Parlor
This room was used for special occasions and entertaining adults. No children were allowed when guests were here. This would be where nicer, upholstered furniture was kept.
This room was used for special occasions and entertaining adults. No children were allowed when guests were here. This would be where nicer, upholstered furniture was kept.
John Jay French Museum Tour
ParlorThis room was used for special occasions and entertaining adults. No children were allowed when guests were here. This would be where nicer, upholstered furniture was kept.
In John and Sally's room, one featured item was the hair receptacle!
Back then, whenever women would brush their hair out they would pull the hair out of the brush and place it in the receptacle. Once they collected enough hair, they could send it off and have artwork or jewelry made from it. This is an example of hair art. Everything in that is tightly woven hair except for the ribbon at the bottom and the metal piece off to the left-hand side.
It's different colors because there were women of different ages in the family. Hair art also became known as funeral art, as families would collect hair from a deceased loved one to make into a special memory.
This music box on top of the piano was gifted to Mr. French on his 12th birthday. It was made in the 1700s in England and played music from cannisters that rotated inside. The songs, called Ayres, are listed inside the lid.
Pictured (left) is the eldest daughter of John and Sally French, Nancy French Burrell. Nancy and her husband George (right) remained on the 4000-acre land grant John intended to settle on.
Music was the main form of entertainment for the French family. John and Sally would play the piano or Mr. French’s accordion. David recalled his father playing Methodist hymns for his mother as they sat on the front porch of their home in the evening.
This whale oil lamp was popular in the 19th century because it was smokeless and odorless. Kerosene or animal fat often produced a strong, undesirable smell. This would allow the parlor to be seen as fancy and suitable for entertaining.
This family Bible belonged to John Jay French. Family Bibles were incredibly important, as they recorded their family genealogy in their Bible - dates and locations of births, deaths, marriages, and so on. Electa Jane II, who was the French's oldest living daughter, disappears from the family record.
According to legend passed down from the family, it is said she married a man Mr. French did not approve of. She was completely disowned and the family was not allowed to have any further communication with her again after that. We do know that David and Nancy, who were closest to her in age, continued to have some communication, especially Nancy's through letters. It is believed she eventually ended up in Louisiana, but Electa Jane's true fate has never been proven.