Macculloch Hall Historical Museum

Macculloch Hall Historical Museum John Adler Thomas Nast Research Library

History is nuanced and complex. In order to have a deeper understanding historians and museum professionals are constantly asking questions to know more. The written documents and physical objects people leave behind give historians and museum professionals give deeper insights into who people were, what their motivations might have been, and their interests. 

The previous two activities involved reading a brief history of Campeche chairs and a brief history of the Macculloch family. These two activities did not include all the information. That information could fill books. 

Now is your opportunity to explore more. You've read a basic history, now what do you want to know more about?  

Examples of topics to explore could be about materials, trade routes, craftsmen, historic chairs that influenced the Campeche chair, people who had Campeche chairs, etc. 

Ask a question about Campeche chairs that interests YOU. Then, find at least three sources besides this Resource Kit to help answer your question. Lastly, write a response to your own question. 

Material culture includes the tools, art, buildings, written records, clothing, furniture and any objects made or used by humans.  Material culture are examples of primary sources that historians and museum professionals use to understand the past. 

Student Engagement: Digging Deeper

After reading about the history of Campeche chairs and the conservation process, write a museum label to put next to George Macculloch's Campeche chair. Museum labels are generally a few sentences that share information and invite viewers to make connections with the object. More information about great museum labels in linked below. What information do you include in your label? What is the theme of the label? What key points would you want a visitor to the museum to take away after reading your label?

Student Engagement: Make your Own Museum Label for George Macculloch's Campeche Chair

George Macculloch, c.1850, Oil on canvas, 2007.13

The Macculloch Family

How can you see George Macculloch's Campeche Chair today? What stories can be told using the chair? Click through the slideshow below to see the chair in the museum. 

Interpreting George Macculloch's Campeche Chair in Museum

The Campeche chair was left in the attic after the family sold the house in 1949 and was removed in 2020 by professional art handlers to be conserved. It was likely left in the attic because its legs and reclining back made it nearly impossible to get down the narrow stairs from the attic. MHHM hired a professional upholsterer to do the work of conserving the chair. Michael Mascelli, professional upholsterer, started the work by detailing the condition of the chair in a Conservation Report.  Click on the circles to learn more about the state the chair was in prior to conservation as detailed in the Conservation Report.

Pre-Conservation of George Macculloch's Campeche Chair

Read each slide from the slideshow below to learn more about how a Campeche chair made its way from Mexico to the attic at Macculloch Hall in Morristown, NJ.

The History of the Campeche Chair

The goal for conserving the Campeche chair was to maintain as much of the chair as possible while also returning the object to a recognizable chair. The full conservation treatment is fully reversible if future museum curators wished to interpret the chair as it was originally found. Click on each of the colored dots to learn more about how each part of the chair was conserved as detailed in Michael Mascelli's Conservation Report. 

Conservation of George Macculloch's Campeche Chair

When is a chair more than a chair? What ideas, values, and attitudes can modern audiences learn from a chair? Through one object in the Macculloch Hall Historical Museum collection, a Campeche chair belonging to George Macculloch, this Resource Kit answers those questions. Using the chair a primary source students will gain an understanding of how museums use objects to tell stories about the past.

Resource Kits

Object Library

Museums

Museums & Material Culture: George Macculloch's Campeche Chair

Student Engagement: Digging Deeper

Guiding Question