Treasures Inside The Museum | Blithewold | Seabee Museum | Season 3 | Episode 5

(gentle piano music) - [Alan] This grand estate is home to one family's textile collection.

We'll tour gardens that are some of the most spectacular in the region.

And later, we'll introduce you to the Seabee Museum.

This is "Treasures Inside The Museum".

(lively music) (lively music continuing) (gentle guitar music) Peek over the treetops that run along the Bristol, Rhode Island waterfront, and you'll come across a home like no other in this community.

(gentle guitar music continuing) Blithewold is a 45-room mansion whose architectural significance is matched only by the inspiring gardens that frame this 33-acre estate.

(gentle guitar music continuing) - This is the main stairway in the home of Augustus and Bessie Van Wickle.

The Van Wickles were a young, wealthy couple.

They both came from coal mining families in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

And at the time, in 1894, they were looking for a a summer place, of what they call now a country place.

And they needed some place that was spacious.

They wanted to be able to have sometimes 30 or 40 family members that would stay for months on end and just be outside and breathing the fresh air.

It was felt at the time a lot of wealthy families were trying to find these country estates to escape the dirty industrial cities.

(gentle guitar music continuing) - [Alan] The mansion that stands here today is actually Blithewold II.

The original house burned just a few years after it was built, but much of the beloved estate was saved and repurposed into the current home.

- The fire began on the third floor of the house.

It was basically in the walls, and one of the servants actually noticed that this was happening, so she was able to give the family plenty of time to start to gather their things and make a plan for how they were going to save the contents of the house.

So they called the fire brigade.

The fire brigade came out.

They put their pump on the front lawn, the great lawn of the house, which is by Narragansett Bay, and they started to try to pump water virtually uphill.

I mean uphill.

And it really didn't work.

And it wasn't going to do anything to save the house, though.

The way that they decided to deal with things is to save everything was in it.

The staff were involved, the family was involved.

Marjorie Lyon tells stories about how she had great big tablecloths that she put the China and the glassware and the silver on and she dragged it out to the lawn.

The gentleman from the Herreshoff boatyard that was up the road, they came down and they helped pull a lot of the elements of the house out, including this stone that's in this fireplace right here that says "Blithewold".

This was originally in one of the other fireplaces, but they chiseled it out and saved it so that we could repurpose it and put it back in this house.

In the room that we're standing in right now, you can see that we've got this beautiful billiard table, and most of the paneling from this room was also saved and was able to be put back into this room.

You'll see examples of that throughout the house.

The same thing happens in the dining room, and the same thing happens in the entrance.

(gentle guitar music) (gentle guitar music continuing) - [Alan] Today, the house is full of treasures that the family accumulated.

There are fine furniture and unique collectibles throughout the home.

- This is Estelle Clement's room.

Estelle was a distant member of the family.

She came to live with Bessie when her husband, Augustus Van Wickle, died, and lived with her for the rest of her life.

She became a very close friend to Bessie, and another mother to Augustine and Marjorie.

This piece has always been in the room, because it belonged to Estelle's family.

She inherited it from them.

It dates back to the early 1800s.

It's English.

Rosewood.

It has been partially conserved, but there are still pieces in the middle that need to be done.

But they did a wonderful job.

And the most wonderful thing is that they were able to open the box.

It had always been locked.

We had no idea what was inside it, we didn't have the key, but the conservators managed to open it.

When we open it, we find that it was a sewing box.

It has threads and pins, and we think it was also used at some point by Estelle as a desk, because we have inkwells here.

The inside is actually, it looks like Rosewood also, but it's actually pine that's been stained to look like Rosewood.

But the rest of the piece is Rosewood.

You know, a very special piece.

They, our conservators, thought it was something really exceptional.

- [Alan] Blithewold also regularly exhibits pieces from their extensive collections.

One of those is a collection of watercolors.

- Marjorie showed great promise as a painter from a very young age, and we are very lucky to have a large collection of those here that we're able to show people.

We have watercolors displayed throughout the house, but we have many more of them.

We simply don't have room to put them all up, but we do change them around and do special exhibits of our paintings.

We have over 500 altogether.

She was a very prolific artist.

We don't know whether she painted all her life.

We know that she painted when she was very young, and then started again when she was in her fifties.

And after she turned 50, she started traveling to Europe.

Every year she would go paint, specifically painting.

She would go to Paris, Rome, Sicily, Monte Carlo, and she would show them at exhibits, and give them to people as friends.

So even though we have over 500, she must have painted a lot more than that, because she sold a lot at exhibits, and she gave a lot to her relatives and friends.

(gentle guitar music) Her early paintings are very interesting.

The first one was done here in 1897, when she was 13 years old.

They had just moved to Bristol from Hazelton, and she started taking lessons in Bristol with two female artists.

And within one year, she had painted this wonderful painting of the the Bristol Lighthouse.

And we know its date, because she has her initials at the bottom, MRVW, Marjorie Randolph Van Wickle, 1897.

So she was 13 years old, and it's really quite remarkable.

The second one is of the pump house, and we're assuming that that is the same era, because the colors and the style are very similar.

And they told part of the story.

(gentle music) - [Alan] Another chapter from the story of Blithewold is told through the textile or costume collection.

There are usually several pieces on exhibit, but to truly appreciate the scope of the collection, take a peek behind the scenes.

- What we're looking at here is the collection of clothing from the women of the Blithewold family.

The family is very famous for keeping everything, which is why we have such a treasure trove of objects.

And we've been told that it is very special, because it is from one family and because it reflects the history of this family at this property and at their property in New York.

We can, because we have over a hundred costumes, or dresses, or bathing suits, a hundred pieces in the collection, that we can rotate, showing individual dresses, gowns, coats.

And what we like to do, twice a year, we change the exhibits.

And that's on the second floor, so if people have been here before, they've seen four or five of our outfits.

If they come again, they'll see something different.

And right now on display, we have a summertime exhibit.

We have two bathing suits, or bathing dress, I should call it.

In the case of Marjorie's black silk bathing dress, she always wore a scarf.

And then we have Augustus's, her father's, bathing suit, which is wool, long shorts, sleeveless top.

And then we also have some dresses that would have been worn in the summer.

The clothing collection tells us that the family was wealthy, the family cared about their appearances, as everyone did in that era, in that milieu.

It tells us that they entertained in many different ways, from having folks here for a picnic and a swim and a sail to having afternoon tea, playing Mahjong, and we have their Mahjong set, and to the evening, when they would wear full-length gowns and tuxedos, if it was a special occasion.

(lively music) So what I'm showing you is a dress that is showing us the ravages of time.

This belonged to Bessie, circa 1912.

Would've been worn at very fancy parties or evening events.

And what's happened to this dress over the last hundred-plus years is that some of the silk has completely shredded.

And this is not because anybody's mistreated this.

It's just what happens over time.

So examining each dress to see what condition it's in is very important, because there are some things that can be easily conserved.

And we have spent as little as $500 on a dress, and we've spent as much as close to $10,000 on a dress, depending on what has to be done to it.

(lively music continuing) This is a dress that has had a good deal of conservation.

And it's a fine example of what our very expert conservators are able to do with a dress that needs to be taken care of so it can be displayed.

One of the things that I do wanna point out is that we're very fortunate to have what we call our costume angels.

And these are people who are interested in the history of Blithewold, interested in the costumes, the dresses that were worn here by Bessie and her daughters.

And that conservation, depending on how much needs to be done, can run anywhere from $250 to $10,000.

So we have had over a hundred thousand dollars donated to us by various individuals, and that's made it possible for us to employ professional conservators to restore the beauty of so many dresses that we have here at Blithewold.

What we're looking at here is a full-length evening gown.

There is complex and interesting embroidery bead work you can see here on the sleeves.

And it has a square neckline.

This would've been an evening dress that she would've worn to a very special dinner.

This illustrates a really fabulous period, when people were into entertaining and wearing special gowns.

(lively music continuing) This is, I would say, one of the most important pieces that we have.

This is Bessie's wedding dress from her 1882 wedding to Augustus Van Wickle.

We are very fortunate to have this.

It's a fine example of the fashion in the 1880s, and that was a very tight bodice.

This is actually a two-piece dress.

So this is the bodice, which comes off of the skirt that has all of this ornamentation in the train.

It's silk.

The embroidery on the front is really gorgeous, and it's all daisies, and daisies were Bessie's favorite flower.

You've got these arms that are shaped, and this is about as much as you could move your arms at that period.

There was no waving to anybody.

It was really this position.

You can see on the front here that not only do you have this beautiful embroidery, but then you have this pleating, which is, I think, just gorgeous.

And this is meant to be shown.

There's also, under the train, we have the same kind of pleating.

And again, this would be to support the train, so it doesn't just look flat.

And then there would have been a petticoat underneath this that, again, would've given it the right shape.

In conserving and exhibiting these dresses, whether it was this period or up to the 1940s, it's very important to get the right silhouette.

So we have the conservators who understand the silhouettes advise us about what undergarments we should have, the petticoats.

If there's a camisole that needs to be made, we have volunteers who make those.

They're reproduction, but they give you the correct shape.

So it's rather complex, and it's fairly heavy too.

The wedding was in the fall, and there's actually some flannel lining to give both shape and some degree of warmth.

(mellow music) - [Alan] If there is one aspect of Blithewold that cannot be overlooked, it's the arboretum and gardens.

From the very beginning, the trees here have attracted attention.

Landscape architect, John DeWolf created a collection that is one of the defining features of the property.

The original owner's desire to be surrounded by a mix of native and exotic trees is a feature that today's visitors still experience, from the giant sequoia that graces the front of the house, to a hidden grove of bamboo that offers a canopy from the summer sun.

The arboretum is a continuously-evolving, living exhibit.

(mellow music continuing) There is a greenhouse at the north end of the estate, sometimes referred to as the working side of the property, and next to that, a cutting garden.

(mellow music continuing) - We're in the cutting garden, which has so many different flowers in bloom right now.

We have poppies of all different kinds and colors around.

The daisies are blooming.

We also have the vines that are just starting to come up.

The arches here, they will be in full bloom probably August, September, and it'll be covering on both sides.

We also have orlaya, which is the lace flower, which self-sows.

This one self-sowed itself right into the middle of a perennial bachelor button., but we decided to leave it, cause we love it, and we're gonna let it go to seed.

We also have a really fragrant dianthus down here, which is real lacy.

It almost looks like it's not hardly even a flower, but the smell is intensely beautiful.

(mellow music continuing) So the cutting garden is where we would grow things that people would use to cut to make arrangements and bouquets, and we do use them to cut to make small arrangements in the house.

(mellow music continuing) This whole place is a treasure.

We're so lucky that Marjorie decided to gift it.

Some of the more formal gardens that you will see right as you enter is the rose garden, which has the historic Moongate, which was built probably close to a hundred years ago.

And in there we have 65-plus roses, and the climbers on the side.

We know the family loved roses.

It's just such a beautiful place to be.

The water garden was actually one of the family's favorite places to be.

It's very quiet there.

A lot of wildlife, you're right by the bay.

You can see it was just someplace that they loved to just spend time.

- [Alan] Spending time at Blithewold can be a treasure any time of year.

(lively music) (mellow music) The Seabee Museum in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, sits on land that was once part of the Navy base here.

Today, this is a place to remember and honor those who served.

- I'm walking outside the Seabee Museum in Memorial Park amongst all of our Quonset huts that we have on display.

We staged these huts and erected them in this fashion to kind of replicate what it would've been like living in maybe a camp overseas during the Second World War.

These huts would've been utilized as a barracks, a dining hall, a restroom-type facility.

Could have been the doctor's office, the base commanding officer's camp.

We even painted them in a camouflage-type pattern, to go ahead and replicate what they might have looked like overseas, so it gives you that feeling and the realism of what it might have been like actually to have lived or operated and worked out of these type of structures during the Second World War.

(mellow music) - [Alan] Inside the museum are the artifacts of war.

Everything here is dedicated to telling the story of the naval construction battalions that have been part of our military history since World War II.

- It's the accomplishment of what these men did.

It's the history.

And not only that, is that a lot of it started right here in Rhode Island.

And how many Rhode Islanders know of that?

And that's a big piece of history that happened here.

And, unfortunately, a lot of the story doesn't get told.

- [Alan] One part of that history is the unit's iconic logo.

This famous statue sits outside, but the treasures are inside.

- The Fighting Seabea logo was created by a native Rhode Islander, Mr Frank J Iafrate, who was from North Providence, Rhode Island.

Mr Iafrate was originally working here on the base while the base was being constructed, and he worked in the Plan File Room, which contained all the blueprints for all the buildings that were being built here.

Frank was known as being a cartoon character-type artist.

So there was a young officer who was in charge of the first group of Seabees that was training here, and he approached Mr Iafrate and asked if he could help create some kind of a logo that would help entice people on the outside, construction workers that might wanna join this new Navy outfit, the Construction Battalions.

So while he's home, he's in the library in North Providence, he's kinda looking through some encyclopedias and dictionaries, and trying to come up with what kind of creature works in the water and builds something.

So of course the first thing that comes to mind is the beaver.

Well, that doesn't work, because when you approach a beaver, the first thing they do is they smack their tail and they run away.

So we couldn't become the Fighting Beavers.

So now the next thing he's trying to think of is, okay, what else is something that's very, very industrious, works very hard, and when you mess with them they kinda pack a little bit of a punch.

Well, first thing that comes to mind is the bee.

So behind me, I have one of the original drawings of Frank Iafrate's logo.

His first logo actually came out with the bee.

He puts a sailor's hat on top of it to make it Navy.

He puts the Tommy gun in the front to symbolize that, okay, he's gonna have a little bit of a bite to him if you mess with him, and he puts all the tools in their hands, to show construction.

He puts the Navy rating on there, for the rates or the jobs of the Seabees, and the little Civil Engineer Corps insignias, to signify the officers in charge of the Seabees.

Frank's first drawing goes to Washington DC with the big letter Q around it, which stood for Quonset Point, where he was working and the first Seabees trained.

well, Admiral Ben Moreell, who was the Chief of the Civil Engineer Corps and the Bureau of Yards and Docks in charge of Seabees, thinks that the logo is great.

But he writes back to Mr Iafrate and says, "I need you to make one change.

I need you to take that big letter Q off of it, and put this big piece of Navy lined around the outside of it, or hawser, they call it.

So he makes the change, sends it back to Washington.

And Admiral Ben Moreell, here's a copy of the letter from Ben Moreell to Frank Iafrate saying, "We accept your logo."

And this was the final drawing.

- [Alan] This letter, and, in fact, most of the collection here, has been donated to the museum by individuals and families of veterans.

There are captured flags and assorted weapons, uniforms from the past 80 years, and this unique piece of diving equipment.

- What we have here was donated to the museum, is what we call a shallow water diving equipment.

This was donated to the museum from a gentleman from Salt Lake City, Utah.

His father was stationed in the Pacific, in the Philippines.

And this is actually shown in the 1943 Navy diving manual.

So an operator would stand here above, on the dock.

He would would operate this hand pump, and he would pump this back and forth to the stabilization tank right here, which would then be connected to the diver.

This is the original mask that they wore, with 30 feet of hose, and that would be probably the maximum depth for this.

And this would be utilized for maybe making repairs on PT boats, inspecting docks and wharfs, and making any kind of repairs at a maximum depth of approximately 30 feet.

(lively music) What we have here is probably another one of our most significant artifacts.

Everybody thinks that the Seabees only served or performed all their actions in the Pacific Theater.

Well, that's not true.

This particular flag was flown on a rhino Ferry at Utah Beach on the 81st Construction Battalion.

And this ferry made multiple trips back and forth on D-Day to Utah Beach.

So the Seabees played a major, significant role in the D-Day invasion, and activities after the invasion, such as rebuilding the harbor at Le Havre and Cherbourg, and stuff like that.

But they don't get much credit for that.

(lively music continuing) All of these pontoon boxes that were all bolted together that formed both rhino ferry's warping tugs, and other various configurations of these boxes were all designed and tested here during the Second World War in Allen's Harbor at what was called the Advance Base Proving Ground.

So it's another significant piece of history that happened here in Rhode Island that a lot of people are unaware of.

- [Alan] Another misconception is that Seabees were only active during World War II.

They've actually also served in every conflict since then, and those stories are told here as well.

- I was in Vietnam in '68, '69 during the Tet Offensive.

We would level off places, and we'd do a lot of work for the Marines.

This is how we lived when we were at the base camp.

This is what we call the hooch.

It was a wood construction, wood frame construction, and the inside was built into cubicles.

We all had a four-foot by eight-foot cubicle.

That's where we slept, where we played cards, lost some money.

But this is what the basic building looked like, and how it was constructed.

We built bridges.

We would build the roads to get to the edge of the river.

Sometimes it would only take a day to build a whole bridge.

It's what they called a Bailey bridge.

It came in sections.

And a lot of times, you'd get the bridge done just before dark.

You'd go back to where you're sleeping, and the next morning you go out and you build the same bridge again, because the enemy will come during the night and blow it up.

The Seabees couldn't do what they had to do, with the jungles and everything, without heavy equipment such as this machine right here.

It's a caterpillar bulldozer.

And when they ordered these, they came through without the blade, without the winch on the back.

Those are all options.

And this is what we need to start any project, whether we got to excavate, we go into jungles in Vietnam, and, for instance, we'd push down all the foliage so we could construct whatever we're gonna do.

- [Alan] Beyond the heavy equipment, the museum also has an extensive collection of documents and records.

Visitors can research anything, from individual units to blueprints for an original Quonset hut.

At the Seabee Museum, the treasures shed light on an often untold or under-told part of our history.

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