Provenance

Probably commissioned by Abijah Rowley (1725–1776) and Hannah Rowley (née Hannah Curtice, 1729–1812), Hebron, Conn., about 1770 [see note 1]; inherited by Hannah Curtice Rowley, 1776; sold to her brother, John Curtice (1727–1811), Hebron, Conn., 1786; sold to Rev. Nathan Gillett (1772–1845), Hebron, Conn., by 1811; sold to Rev. Charles Nichols (1798–1879), Hebron, Conn., 1824/25. Purchased by Ralph Tracy Hutchinson (1831–1905) Hebron, Conn., by 1859. Purchased by Jesse Kellogg White (1879–1962), Hebron, Conn., 1924 [see note 2]; sold to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1930

Note 1: The Youngs name was once associated with this room based on a misunderstanding of its age. In 1702 Joseph Youngs (1681–1768) purchased land in the Gilead section of Hebron. The land first passed to his son Ephraim Youngs, Sr. (1712–1761), and then to his grandson Ephraim Youngs, Jr. (1736/37–1763), and his wife Elisabeth Youngs (née Elizabeth Curtice, 1736–1786). Elisabeth inherited the land from her husband and sold the parcel upon which this house was built to her brother-in-law, Abijah Rowley in 1768. Rowley’s first wife was Hannah Youngs (1734–1752), sister of Ephraim Jr., and his second wife was Hannah Curtice (1729–1812), sister of Elisabeth. Dendrochronology carried out in 2012 on the shell section of the corner cupboard revealed the wood was felled in 1769, by which time Rowley owned the property (dendrochronology report 2012, curatorial object file).

Note 2: In the 1920s the Committee on Old Houses of the Connecticut Society of the Colonial Dames of America compiled a survey of early Connecticut architecture (see “Connecticut Houses,” Bulletin of the Connecticut State Library 10 [1924]). Mrs. Harold Holcombe, a member of the committee, alerted architect J. Frederick Kelly to the house on Gilead Street in Hebron, and Kelley in turn contacted Everett V. Meeks, Dean of the Yale School of Fine Arts. Using funds provided by Francis P. Garvan, Yale purchased and extracted the woodwork from the first floor parlor (curatorial object file).