my craft genealogy project:

What does China have to do with it?

What does China have to do with my craft genealogy project? Well, it’s a detour for certain, but there is a connection. Last week my wife & I went to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts and among the exhibitions there is a house moved over from China 20 years ago. We had seen it long ago and I had forgotten the details. It’s an astounding thing to see. The effort to record, dismantle and rebuild it was monumental. The tour through it is self-directed - but you’re limited to 30 minutes. I think the best thing to do would be to sign up for two trips through it, then you wouldn’t feel rushed. There’s an audio guide, which I hate, loathe & despise. I would prefer to talk to someone who knows about the exhibit. We did get a few questions answered, but missed the kitchen because of poor, last-minute directions - “It’s over there...”

Yin Yu Tang house, Peabody Essex Museum

The house was built in the late 18th century and by the mid-1980s was uninhabited. Peabody Essex and the family made arrangements for the house to become part of the exhibit here. It’s timber-framed with exterior walls of masonry - sandstone and brick from what I understand. Sixteen (yes, 16!) bedrooms. The original kitchen had fallen into decay and the present one is reconstructed - based on evidence in the original setting and related buildings in the area. 

The documentation and reconstruction is impressive. As I said, I opted out of the audio tour, so instead just wandered around looking at details.  There are very few exterior windows, but there are interior windows opening into a courtyard that’s open to the sky. The carved “screens” in these windows on the ground floor are out of this world -

carved inserts in windows