Tyler

The Richard Borden Chapter, Colonial Dames XVII Century, is celebrating Colonial Heritage Month with a Colonial Heritage Display at the Tyler Public Library throughout the month of October, chapter president Anna Marie Lee said.

Antique lace bonnets, aprons and collars from the 1600s, colonial toys, vintage purses, eyeglasses, sewing kits, colonial tools, handmade bricks, the colonial flag and sheet music, writing instruments, educational tools and items of heraldry are just a few of the items showcased in the exhibit.

Examples of antique hand made lace from the 1600s on display include Flemish, Honiton, Bobbin Lace, Milanses lace and white Tambour handwork, all from the private lace collection of Richard Borden Chapter member Madeline Alworth. Various toys representative of the colonial period including the "Tabletop Ninepins," "Peg Top," "Spindle" and "Wooden Top"are also featured along with "Wooden Paper Dolls" or "Peg Dolls."

"These dolls, usually hand-carved out of wood, were a favorite colonial pastime. Various colonial period teaching tools, including samplers, bark used as paper by early colonial children, a quill pen and a recipe for ink, are also on exhibit," Mrs. Lee said.

Vintage purses, jewelry, antique sewing kits and a handmade lace tablecloth from the collection of Richard Borden Chapter member Billye Nolan are displayed.

Also showcased is a heraldry display featuring the Colonial Dame XVII Century Heraldry Book with Arms along with Heraldry Certificates belonging to Richard Borden Chapter members Paula Warren and Mrs. Lee.

The exhibit also features a framed drawing of the home of prominent colonial minister Reverend John Lathrop, a 1605 graduate of Cambridge University, founder of Barnstable, Massachusetts in 1639 and ancestor of Richard Borden Chapter member Anna Lee. Reverend Lathrop's home, now the Sturgis Library, is the oldest library in the United States. A photo of Reverend Lathrop's Bishop's Bible, printed in 1605 and brought to the colonies from England by Reverend Lathrop while sailing aboard the "Griffin"in 1634, is also featured. This Bible is on permanent display in the Lathrop Room of the Sturgis Library in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Reverand Lathrop's famous descendants include President George W. Bush, President George Herbert Walker Bush, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President Ulysses S. Grant, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Governor Mitt Romney, Senator Adlai Stevenson III, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Benjamin Spock, fiancier J. P. Morgan, Congressman David Daniel Marriott, John Foster Dulles, Eli Whitney, actress Dina Merrill and Vice Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin among others.

Founded in 1915 in Washington D.C., the National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century is composed of 13,000 members in 46 state societies and one international society in Canada. Members are the lineal descendants of an ancestor who lived and rendered civil or military service prior to 1701 in one of the Original Colonies in the geographical area of the present United States of America. Members aid in the preservation of the records and historic sites of our country, conduct historical colonial research, aid in the education of the country's youth, and commemorate the noble and heroic deeds of the founders of our great Republic. The society maintains the principles and patriotism which led to the independence of the colonies and the foundation of the United States. In addition members maintain a library specializing in seventeenth century American colonial data and Heraldry.