Our set dressing department, Beyond Fig Leaves Home & Business Decor, has partnered with Hearthstone Historic House Museum to produce their latest exhibit: Flowers & Phonographs!
The Phonographs
In this special tour, the Rolfs will chronicle the development of the phonograph, from the earliest Tinfoil Phonograph to the affordable entertainment product that millions could enjoy. Guests will also share in the excitement of those first recordings by making an Edison wax cylinder recording of their voices.
The tour will feature original Edison phonographs with beautiful, flowered horns playing the works of Eben Rexford who is best remembered for penning the lyrics to Silver Threads Among the Gold. Written in 1872, the song was not only among the first to be recorded acoustically, but it is also one of the most recorded songs in music history.
At the same time, Hearthstone will be premiering its new Victorian landscape design for the museum’s grounds based on Rexford’s design precepts.
The Flowers
To accent the phonographs, Beyond Fig Leaves Home & Business Decor assembled the “FLORAL” side of the exhibit, which highlights the Victorian culture’s norm of FLORIOGRAPHY, also known as the “Language of Flowers.”
Floriography was a way to send messages using specific plants and flowers. Combining different flowers allowed them to send more complex or sophisticated messages. The language of flowers has been recognized for centuries in many countries throughout Europe and Asia. They even played a large role in William Shakespeare’s works. Mythologies, folklore, sonnets and plays of the ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Chinese are peppered with flower and plant symbolism—and for good reason.
Later during the 1800s, learning the special symbolism of flowers became a popular pastime. Nearly all Victorian homes had alongside their Bible, guidebooks for deciphering the “language,” although definitions shifted depending on the source.
With this exhibit, we wanted to broaden people’s understanding of how the Victorians saw flowers: They were equivalent to modern-day text messaging!
ASPECT #1: Bouquets
To highlight the individual phonographs throughout the museum, we created bouquets to match their floral designs!
ASPECT #2: Interactive Floral Hunt
As you enter the museum you will find a HUGE basket with a number of single flowers by the front door, one of which you get to choose. As you tour the museum, you can look for the meaning of your flower on the corresponding card!
If you would like to visit Hearthstone Historic House Museum, visit their website (click button below) for more information about their hours of operation, current exhibits, upcoming events and much more!
SPECIAL THANKS…
We would like to thank the administration of Hearthstone Historic House Museum for allowing us to help create this beautiful exhibit! We cannot wait to hear feedback about this event 🙂
Stay tuned for BEHIND THE SCENES of creating this exhibit!
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