Macculloch Hall Historical Museum

Five generations of the Macculloch - Miller - Post family lived at Macculloch Hall. From 1810-1947, this family experienced and participated the events of American history. Learn more about the descendants who lived at Maculloch Hall and their accomplishments by exploring the timeline below.

1812-1949: Who is living at Macculloch Hall?

While he never lived at Macculloch Hall, W. Parsons Todd is an important part of the Museum's history. Click through the slideshow images below to learn more about him. 

W. Parsons Todd

School desks at Macculloch Hall Historical Museum

Student Engagement: Preserving Your School's History

The people who work at museums have choices to make about what stories are told, what artifacts are displayed, and how people tour the spaces. Over the past 75 years,  Macculloch Hall Historical Museum has looked different. Click through the slides below to see past and present ways visitors saw the museum.

Interpreting Macculloch Hall Historical Museum: Then and Now

Pick one of the rooms from the previous activity and compare and contrast them in the Venn Diagram below. Students can write directly on the Venn Diagram using the text tools or download and print a PDF of the page to complete with a pencil. 

Student Engagement: Compare and Contrast MHHM Rooms 

Macculloch Hall Historical Museum has hundreds of objects in the collection. They cannot display all of them at once. It is the job of museum staff to pick the objects that tell relevant and engaging stories about the history associated with the house and those who lived in it. Click through the slideshow to learn about some of the key artifacts on display at the museum.

Key Objects in the Collection

Center Hall, Macculloch Hall Historical Museum

Student Engagement: Create your Own Museum Exhibit

Think about the role museums have to educate the public on the history of a community as you answer the following questions. 

Reflection and Discussion Questions

Established in 1950, Macculloch Hall Historical Museum has served as Morristown's community museum for 75 years. But how does one family's home go from a place to live to a museum for all? This Resource Kit explores the history of the building, the people who lived in the home, and how a museum was created. Students have the opportunity to research and design their own museum exhibit about their school's history

Educator Overview_ From Home to Museum.pdf

Macculloch Hall Historical Museum Website

From Home to Museum: How do you Make a Museum?

U.S. History

Social Studies

Visual Arts

The Arts

Careers

Careers in Museums

W. Parsons Todd was born in Brooklyn on November 18, 1877. He moved to Morristown with his family at age five, received his education at the Morris Academy, now Morristown Beard, and for more than 72 years commuted to his job as the President of the Quincy Mining Company in midtown Manhattan.

Todd was a good friend of Phyllis Bard McVickar Langstaff, a great-granddaughter of Mary Louisa Macculloch and her husband Jacob Miller. The Langstaffs lived for a short time at Macculloch Hall before moving next door to The Kedge, the house built by Phyllis's great-uncle Hal in the 1870s. When Macculloch Hall was listed for sale by descendants of the Macculloch family in 1949, Phyllis Langstaff convinced Todd to buy and preserve the historic site.

Oil on canvas portrait of MHHM founder, W. Parsons Todd.

WP Todd portrait.jpg

W. Parsons Todd Portrait

Todd loved Morristown and served the town and community faithfully throughout his life. He was a member of the Board of Education, the Board of Aldermen, and mayor twice. Todd was also a vestryman of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Redeemer; a board member of All Souls Hospital, the Morris County Urban League, the Salvation Army, and the Morristown Library; and president of the Morris County Easter Seal Center. He also commissioned three monuments in Morristown to honor veterans of the the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II. Todd was affectionately known as "Mr. Morristown" until his death in 1976.

Photo Caption: W. Parsons Todd Campaign Headquarters for 1st Ward Alderman, 1933, Photograph, Photo: Merritt E. Gregory

Todd (1877-1976) purchased Macculloch Hall from George Macculloch's great-grandson, Henry Wise Miller, in 1949. Todd paid $10,000 for the 20-room mansion and its three-acre garden. Todd invested more than $100,000 into the site's restoration from 1950 to 1955.

Todd was dedicated to preserving local and New Jersey state history through his collections. He preserved some of the area's Gilded Age past in Morristown through his purchase of several fine works of art from Florham at the auction of the Twombly Estate in 1955. In MHHM's Historic Archives, Todd preserved what we know about life at Macculloch Hall in the letters, journals, receipts, and photographs left behind by generations of the Macculloch family who lived in the house from 1810 through 1949, opening a window into the lives of the family.

How does Todd's preservation of Macculloch Hall align with his reputation as "Mr. Morristown"?

Photo Caption: Exterior of Macculloch Hall, 1955, Photograph, Photo: N.L. Silverstein

Thomas Nast (1840-1902) was a prominent political cartoonist in the mid to late 1800s. He created hundreds of cartoons including the Democratic Donkey, Republican Elephant, Uncle Sam, Columbia, Tammany Tiger, and Santa Clause.

In 1871, Nast moved is family out of New York City to Morristown, NJ, believing it to be a safe distance from his politicam enemy, William "Boss" Tweed. Nast was an active resident of Morristown and lived in a house across the street from Macculloch Hall. 

Todd was childhood friends with Nast's son Cyril. As teenagers they played baseball together. 

Todd and Cyril Nast remained in contact throughout their lives, and when Todd founded the Museum he began to purchase Thomas Nast's artwork and belongings directly from his friend Cyril Nast. This was the beginning the MHHM Thomas Nast Collection. 

Seated left to right: Unknown, Cyril Nast, W. Parsons Todd

Photo Caption: W. Parsons Todd (1877-1976) and Cyril Nast (1879-1966), c. 1893, Photograph

Resource Kits

Object Library

Museums

From Home to Museum: How do you Make a Museum?

W. Parsons Todd

Guiding Question

Who is W. Parsons Todd?