Potatoes Past and Present

Children harvest potatoes at Macculloch Hall

During summer 2018 MHHM grew potatoes in the nineteenth-century kitchen garden. Though this was the first time the museum grew potatoes in the garden, the potato has a long and esteemed history at Macculloch Hall. The first documented potato planting at Macculloch Hall was recorded by George Macculloch in 1829, the year he began keeping…

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The Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909

Close up of a man with long white beard and top hat with red and white stripes and band of white stars on blue background.

107th Anniversary of Hudson-Fulton Earlier this month the 107th anniversary of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909 passed, without public notice. That spectacular two-week celebration took place in New York Harbor upon the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s discovery of the river that would be named after him. The celebration also commemorated the 110th anniversary of…

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Lafayette’s Visit: Eyewitness to History

USS Brandywine: The Ship Lafayette arrived on

September is the birthday month of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolution who in 1780 brought news to General Washington in Morristown that the French fleet was sailing to help the colonists. Forty-five years later on Bastille Day, July 14, 1825, Lafayette returned to Morristown escorted by the Morris cavalry.…

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Henry William Miller, Civil War Naval Hero

On June 10, 1857 two young Midshipmen graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Henry William Miller (1836-1909), grandson of George Perrot Macculloch and Henry Davis Todd (1838-1907), uncle of W. Parsons Todd (1877-1976), the founder of Macculloch Hall Historical Museum. After graduation, they were both assigned to the USS Mohican on anti-slavery patrol off…

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J.P. Morgan Sends Grandma a Birthday Gift

J.P. Morgan flowers Collection of MHHM Archives Finding Aid

Mary Louisa Macculloch Miller’s Birthday It’s May 20, 1878, and the family has gathered at the “Old House” to celebrate Mary Louisa Macculloch Miller’s seventy-fourth birthday. Mary was the daughter of George and Louisa Macculloch. This photo was taken on the front porch of Macculloch Hall to mark this annual event. Her daughters, Edwina and…

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Poetry at Macculloch Hall

Poetry Month at Macculloch Hall April was Poetry Month at Macculloch Hall, even though our twenty-year-old series of poetry readings, Poets in the Garden, traditionally takes place in late summer: “Sweet is the breeze when vernal Zephyrs play,” wrote founder, George P. Macculloch, in 1815, in a thank you note for a pair of fans…

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Are Women People?

Woman holding a child

Alice Duer Miller and Women’s Rights In 1915 in an essay in the Saturday Evening Post, former President William Howard Taft wrote, “The longer the extension of the franchise to women waits, the better they will be prepared for it.”  In response, Alice Duer Miller (1874-1942) wrote the following in her syndicated column “Are Women…

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Alice Duer Miller and Hollywood

Alice Duer Miller Soak the Rich

Watching the Oscar Awards can make one think back to movies made during Hollywood’s “Golden Age.” If you have seen the 1935 Jerome Kern movie musical Roberta starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, you may have noticed the story line credit Alice Duer Miller (1874-1942) taken from her novel Gowns by Roberta. The film followed…

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Love and Romance at Macculloch Hall

Reading the personal family letters in the archives of MHHM reminds us that these people were more than names on a genealogy. They were living, breathing human beings with feelings and emotions. On this Valentine’s Day, we look at romance in the Macculloch-Miller families. Back then, love was more of an emotion than a science.…

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Song of the First of Arkansas

First of Arkansas Soldier, colored troops

Shortly after arriving in Goodrich’s Landing, Louisiana, Morristown’s Civil War hero began writing home to his mother, Mary Louisa Macculloch Miller, to tell of taking up his duties as Captain to a regiment of newly empowered “colored” troops. In his letter of January 20, 1864, he says, “I wrote a song for them to the…

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