Final Thoughts on the Literary Pilgrimage

A pilgrimage is defined as a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance. 

Using the title "road trip" doesn't feel like the correct choice for what I did anymore. Instead, I can identify with considering the trip a pilgrimage. This did feel like a journey and a search. Spirituality, to me, means discovering something that inspires you enough to create passion. For some people, that may be religion, others find it in art, I find it in words and in what I see.

Experiencing the views I did during this trip alongside the literature resulted in a deeper understanding of where inspiration comes from in nature. Place plays such an important part in making an environment that supports creation and creativity. 

Making the trip to visit these authors homes taught me an immense amount about myself and a lot in terms of applicable skills.

A short list of some of the many things I learned while in New England:

• How to create a museum narrative
• How to properly portray an individual
• How to curate literature diversely
• How to plan a trip
• It would be difficult to get used to life/working in New England
• Literary and historical museums are quite similar
• Architecture and art styles of the 19th and 20th centuries
• How to create and use a blog
• A new appreciation for poetry, especially Dickinson

These twenty-five hours of driving and hours of touring will affect how I interpret literature in the future along with museum spaces and natural areas of land. Experiencing all of these aspects of art together was an incredible opportunity. 

Thank you again to every person who supported me during this process and read my blog along they way. One of my favorite things is being able to share my knowledge with others and get people excited about learning. I'm glad that I had the chance to do so through this blog.

Day 5: Frost: The Finale

Today was the last day of my journey. I ended at the Robert Frost home in Shaftsbury, Vermont. Naturally, I ended up comparing this home to his home that I visited in New Hampshire and found some similarities and differences. 

This home was secluded, but in a different sense than the home in New Hampshire. The New Hampshire home was almost dark (yes it was cloudy that day, but still). I support this by the observation that there wasn't much open land at this home. It was surrounded by trees in a way that made me feel somewhat claustrophobic. In contrast, the home in Vermont looked over big open field. This was fitting considering Frost farmed here.

In addition to farming, Frost enjoyed hiking and walking around this area. This home is also where he wrote "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening." The ironic part is that Frost wrote this on a June morning in 1922. He couldn't sleep so he went for a walk. The chilly morning air inspired him. Maybe the season was even making him yearn for Winter. Either way, he went into his dining room (one of the rooms I was able to visit on the tour) and wrote the poem in one quick sitting. 

I was also able to see a specific exhibit on "The Poetry of Trees" which explained how trees evolved as a symbol in classic literature and mythology. The other exhibits in the home were devoted to Frost's use (or lack thereof) of punctuation in his poetry, and his meter choices. There was also a section devoted to biographical information.

The hallway was full of woodcut art that would accompany Frost's poetry. Frost commissioned it from artist J.J. Lankes. It would accompany his poetry that would later be published in a magazine. 

Lastly, there was a section of the wall devoted to Frost's comments about his poems and comments by critics. Overall, he was fairly vague. He is famously quoted as saying that his poems "have doors" that he prefers to "leave shut". 

Day 4: Robert the Recluse

The drive to Robert Frost's home in Franconia, New Hampshire today was full of views that were too gorgeous to be captured on my camera (even though I continue to try). 

I drove north up the Vermont/New Hampshire border and into the White Mountains for two hours. Caffeine and gasoline were both important fuel today. As you can see, my traveling companion and I were getting a bit burnt out from all of the driving. 

After two hours, we realized that we were on dirt roads, surrounded by walls of trees, and mountains were peeking out at us. We began to make "road less traveled" jokes as the car carefully avoided holes.

Finally, we arrived at Frost's house. It is literally in the middle of nowhere. Frost lived in the forest with a stunning view of the White Mountains. He had acres of land which has been turned into a poetry trail. This consisted of Frost's poetry on signs throughout the trail (a 1/4 mile loop). As we walked, the nature and surrounding area completely reflected the sentiment and tone of the poetry that we were taking in. This way of curating literature was unique to me and the backdrop set the tone for what I was reading. 

Poetry Trail

To put in perspective how secluded this spot really is, while on the trail I saw a bear run across the path and up a tree (my parents just read that line and are probably worried, "my daughter was in danger!" but don't worry, my traveling companion had encountered bears before and we took all the safety precautions). I live in a city and have never seen a bear in my life other than in a zoo. Frost was really away from it all.

The Frost home is a humble white building surrounded by small gardens with a big porch. The front of the home faces the white mountains. He lived here from 1915-1920 and wrote some of his most famous poems including "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." 

There were only three rooms open in the Frost home. The home is actually partially occupied and acts as a writers retreat. A reproduction of Frost's writing desk is in his front parlor. He would mostly write here or on his front porch. According to the information on tour, the man experienced many upsetting events in his life including the deaths of his children. He moved to England when his career flourished but then decided that he needed to get away from the city and chose Franconia. 

Items in Front Parlor

Front Parlor Including Reproduction Desk

Frost's Bedroom, Bed Below

Bedroom view, my favorite so far

This museum had a greater impact outside than inside, especially since there isn't an option for a guided tour. I feel that the museum itself is better for the writing conferences, summer poet-in-residence programs, and teacher programs open to the public. It was a great opportunity to see the rooms where Frost worked and lived. The outside, however, is a fantastic way of setting Frost's poetry in a setting that would have directly inspired him. 

Day 3 Part 2: Emily the Enigma

Emily Dickinson's house was my last stop on day 3. Her home is in Amherst Massachusetts right along Main Street. After exploring the grounds (which included her brother's home next door), we headed into the home to buy tickets and explore the gift shop. It seems that finger puppets of famous authors are quite popular.

Dickinson's past is full of mystery. Very little is actually known about the woman due to her secretive nature. The guide warned us that all of the oral tradition she would be sharing was simply that: oral tradition.

Emily was born in 1830 in this federal style brick townhouse (below). 

Only three images of her exist. One is a portrait of her and her siblings from when she was about nine. The next in a silhouette done at fourteen. The last is a photo of her done when she was about sixteen. When asked if she could have her photo taken later in life, she would simply describe her features instead.

Another mystery about Emily is what was going on in her mind during her life. Her main form of social interaction was letter writing. You'd think that the museum would have tons of information about her opinions from her letters. That would be the case, if, on her death bed, she hadn't requested that her sister burn each of her 1,800 letters. The only letters to go off of then, are the ones that others received from her. They all have a very tongue-in-cheek sassy style to them. 

Emily was a social woman in terms of writing, but not so much in terms of face-to-face interaction. She stayed in her home most of the time and didn't like crowds. This seclusion is often reflected in her poetry. In fact, she always stayed in New England except to visit her father in Washington D.C. 

As for her writing career, Emily sought out a mentor at the age of thirty. She wrote letters to a newspaper editor asking him for his opinion on her poetry. However, she rarely took his advice. She wrote poetry on scraps which were found by her sister after Emily's death. They were on backs of lists, chocolate wrappers and more. Emily was also very picky about diction. She would often change around the words in a poem many times and never truly decided on a final version.

The style of Dickinson's poetry is also somewhat unique for the time period. No other author was using internal capitalization or some of the other styles utilized by her. In addition to this quality that set her apart, I also learned that Dickinson was a transcendentalist, someone who finds spirituality in nature and within people.

The rooms that I saw in the house were:

• Back Parlor
• Front Parlor
• Library
• Emily's Bedroom

I had the opportunity to see Emily's bedroom under renovation. The museum team is going through and re-doing the walls in order to get the original wallpaper back and put in a new ceiling. This project allows them to check the ceiling for hidden items, and see the layers of paint on the walls. The guide told me that this was a unique experience-- not many people will see the room in this state.

She also informed me that Emily wrote in her bedroom. The windows overlooked a mountain ridge. Her desk was tiny, only about seventeen inches square. 

Overall, I had a great experience at the home. The staff there is passionate about Dickinson, her poetry, and about sharing her humor. The poetry that I've read of hers seems to reflect the seclusion that she desired and would have found in this home. 

Day 3 Part 1: Enthralled by Edith

Today, I visited Edith Wharton's Home, The Mount in Lenox, Massachusetts. I had a nice time taking photos along the way (the one above is the only mountain one that came out). After arriving at The Mount, I enjoyed a 1/4 mile walk to the home. This walk included views of the kitchen garden, original orchard, Wharton's greenhouse, the gatehouse, and the stable (below).

Eventually, I made it past the pet cemetery (Wharton had quite the collection of animals)

and to Wharton's mansion. The sheer size of the building is impressive along with the sprawling acres of gardens and forest. You couldn't ask to be more secluded than Wharton was.

Since Wharton helped design both the home and the gardens, architecture played an integral part of the tour. Below are some photos of the gardens and the outside of the home.

The Italian-style home was both lavish and sparse because Wharton believed that large bright spaces brought happiness. Anyone interested in art could spend hours admiring the extensive collection of tapestries and statues (tapestry in library below along with wall carvings).

In particular, there was a cast iron piece behind the fire logs in the library that depicted the sacrifice of Issac by Abraham (below). I can only imagine how impressive it must have looked with flames framing it.

Library

The rooms that could be viewed on tour were (various rooms pictured at side and below):

Drawing Room

·         Gallery
·         Teddy Wharton’s Den (her husband)
·         Wharton’s Library
·         Drawing Room
·         Dining Room (which led to a balcony overlooking the huge garden)
·         Hall
·         West Guest Suite
·         Henry James Guest Suite
·         Teddy Wharton Bedroom Suite
·         Wharton’s Bedroom and Boudoir
·         Service Wing Rooms

Ornate Drawing Room Ceiling

Dining Room

Wharton always wrote in her bedroom (below). Laying in her bed, she would write with her dog by her side and throw the pages to the floor as she finished them. Here, she wrote Ethan Frome, one of the novels I feel that was inspired by some of her real-life experiences.

The stories that the museum staff curate through oral tradition honor Wharton's dynamic life. Wharton's achievements were noted well including her extensive work with the poor and afflicted during World War I. She even took it upon herself to get to the front lines to do research. I was, overall, quite impressed by the home and the woman who truly had literary, social, and architectural talent.

Day 2 Part 2: Touring With Twain

The Mark Twain home in Hartford, Connecticut was my favorite stop of the day. After crossing the lawn from his neighbor, Harriet Beecher Stowe's home over to his property, I was wowed by the massive mansion he lived in.

The brick was painted decoratively, the wood was sculpted into butterflies and other natural sights, and there were several porches. Twain definitely had a bit of money and, like most Victorians, knew how to show it off.

Before the tour, visitors could view the Aetna gallery or view a short video about Twain's life done by Ken Burns. The gallery housed various original pieces of Twain's writings, pieces of printers, and a page compositor, the only one in existence today.

My traveling companion and I also had some fun in the gift shop before the tour. To kill time, we acted out some of Twain's quotes that adorned the walls with this Mark Twain finger puppet, and had our photo taken with a Lego version of Twain in the lobby.

The inside of the home was even more gorgeous than the outside. In the Victorian era, wallpaper wasn't invented yet. Therefore, to get the effect, painters would create patterns on solid colored walls. Twain spent a fortune having this done throughout his home. This would have immediately impressed guests in the front parlor. Built in 1874, this home was Twain's favorite home. His happiest years were spent there.

I wasn't able to take photos in the home, but once again I took many outside the home. The rooms I saw within the home were:

• The Parlor
• The Drawing Room
• The Dining Room
• The Library
• The Conservatory
• The School Room
• Two Guest Bedrooms
• The Master Bedroom
• Susy's Room (One of Twain's three daughters)
• Bathroom
• Billiard Room (Twain's office. I'm not sure what he did most in here: play pool, write, or avoid company by sneaking out on the balcony.)
• George's Room (His servant)

Many themes were prevalent throughout this tour and were revisited appropriately. They were: slavery, Twain's inspirations, tragedy, responsibility, travel, technology, identity (including the transition from Samuel to Mark), humor, family, and class.

Oral tradition is very important to this museum. They told stories about the family to make them seem more human, relevant, and real. In addition, they focused on the topic of slavery and how Twain really advocated for equality. This included hiring ex-slaves as help and acknowledging that one of his slaves, George, was even smarter than he. We also discussed the impact that Huckleberry Finn had on the public in the U.S. and across seas; which influenced their impressions of the U.S. He wrote this novel upstairs in the billiard room at a tiny desk. He held himself to a 4,000 word-a-day writing goal. 

Two of my favorite stories from the tour were:

Twain would often bring up inappropriate topics at dinner parties in his family home. His wife, who was of a higher class than he, would be embarrassed. To put a stop to Twain's behavior, she had the children, who were hiding in the stairwell, hold up signs that signaled her if Twain was being inappropriate so that she could stop him.

The next story took place in the library. Various objects line the mantel from a vase to a portrait of a cat in a high necked shirt. Twain's daughters would make him tell a story using each of these items nightly. As they became worn, he told people that it was because "they had been on so many adventures."

Today, I met Mark Twain as a father, a comic, a writer, a husband, and an advocate of equality.

Day 2 Part 1: Hanging with Harriet

After 7.5 hours of driving, I'm finally back in Vermont and ready to reflect on everything I learned today. In this post, I will be discussing my visit to the Harriet Beecher Stowe home in Hartford Connecticut. In the next post, I will be giving an overview of my trek through her neighbor's home, Mark Twain.

When visiting the Stowe home, I was greeted by a friendly staff who encouraged us to look through some displays while we waited for the tour to begin. These displays asked visitors to consider the definition of "Uncle Tom" throughout history beginning with Stowe's novel. I plan on considering this as I continue reading Uncle Tom's Cabin and how the definition has gone through dynamic changes.There was also a short film playing that depicted aspects of Stowe's life. 

Unfortunately, photos were not allowed in the home, but I took some pictures of the outside views. The Victorian home was built in 1873. The rooms that we saw in the home were:

• The Dining Room
• Stowe's Daughters' bedroom (The two daughters, twins, stayed living in their mother's home. They never married because they did not want to be trapped in a powerless Victorian era marriage.)
• The Front Parlor
• The Back Parlor
• The Guest Bedroom
• The Master Bedroom
• Calvin's Study (Stowe's husband)
• The Kitchen

This home was funded by the Uncle Tom's Cabin novel. The guide told us that, because of this novel, slavery was looked at as a moral issue for the first time instead of a political or economic issue. 

Seeing the extent of her creativity made me jealous that this woman had so much talent. In addition to being a writer, Stowe was a painter and a musician. Her paintings of flowers, animals, and southern views are displayed throughout the home.

I was a bit disappointed by the narrative given in the home overall. It seemed that the tour focused more on how important being a Victorian housewife was to Stowe rather than her inspiration for her writing, her opinions of slavery, abolition, her research, etc., or her strengths. She was a vocal and independent woman in a time when it was difficult to do so. She met Abraham Lincoln, suffered from depression, and wrote a novel that changed the United States and outsold the Bible. This aspect of her life seemed like it was glossed over during the tour. Instead, her kitchen/ domestic writings were focused on. 

Seeing the kitchen and considering the connection between how it was set up and Stowe's book about how to be a homemaker was a good experience. We still use many of her suggestions today such as keeping glassware near the sink and utilizing an island in the kitchen.

Overall, I was impressed with the home and its artifacts, but I wish that certain themes were more prevalent that the ones chosen. I feel that this home could be utilized as an opportunity to begin a discussion about the difficult topic of slavery.

I should mention, one of the stories that really resonated with me was when the guide told us Stowe's last words. She asked, "are we going for a walk?" It is evident from this statement, as well as her entire life, that Stowe never quit.

Day 1: Getting to Vermont

Today, my literary road trip began! The goal was to make it to the inn I will be staying at in Rockinghman, Vermont. The drive took about five and a half hours. 

We went from the Geneva to Albany on I-90. As evidenced by my toll-ticket, that's quite the drive.My traveling companion, Ross, and I made some stops along the way though to stretch our legs.

I-90 is, in my opinion, uneventful in terms of scenery. However, once I got past Albany, I was able to see the beginnings of the New England scenery that I’d been reading about in novels and poetry. Mountains welcomed me lined with trees. Fog and steam came off the road. I always feel claustrophobic here to an extent because the roads are lined so closely by trees, forest, and mountains. I can see how this would appeal to someone who wants to enjoy seclusion.

The place that I’m staying in is an inn in a secluded area of Vermont. It has a foggy mountain view, is surrounded by woods, and is barely visible from the road. Personally, I would enjoy writing there.

I have been here during the winter (when some of the novels I'm reading were set in). It’s both unpleasant, barren, lonely, and gorgeous. Loneliness is something that I would associate with the winter scenery more than seclusion. 

I call the room that I'm staying in "The Covered Wagon Room" because the bed looks like a covered wagon. How appropriate for the theme of travel.

 My first stop will be Mark Twain's home and Harriet Beecher Stowe's house. Both are in Connecticut.

Saying Thanks Before I Hit The Road

Special thanks are in order to the individuals that offered financial support for my trip. I honestly couldn't be going on this trip if it weren't for each of you.

Thank you to:

Cody, Doug, Aunt Barbie, Kelsey, Jessica, Grandma Bev and Papa Lucky, my mom and dad, Ross, Emily, Sheena, Archie, Billye, Allie, and John.

It is truly amazing to see how family, friends, and co-workers can be so supportive. Thanks to each of you, I will be able to explore a new area of the country, expand my knowledge of museums, and have a wonderful trip. Having people in my life who support my educational goals is incredible.

My trip begins tomorrow!