibit includes a world map with the heading, “Where are you from?” Visitors may engage in each others’ immigrant stories…the American story!
Claiming the Vote: Her Story
A look into Women in History and the struggle for women’s right to vote through the eyes of a unique fictional character, Emily Rose, who was created to tell the women’s story, “Her Story.” On display is her 1878 letter to her parents relating her experience and fight for equal rights. The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote in 1920. The struggle for women’s suffrage took almost 100 years.
Immigrants: The Roots of Innovation – H.H. Biddle House (on-going)
https://nycgovparks.org/events/2018/03/24/immigrants-the-roots-of-innovation
Roxanne Jacobson: Occupied Sites A Look at Staten Island’s Prehistory – Lenape Gallery at the Conference House Park Visitor Center (thru March 30th and then through June at the H.H. Biddle House)
