A New Look For an Old House:
Recreating Sir William Johnson’s “Cabinet of Curiosities”
Reprinted from The New York Preservationist

Almost 250 years ago, Johnson Hall in Johnstown was the center of Sir William Johnson’s working estate. It was also his headquarters, as the British Crown’s superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern District, for conducting business with the Iroquois Confederacy. Today, this State Historic Site and National Historic Landmark is undergoing a remarkable transformation to reflect Sir William Johnson’s circa 1763 world based on extensive research carried out by staff at Johnson Hall and the Peebles Island Resource Center.

To recreate the color, tonality and finish of Johnson Hall’s original paint colors, State Parks preservation specialists conducted microscopic and chemical analysis of historic paint samples. As a result of this historic sleuthing, hallway wainscoting was grain-painted. Sir William’s bedroom was painted a vivid verdigris (green) pigment glazed to create a glossy, translucent effect, and the White Parlor and two second floor bedrooms were repainted using 18th century techniques. During the course of this 1997 repainting project, a closet/bookcase in Sir William’s bedroom was discovered to block an original doorway into an adjacent parlor. The doorway has been reopened to restore the historic spatial arrangements in Johnson’s Georgian-style mansion.

Over 30 years of archeological investigations on the grounds around Johnson Hall have uncovered thousands of pieces of broken ceramics, glass bottles, wine glasses and decanters, as well as numerous bone fragments. These materials not only reveal that Johnson Hall had the finest European goods available in colonial New York but also provide valuable information on the historic household’s foodways. Curators used the information from the archeological studies in purchasing reproduction tablewares to refurnish the house.

As part of their research for the furnishing plan, Johnson Hall staff spent several years identifying items in the property’s original 1774 inventory and matching them with volumes of letters, agent orders, daybooks, and bills of sale associated with Sir William Johnson’s residency. The most intriguing entries in the inventory were the Native American items, which were referred to as a “cabinet of curiosities” in the language of Johnson’s day. A 1776 journal entry made by an officer who arrived at Johnson Hall to arrest Sir William’s loyalist son John, described wampum belts, costumes, skins, horns, pipes, testimonials, medals, and other Indian “curiosities” scattered among Sir William’s portraits, prints, coats of arms and weapons.

Following the end of the American Revolution, much of Johnson’s collection disappeared in sales of loyalist property and could not be reassembled. When Johnson Hall staff began refurnishing the house, they relied on the descriptions of Indian artifacts in 18th century documents to identify appropriate reproductions for purchase. The site also purchased and received donations of furs and skins representative of Johnson’s original collections, some of which have been special gifts from members of the Six Nations. Although Johnson Hall’s collection of Native-American related materials represents only a fraction of the objects that originally were part of Johnson’s cabinet, its addition to the furnished rooms has had a major impact on the character and interpretation of the house.

Significant changes have also occurred on the site’s grounds. Within the last year, a large cobblestone courtyard, first discovered during archeological investigations in the 1980s, was recreated between the two stone blockhouses that flank Johnson Hall. Such courtyards were common components of 18th century garden plans and provided a mud-free walkway and work area between buildings.

Archeological survey and excavations conducted at the site between 1957 and 1993 have also revealed the locations of a colonial road and numerous outbuildings that once figured prominently in Johnson Hall’s daily household activities. The site’s cultural landscape report that will identify these now missing features will be completed in early 2001. The study proposes a landscape restoration program that promises to enhance the property’s interpretation.

Johnson Hall offers an important glimpse of 18th century life in the Mohawk Valley and continues to present new and exciting chapters in the state’s rich history.