Glass plate slide projector
Projector
John Knowlton Machine Works
Metal, glass, wood, paper
1925-1935
Mission House Collection, The Trustees
Mabel Choate, a Stockbridge summer resident and early preservationist, lead the restoration effort of the historic circa 1740 Mission House in Stockbridge as a memorial to John Sergeant and the Stockbridge Mohican Indians. She hired the noted landscape architect Fletcher Steele to oversee the restoration and to create a series of gardens surrounding the house. The restoration and gardens were finished in 1933.
This glass plate slide projector, The Westbrook, was made by the John Knowlton Machine Works of Westbrook, Maine. The Mission House Association, which counted Steele as a member, used the projector to give talks about the historic house and gardens. The Mission House became a property of The Trustees in 1948. The gift included all of the furniture collected by Mabel Choate, this projector and a case filled with all the original glass plate negatives of the house and gardens taken in 1933.