Harvard Forest Dioramas in Petersham, Mass.

[Brian Austin]

Recently my father and I visited the pleasant small town of Petersham in central Massachusetts.  In a small museum there is a series of large dioramas built throughout the 1930s portraying the history of forestry and issues faced in the caring of New England forests.  (Museum website: http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/fisher-museum for captions and pictures).  Most dioramas were set in periods of history preceding the advent of motor vehicles, but I did see at least two model trucks, one of which is the fire truck shown below.  The other, a '10s or '20s work truck, was a background model in an "out of order" diorama that was darkened and impossible for me to photograph.  I'm trying to guess in hindsight the scale of the fire truck...somewhere between 1:32 and 1:24.  Forced perspective was cleverly employed in all the dioramas, so figures decreased in size toward the background. 

The diorama with the fire truck depicts one of the many forest fires that broke out in the aftermath of the Hurricane of 1938.  A second diorama showed the same scene after the fire had been extinguished and the fire crews gone home, with the charred landscape evident.  Another one depicts various land erosion issues.  The lighting design in that one is beautiful, and replicates the play of cloud shadows on a hillside.  A final display shows model construction techniques.  Each tree was composed of strands of copper wire twisted together, while figures were formed of wax sculpted over wire armature.  Leaves and pine needles were fashioned from etched copper sheet.

My photographs give only a taste of the dioramas and their compositions, as I took mainly detail shots: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_w_austin/albums/72157671112596566

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tesla]

Thank you for sharing this Brian. I've passed through this quaint town many times over the years. I will make it a point to visit this museum.

[Brian Austin]

(Jeez...just when I thought I'd gotten the hang of posting pictures and links in this forum...)

 

I didn't mention there was no admission charged, so there's no reason not to drop in.  :-)  (My father and I did leave a donation at the door though.)

[GLMFAA1]

Any credit to builder(s), Could Charlie be involved?

greg

[Brian Austin]

To reiterate, the dioramas were built in the 1930s, the brush fire diorama being built some time shortly after the Hurricane of 1938.  Project was started in the early '30s by Theodore B. Pitman, known for his realistic historic dioramas, often of military or naval theme.  He had a studio along with Samuel Guernsey and others in Cambridge, Mass. (Harvard Square) but IIRC he passed away before the completion of the project.  One of Pitman's dioramas can be seen in City Hall in Newton, Mass. though I have not visited there myself.  The Fisher Museum building in which the dioramas have been placed was completed in the early '40s.  I haven't found info regarding who built the fire truck model.

[charlie8575]

What a cool little Indian motorcycle; that's one I would love to see in 1/25. Those dioramas are gorgeous.

I have friends out that way, sometime, I'm going to have to make a little extra time to go poke through the museum.

Charlie Larkin