Evening journal., 1912-07-24
HISTORIANS
ON INSPECTION
Find Bucks County, Pa, Home
Modern and Are Delighted
With Plan
WORKING HARD FOR
DELAWARE BUILDING

A4AAANN AAAA1 A1h6aAAN0
The officers of the new building
fund committee OF the Historical So
ciety Of Delaware consisting Of Jo-
siah Marvel, chairman, OF the general
committee; Robert II. Richards. vice.
chairman, and C. l.. Ward. secretary,
accompanied George A. Elliott yestor-
day in his automobile, 20 Doylestown,
Pa, to make an inspection of the
Historical Society Building of Bucks
county. The members of the commit
tee in speaking Of the trip. stated:
The people OF Delaware can not
conceive of the interest taken in other
communities In the collection and pre-
sentation of historic material, until
they have visited a place like Doyles-
town. Up until 1904, the people of
Bucks county through this Historical
Society. gathered together such mate
ial as could be obtained for preserva-
tion, but were Obliged to store it In
the court house or other places that
might be found available in which to
keep IL.
In 1904 largely through the assis-
tance of William l.. Elkns OF Phila-
delphia, whose mother was a Bucks
county woman, the present Historical
Society building was erected. The
building consists Of large auditorium
which is also used for exhibiting
portion of their collection OF material.
Connected with this are two wings,
each wing consisting Of an office for
NJ for
special department OF the COLLECTION.
The room In one wing is now used Tor
a collection of books, while the room
I'm the other wing is not yet occupied.
Under the whole building Is a large
and we'll constructed basement in
which are preserved and exhibited the
larger objects.
zone matter that surprised our
committee very much and excited our
greatest interest, was the attention
and zeal which had been paid by the
Bucks county people to the collection
of those things pertaining more d.
rectly to the domestic life OF their
forefathers. 1t Is mo usual for his
torical societies to devote themselves
almost exclusively to the collection OF
material pertaining TO the public, the
political, the governmental and the
literary life of their ancestors. and
while this of course Is followed by
the Doylestown Society, they however
have gone. further and have secured
a splendid collection of those things
that we're used In private life. on
exhibition in their building can be
seen numerous exhibits of articles
used for domestic purposes which
show the evolution of a particular ar
ticle from the crude beginnings up to
the development Of the present time.
There can be seen, for instance,
an original Franklin stove and the
various developments of the stove for
cooking and heating purposes, ana
the same might be said of utensils for
weaving, cooking. candlemaking. etc.
You can see there the development OF
the children's hobby horse. baby era
dies, doll baby Grades and doll babies
them selves. The same attention has
been paid to the collection of house
hold furtniure. farming implements
and means of transportation. In the
large space furnished by the commo-
dious basement can be seen an orig
inal Conestoga wagon, an old fash
toned coach. several copies Of the old
fashioned high wheeled gig, some
without and some with springs, all Of
which furnish such an accumulation
OF materials used i'm domestic life
that a historian would find the ma
terial in the Doylestown Historical
Society building to write a large por-
tion Of the history Of the domestic
life of the original settlers and their
descendants in that county.
"One other surprising and interst-
ing thing was the fact that while the
Historical Society had been attempt
ing to accumulate material for fifty
years, the collection had doubled
since 1904 when the new building was
erected and furnished a place for the
care and preservation Of historic
matter. and we have no doubt that
the material now collected by the
Delaware Historical Society would be
doubled in a very short time when
our building Is completed and offered
as a safe place for the care, preseva-
ton and exhibition Of Delaware his
toric material.
"The committee will doubtless make
visits to other historical societies and
be prepared to make a full report on
this phase of the subject at a com
ing meeting Of the Historical Society,"