While most of the recipients of the Antiques Dealers Association’s Award of Merit are active in the trade, there are a few noteworthy exceptions. This year’s winners, Jane and Richard Nylander, are a perfect case in point.
The Nylanders are not antiques dealers, but it is their shared passion for historic preservation and research into America’s material culture that brought them this accolade from the association, which will bestow its 2010 Award of Merit on the couple at its annual dinner, Saturday, April 17, during the run of The Philadelphia Antiques Show.
“Jane and Richard Nylander are unsung heroes of our world of material history,” said dealer and founding ADA member Arthur Liverant, Colchester, Conn.
“Their research over the years has provided tremendous insight into how the founders of our country lived and prospered. The Nylanders’ willingness to share their scholarship with other researchers, curators, collectors and dealers is legendary. We have all benefited from their discoveries and they are well deserving of our appreciation.”
A listing of the couple’s many contributions to the scholarly field would take up more room than this article can provide (and have already been well detailed in a 2005 Antiques and The Arts article when the couple received a lifetime award from the New England chapter of the Victorian Society of America.)
Suffice to say, their curriculum vitae reads like a Who’s Who among New England historical groups. They have spent decades working in directorial and curatorial positions at such iconic institutions as Old Sturbridge Village, the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England) and Portsmouth’s own Strawbery Banke Museum, where Jane was director from 1986 to 1992.
Dozens of articles and several books later, the couple has created a rich legacy, documenting early New England culture and, in many cases, breaking new ground where earlier research on textiles, wallpaper and the like was nonexistent or scant.
Even now, with both officially retired, they continue to pursue their passions. Richard has a slew of consulting assignments for historical institutions, while Jane is pursuing a book project that examines New England parade floats from the Nineteenth Century to the early Twentieth Century.
“Looking at the floats as folk art, it turned out to be fascinating,” she said, adding that she found a treasure trove of primary source material in the way of photographs and newspaper articles. The most interesting parade artifact she found through her research was a ship’s model that was used in New Haven, Conn., on July 4, 1788, the “Year of the Adoption of the Federal Constitution.” It was also carried in the April 25, 1888, procession that celebrated the 250th anniversary of New Haven.
She has written articles on the subject and is in the process of focusing her research into a book format and lining up a publisher. The subject seems to be a touchstone of sorts, with nearly everyone she has talked to about the project instantly lighting up and fondly recalling a parade from their childhood.
After Richard’s retirement from Historic New England in 2008 (at which time he was named curator emeritus), where he began in the curatorial department in 1967, he finished off a few projects for that institution that he had begun earlier and has consulted for other historical groups around the country.
Declaring, however, that “summer vacation starts in April,” he and Jane are cutting back on their work schedules this spring and plan to spend more time in their home and garden, as well as engaging in their favorite leisure activities.
An avid gardener, Richard enjoys being inspired by other gardens and rates delphiniums and poppies among some of his favorite plants. He has quite a few poppies in his garden, but said a “horticultural experiment” of trying to successfully grow a blue poppy in New Hampshire has not ended happily. His garden is enhanced by the additions over the years of plants from his parents’ garden, as well as cherished cuttings from friends’ gardens. The end result is both aesthetically and sentimentally pleasing, making for a memory garden of sorts.
The couple has also consciously made travel a priority in the last few years, embarking on trips to England, the West Coast and other favorite locales, both for vacations and when invitations came to present lectures.
Their summer home in Maine also got more use last summer alone than in recent years combined as the Nylanders enjoyed spending time there with their three grown children, Sarah, Tom and Tim, and their grandchildren. All three children live in New England and share their parents’ interests in preservation or conservation in some manner. Tom works for the Environmental Protection Agency, while Tim is a renovation contractor and Sarah is a museum educator.
“The other joy of retirement is [having more time to attend] antiques shows and auctions,” Richard said, with Jane adding that they also are seeing more exhibitions now and attending seminars.
The couple is living proof that education is a lifelong pursuit and their ongoing research continues to uncover new bodies of evidence that add to the database of knowledge of early New England life and culture.
Among the dealers who have benefited from the Nylanders’ scholarship are Suzanne Courcier and Robert Wilkins, who met Jane and Richard professionally about ten years ago and the two couples quickly hit it off socially, sharing many mutual interests. Courcier highly praised the couple’s scholarship in the field. “I think it’s tremendous; they have been tirelessly promoting the material culture of New England and they’ve added greatly to people’s understanding of the past,” she said.
Northeast Auctions owner Ron Bourgeault also regards the couple in the highest esteem, saying, “Historic preservation in New England has had a few great couples that have done so much for the cause. Jane and Richard rank right up there with Nina and Bert Little, M’Lou and Dean Fales and Barbara and Gerry Ward.”
Given that the Nylanders have such extensive contacts among the museum and antiques world, it is no surprise that the ADA dinner has already attracted a good turnout. The couple’s children and grandchildren will be among those in attendance, which thrills Jane and Richard.
Looking back on nearly 40 years of marriage and as many years spent working in similar fields, Richard said, “We’re incredibly lucky that we enjoy the same things.”
And for those who love antiques and historic items and study them, we are lucky that the Nylanders have blazed a path for others to follow.
For tickets to the dinner, www.adadealers.com or 203-364-9913.
