Wholesale Business: New England Clockmaking in a Changing Economy, 1790-1835

A symposium at the Concord Museum in historic Concord, Massachusetts Saturday, November 4, 2000

Concord, MA/ On Saturday, November 4, 2000, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Concord Museum presents a day-long symposium, "Wholesale Business: New England Clockmaking in a Changing Economy, 1790-1835," featuring six noted social, business and labor, economic and material-culture historians on topics relating the Concord, Massachusetts, clockmakers to the changing economy and society of Federal New England.

The symposium is offered in conjunction with Keeping Time: Clockmaking in Concord, 1790-1835, a ground-breaking exhibition open to the public September 8, 2000 through January 21, 2001. Seven clockmakers-Joseph Mulliken, Daniel Munroe, Nathaniel Munroe, Lemuel Curtis, Joseph Dyar, Samuel Whiting and Joseph Dunning-made clocks and timepieces in Concord in the first three decades of the 19th century. Most of these clockmakers trained in the Boston/Roxbury shops of Simon and Aaron Willard. Keeping Time is the first major exhibition to reflect on a new and significant reinterpretation of New England clockmaking by focusing on one Federal-era craft community. The exhibition features over thirty of the finest examples of documented Concord clocks from the Concord Museum's collection and other collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Old Sturbridge Village and Yale University Art Gallery.

Symposium presenters include:

Robert Gross, Forrest D. Murden, Jr., Professor of History and American Studies, The College of William and Mary, and author of The Minutemen and Their World

Winifred Barr Rothenberg, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Tufts University, and author of From Market-Places to a Market Economy: The Transformation of Rural Massachusetts, 1750-1850

Gary J. Kornblith, Professor of History, Oberlin College, and editor of The Industrial Revolution in America

Carlene Stephens, Curator, Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, The History of Technology Division, and author of numerous articles on the history of time in the United States

Robert Cheney, clockmaker, Brimfield, Massachusetts, and author of "Roxbury Eight-day Movements and the English Connection, 1785-1825" in Antiques and with Philip Zea of Clockmaking in New England, 1725-1825

David Wood, Curator, Concord Museum and author of "Concord, Massachusetts, Clockmakers, 1789-1817" in Antiques and editor and contributor to Concord Museum: Decorative Arts from a New England Collection

To start off the morning session Robert Cheney will present some of his recent research on the Willard family clockmakers of Boston and Roxbury, an artifact-based study establishing the American reliance on the Lancashire tool trade in the late 18th century. Carlene Stephens will discuss Boston chronometer maker (and head of Harvard's astronomical observatory) William Bond, an artisan, entrepreneur and scientist, based on her continuing study of the extensive Bond business papers. Winifred Rothenberg will conclude the morning with commentary and questions.

The afternoon session will begin with a discussion by David Wood on the Concord clockmakers, who were trained in the Roxbury clockmaking tradition and were active in the first two decades of the 19th century. Gary Kornblith will use the example Boston printer and editor Joseph T. Buckingham to discuss the interconnections between artisan entrepreneurialism, the development of middle-class culture and the changing political landscape. Robert Gross will conclude the afternoon with commentary and questions.

The symposium, held at the Concord Museum from 9:30 - 3:00, includes lunch and admission to the Museum. The registration fee is $60 and reservations are required. The Concord Museum is located in historic Concord, Massachusetts at the intersection of Lexington Road and Cambridge Turnpike. The Museum is wheelchair accessible and has ample free parking on Cambridge Turnpike.

Keeping Time is supported by Skinner, Inc., the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, the New Boston Fund, Inc., in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Edward B. Thomas and the Bay State Historical League Scholar-in-Residence Program.