Exhibition in honor of The 150th Anniversary of the Tower Bells
Posted on Friday, April 9th, 2010
The bells now in the tower of Christ Church were dedicated on Easter Sunday 1860. There is a small exhibition in the Rectors' Reception Room, just behind the chancel, that celebrates this event. Among the items on display are a circular and an oh-so-1850s book of poems used to raise funds for the bells--an effort led by Richard Henry Dana, author of Two Years before the Mast, and some of his Harvard friends, all members of the parish. A copy of a wood engraving by Winslow Homer shows the bells at the foundry, just before they were shipped to the church. Photographs from the 1940s and 1980s show parishioners ringing the bells. The exhibition case was given to Christ Church by Erika Chadbourn in memory of her husband, Professor James Harmon Chadbourn, in 1983. The new acrylic enclosure is given in memory of Erika, in thanksgiving for her service as parish historian in the 1980s. One of the first exhibitions she presented told the story of the bells. The exhibition now on view includes are some of the labels she prepared.