The
Victorian Bedroom 1850-1875
This
Victorian bedroom is much brighter and lighter than the
corresponding parlor downstairs. The classic floral design
fitted carpet, the wall paper and delicate lace window
curtains are reproductions made from original designs
of the period.Gertrude
and Adelaide Parry, daughters of Richard Randolph Parry,
were very young sisters during this period and so the
room has been arranged as if young sisters inhabited
it.
Abraham
Lincoln was President during the Civil War and was assassinated
shortly before it ended in 1864. He was fond of this
type of high back rosewood bed and the style became known
as the "Lincoln Bed". The
dress on the bed is a lady's riding dress. It looks like
an outfit that Scarlet O'Hara would wear.
The
artwork of the time is sweet and sentimental. A pair
of Victorian Chromos or lithographic prints on either
side of the bed depicts the theme "My Favorite Playmate". The
marble topped dresser and
washstand
suite is what A. J. Downing, a renowned architect of
the period, referred to in his writings as "cottage
furniture".
The
fireplace has been blocked and a rococo cast iron bedroom
stove installed to provide heat near the crib, mother's
rocker and sewing table. The table belonged to Ellen
Parry, Richard's wife. The Parry family bible, dated
1856, has a flame stitched cover.
Victorians
loved their trinkets as seen in the small gold porcelain
slipper, the bisque figures, the Staffordshire lamb and
figurines and the Parian figure of a man ice skating (a
Parry possession). The United States celebrated its Centennial
in 1876 and the velvet-beaded pincushion commemorates that
event.
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