Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle

Brother M went on a cousins trip with GMama and GpaJ to New Jersey and NYC.  He had a lot of fun visiting with Great Grandpa Bob and learning about all of his inventions.  He also got to see Harry Potter the musical on Broadway, which was a big treat. 

Grandpa J met me half way in Doylestown, PA so that I could pick up Brother M and we could visit some amazing museums there. First, we visited the Mercer Museum, which Henry Mercer built to house his collection of artifacts. He felt that the tools of the working people told the story of their lives better than the writings of wars and big events did.  That really speaks to me.  I spend a lot of time with a hoe or a kitchen bowl in my hands. 

The museum is seven floors of artifacts and machinery from the late 1800s and early 1900s. 

I loved the collection of pottery.  These are just the kinds of pieces that I would like to make in my pottery class. 

They had a room that was called The General Store.  I loved the ladle gourds and baskets. 

The tools of farmers with little machinery. For a small scale farmer like me, I feel like these are still quite efficient. 

Butter molds.  Butter was a treat and they made it look beautiful. 

Printing fabric with wood cuts and wax.

Baby A loved the interactive kitchen area.  They showed the way that foods were packaged and sold back in the early 1900s. 

Mr Mercer was a tile manufacturer and had a lot of molds and patterns for creating tiles in his museum.

Then we went to Mr. Mercer's home, Fonthill Castle. 

It is quite unique and had a lot of eccentric features.  

Number one amazing feature, was the awesome collection and variety of tiles used throughout the house. And a close second was the vast number of books that Mr. Mercer collected over the years.  And I thought we had a lot of books.  I think she said that he has 70,000 in his collection.

Lots of cute nooks and crannies and passageways. 

Mr. Mercer was a bachelor and was very attached to his dogs. There is a painting of him in the upper right corner here:

Our very careful troop of tourists.  We had to be careful with baby A among all the machines and unsafe railings in the museum and in the house we were not allowed to touch anything. Our guide was quite nervous about the children messing things up.  It's all out there instead of being behind glass. Still it was a wonderful tour and I am so glad to have finally been able to see it.