Other Resources
Visit these online resources to learn more about furniture and Boston’s material past. The majority of these resources are unaffiliated with the Boston Furniture Archive or the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library.
Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture
The Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library has created the Boston Furniture Archive in conjunction with Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture, an unprecedented collaboration of eleven cultural institutions exploring furniture production and use across the Commonwealth.
Online Collections of Furniture and Decorative Arts
Regional and Multiple-Owner Databases
- Five Colleges and Historic Deerfield Museum Consortium
- Gulf South Decorative & Fine Arts Database
- Kentucky Online Arts Resource
- Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts Craftsman Database
- The Rhode Island Furniture Archive
- William J. Hill Texas Artisans and Artists Archive
- Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database
Institutional Databases
Boston Directories Digitized by the Boston Athenaeum
The Boston Directory, as stated on the title page of the first issue in 1789, was “A List of the Merchants, Mechanics, Traders, and others of the Town of Boston; in Order to enable Strangers to find the Residence of any Person.” Over the years, the format evolved into a familiar one, with public offices listed in front, residents in the middle, and businesses at the end, with advertisements added beginning in 1820.
