一个真正的洋娃娃

Rebeccah Codman Butterfield arrived here at the Society in October and has garnered much attention, less for her girlish good looks than for her fascinating life story. 根据捐赠者母亲留下的字条, 埃利斯·菲尼·泰勒, 别在娃娃的衬裙上, 丽贝卡的生活很久以前就开始了，但并不遥远。

我叫丽贝卡·科德曼·巴特菲尔德. 我生于1841年. My mother made me and I was the darling of the 布鲁克农场ers & 他们的孩子. 布鲁克农场被称为先验主义者. 我和奥尔科特一家一起长大, 乔治·里普利, 约翰S[德怀特], 玛格丽特·福勒, 拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生, 亨利。梭罗, 威廉·埃勒里·钱宁, 伊丽莎白·皮博迪 & 纳撒尼尔·霍桑，难怪我看起来有点崩溃! 我是巴特菲尔德家所有孩子的娃娃 & 那辉煌的殖民地中受人爱戴的一员.“农业研究所 & 教育. 在布鲁克农场的第一个夏天，家里的人很少, 15到20个人，但很快波士顿附近就有了 & from distant lands brought a large number of scholars--I won't go into those happy [days?但整个团队分担了所有的工作, 硬或简单, 用心甘情愿的双手, no person interfered with the rights of others in religion or any way. 我老了，话也多了. 7年后，布鲁克农场走到了尽头 & 我搬到了波士顿，在那里我过着非常幸福的生活 & 现在我属于埃利斯，他对我很好 & 她所有的孙子孙女都爱我——人还能要求什么呢?

Teasing out the truth from the romance of Rebeccah's story was less than straightforward. 纸条上提到的所有名人, 只有乔治·里普利(创始人), 纳撒尼尔·霍桑(有过一段不愉快的短暂时光), 约翰·S. 德怀特实际上是成员. It also seems likely that Rebeccah was a member of the Codman (rather than Butterfield) family and was made by either Rebecca B. (Hall) Codman or her daughter Sarah Rebecca Codman, later called simply Rebecca. Doll-making (and costume) was serious business in the nineteenth century, preparing young doll owners for the domestic work of womanhood. 丽贝卡的两件套头, 亮晶晶的棕色玻璃眼睛, was probably purchased and attached to the body and her costume made by hand. 虽然她的衣服是后期的, 它也是手工制作的, 还有她可能是原创的内衣, 在精致的手工编织花边修剪. 如果丽贝卡的出生日期是1841年的话, Codman daughter Rebecca would have been a little old to play with dolls, but one could certainly envision a teen setting out for the unknown wanting the comfort of a familiar friend to accompany her. 当然, the many children living at 布鲁克农场 or attending school there must have found Rebeccah irresistible.

布鲁克农场的柯德曼一家

1843年3月, 在布鲁克农场成立两年后, the Codman family of Boston arrived at West Roxbury to take their place in the community: John, 一名机械师, 丽贝卡(霍尔)科德曼, 他们的儿子查尔斯和约翰·托马斯, 大约14到17岁, 和女儿莎拉·丽贝卡, 大约18岁. The Codmans were no strangers to reform movements--mother Rebecca was an active member of the Ladies' Physiological Society, which promoted awareness and sponsored lectures on women's anatomy and health issues, 通常由妇女接生. The Codmans arrived at 布鲁克农场 at a time of transition. Some of the founding members had departed and the community was beginning to adopt the teachings of Charles Fourier and move away from being a strictly agricultural endeavor. As Rebecca Codman Butterfield notes in her "Reminiscences," "various mechanical industries had been introduced … the various labors of the farm, 家庭, 讲习班由一般部门负责, 叫系列, and these again subdivided into smaller departments called groups … Each Group had its head or chief … who had charge of the work allotted to the Group, 并指示如何和何时应该这样做." Charles Codman was young enough to be a pupil at the school and the rest of the family settled down to their labors. A list of the top thirty workers at 布鲁克农场 compiled by Sterling Delano shows the four elder Codmans contributing mightily to the effort. 从1844年5月到1845年4月, 丽贝卡和她的女儿工作2,678和2,分别为858小时, placing them in the top ten; father John and son John Thomas were 24th and 26th in the rankings, 贡献了2,322和2,工作时间298小时.

然而，布鲁克农场的生活并不全是工作. 幸存的回忆录, including those of Rebecca Butterfield and John Thomas Codman, 回忆起在布鲁克农场的生活, 但在智力上和社交上都很刺激. After the work was done for the day, music, lectures, dancing, and conversation reigned supreme. Men, women, and children worked, played, and learned side by side. The Codman family remained at 布鲁克农场 until the bitter end, a few short months after the hopes and dreams of the residents of 布鲁克农场 literally went up in flames on the evening of 3 March 1846 (although the financial difficulties faced by the enterprise likely would have doomed them eventually).

小溪边的爱情

Although only one marriage occurred during 布鲁克农场's existence, John T. Codman recollected fourteen marriages resulting from friendships formed at the Farm, 在他们中间, 他妹妹和乔纳森·巴特菲尔德的婚姻, 布鲁克农场报纸的印刷工, 预示着. 在科德曼的回忆中，他们是“高大、有男子气概、面容英俊的人”, 脸色明朗的“英雄”(巴特菲尔德), 她的卷发比另一个还要多), looking for a dark-eyed girl who afterward became his faithful and loving wife." Rebecca Butterfield herself later counted the mingling of the sexes as one of the chief advantages of 布鲁克农场 life. She noted in her "Reminiscences" that much of the misunderstandings and unhappiness of married life springs from a faulty knowledge of each other, gained in the limited acquaintanceship allowed by our present imperfect social system … Young men and women rarely meet in relations to each other which admit opportunities to learn either the strength or the weakness of character, 异性的. Rebecca Codman and Jonathan Butterfield were married in the years after leaving 布鲁克农场 in 1847 and had one daughter, 艾拉, 谁生于1850年，死于1884年. 在他们的晚年, 巴特菲尔德一家住在西梅德福, 麻萨诸塞州, 1894年，76岁的乔纳森在那里去世. 丽贝卡一直活到1911年12月23日. 他们在梅德福的邻居中有菲尼一家, whose daughter Ellis eventually came into possession of the doll and Rebecca Codman Butterfield's manuscript Reminiscences, 在许多其他项目中, which have been generously donated over the years to the Society by her descendants. 该协会还拥有两幅布鲁克农场的画作, 都是乔赛亚·沃尔科特写的, 一个曾为柯德曼家族成员所有(http://searchclasses.littletatanka.net/database/43), the other depicting the farm with a rainbow overhead (http://searchclasses.littletatanka.net/database/451)