For my analog experience, I decided to do a one-week experiment: a friend would function as my personal alarm clock. I chose one of my staff members and friend, Jennifer, to wake me up every day at 8:30am by knocking on my door. Jenn was the perfect candidate because she had 9:30 classes every day and would wake up at 8:15 to get ready and grab breakfast before class. I figured she would not mind manually waking me up since we live in the same residence hall. At first, I thought the experiment would go smoothly because as someone who suffers from chronic insomnia I assumed that I would have no trouble waking up at all.

With this experience, I wanted to continue my tradition of writing about alarm clocks and see where it would take me, and how it would change my perception of time. The first 2-3 days of the experiment was almost comical. On the first day, when Jenn knocked on my door I woke up and looked at the time on my phone and immediately decided to fall back asleep because I assumed it was a resident knocking on my door. I am a resident assistant in my hall so I always have residents knocking on my door. Some days I ignore them because I either get lazy or too tired. You can imagine my surprise when after an hour of sleep, I woke up in complete horror because I had completely failed my experiment on the first day. Not only was I disappointed but I was also shocked. I had realized that my self-reliance and self-confidence about being a morning person was completely based on the fact that my phone was my savior. Even though I still have the alarm clock my father gave me years ago, using my phone as an alarm clock had become instinctual because hitting the snooze button did not require me to leave my bed. Essentially, my phone had turned me into a completely lazy and dependent person.

The following days were much better, and to my surprise quite fun. Once Jenn knocked on my door, I would wake up and open the door to let her know that I was awake. Because I was forced to leave my bed to answer the door, I lost interest in using my phone and instead got my day started right away. In those days, I had an epiphany of sorts. I had come to realize that because I did not spend a lot of time on my phone right after waking up, my days started much earlier and felt more productive. I felt a boost in confidence because I would get work done and still have enough time to grab breakfast and go to class feeling prepared. What was meant to be an experiment had now turned into a life changing experience. While I have always known that our perception of time is partly psychological, I never really understood or appreciated this fact until after I finished this experiment. The saying “time flies” became a myth during this experiment because time did not seem to fly, time felt stable and under my control. This was a completely new experience because after three years of being in college, time always seemed to be against me. Assignments and deadlines would always seem to creep up on me and everything felt out of my control. This assignment made me realize that time is what we make of it and how we decide to use it has the ability to change how we go about our days and ultimately make us reassess our priorities.

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(Mantel clock made in 1820 and manufactured by Silas Hoadley. Mantel clocks are clocks that can be placed on top of a shelf or mantel)

Physical Description of Object

The clock has a pillar and scroll shelf type design. This means that there are two pillars on the sides of the clock with scroll work on top. Scroll work is a form of art that includes spirals and rolling designs. The clock is veneered in mahogany. It also has a painted wood dial along with Roman numerals. The lower portion of the clock contains an image of a landscape with homes and trees. The glass containing the image is in eglomise decorations. According to Eglmosedesigns.com, eglomise is a French word that means “‘glass gilded,’ decorating glass by painting on the back or reverse side, sometimes gilding with gold or metal leaf.” The image is contained within a border designed with leaves referred to as foliate borders. The three brass finials on top of the clock are suspected to be unoriginal (Ashley). However, images on the web show the same brass finials on the same clocks as this one. There is also the chance that they were replaced. Movement on the clock is intact, but not in running order.

Provenance

This Silas Hoadley mantel clock was never owned or used by any of the families that resided in Huguenot Street. The clock was acquired through a donation from clock collectors that are New Paltz residents. Gloria and Jerome Gilman were the donors of this clock, and they believed that this clock would help fulfill time period interpretations that Huguenot Street creates. When the clock was acquired in 2015, it was used in the Lefevre House as a part of an interpretation of a Civil War doctor that lived in the house. After some time, the outer glass that covers the numerals of the clock was broken by an employee of Huguenot Street in a minor accident. Lucky enough, the glass was replaced with glass from the same time period as the clock was made.

This clock can be found lying on a table in the Deyo House collections storage. The clock is not currently being used as a part of a time period interpretation because the Lefevre House is under construction. For now, the clock has taken a place among many other objects that Huguenot Street has acquired over time. Like most objects, this mantel clocks lays there waiting for someone to inquire about it; someone like me. Even though the clock has no direct association with Huguenot Street, it still holds significance because, as we have come to learn in this course, objects carry their history with them wherever they go. Whether or not I find the history complete history of this clock, coming across it and piecing together the little information I have gathered makes it a rather fascinating find.

Narrative

This mantel clock was manufactured by Silas Hoadley in Connecticut. Silas Hoadley (1786-1870) was an American clockmaker born in Bethany, Connecticut. He formed a clock-making partnership in Plymouth, Connecticut with Eli Terry and Seth Thomas as Terry, Thomas & Hoadley. These three clock makers pioneered the mass-production of clocks using water driven machinery to tool parts. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “Terry, Thomas, and Hoadley, after about a year of setting up the required machinery, produced some 4,000 clocks in the following two years.” Those “following two years” were after 1807.   The partners gradually withdrew to create their own firms – Terry in 1810, Thomas in 1814 – leaving Silas Hoadley as sole owner. Hoadley continued to make clocks until 1849. Standard references spell his name Hoadley; however, the “e” in his name is missing from the paper label on this clock.

There is not much information on Hoadley aside from Wikipedia, but there is ample information on his partners Eli Terry and Seth Thomas. In fact, on a bidding website the same mantel clock is listed as “Rare Seth Thomas Off-Center Pillar & Scroll Clock.” The clock was in a lot with other clocks and apparently sold for $2,091. Seth Thomas appears to be more of a pioneer (he has a town named after him called Thomaston) in clock making than Hoadley who is often only referred to as a partner or employee.

• Interesting fact: A 1992 article on the Hartford Courant mentions are revival of the old Seth Thomas factory that still exists in Thomaston.

Even though Hoadley, Terry and Thomas were pioneers in clock making during the 19^th century, they were not the first of their kind in the Connecticut region. Thomas Harland was also a pioneer in clock making after he emigrated to Connecticut from England. When Harland arrived in Connecticut, he established a shop in Norwich circa 1773 where he was “repairing watches and making clock movements with brass gears and finely engraved dials” (Muller). Furthermore, Harland hired a “number of apprentices working under him” one of them being Daniel Burnap (1759-1898). Burnap was also a clock maker who ended hiring apprentices of his own, Eli Terry being one of them. During Terry’s time as Burnap’s apprentice, he learned “the craft of making brass movements in small quantities using foot-powered machinery” (Muller). After Terry had set up his own clock shop his work attracted the attention of merchants, Edward and Levi Porter, “who in 1807 contracted with Terry to produce 4,000 tall-case wooden clock movements in three years” (Muller.) It was during this three-year contract that Terry hired Silas Hoadley and Seth Thomas.

What this object tells about Historic Huguenot Street is that this place is not just an isolated, glorified space that only focuses on the history of the Huguenots and their journey to New Paltz. This object has no connection to Huguenot Street but it has a connection to New Paltz. The donors of the mantel clock are New Paltz residents who collect antique clocks. Collaborating with Huguenot Street for this project goes to show the extent with which they go to make sure that their interpretation of the New Paltz Huguenots is as close to accurate and specific to the time periods as possible. Their collections also show are more interesting and fascinating aspect of collecting and museum culture at large.

From what we have learned through Ashley Trainor and Carrie Allmendinger, a lot of the objects and artifacts in Huguenot Street are not original pieces or did not belong to family members that made that street their home. Some of these objects are like the Silas Hoadley mantel clock; they help curators like Ashley and Carrie interpret time periods for the public but have no real connection to the Huguenots. The way that this clock found its home in Huguenot Street is fairly simple, but doing research about it and the owners has proven to be completely fascinating yet unsatisfactory. There are so many more questions I have, but unfortunately the lack of information on this clock makes it hard to piece everything together to create a fairytale-like narrative, as I would like.  However unsatisfactory and frustrating not finding enough information about this clock is, it teaches an important lesson in doing academic research and writing in general: sometimes what you have is all you need to create a beautiful and worthy narrative. This is not just a story about a clock or about Huguenot Street and New Paltz, it is also a story about entrepreneurship and the beginning of mass production as a result of the Industrial Revolution in America.

(Since my alarm clock was a gift and not an heirloom the history of ownership is limited to me.)

As a continuation of last week’s blog post, I decided to look more into the history of alarm clocks. Interestingly enough, there is some dispute on who created the first alarm clock. My last post mentioned an American as the first person to patent an alarm clock. However, I am reading conflicting stories about the first alarm clock originating from Ancient Greece. (Why does it seem like everything was created when the Ancient Greeks walked the earth?) Some of these sources claim that the first alarm clock was created nearly 2,000 years ago. I am careful not to mention these sources because I do not find them to be credible enough after doing some research on the supposed inventor of the first alarm clock, Ctesibius. I realize that these conflicting speculations on the creation of the first alarm clock speaks to a much bigger issue than alarm clocks itself. It reveals the issue of ownership, entitlement and cultural dominance. The issue of ownership is hard to determine in many cases because objects are always in constant motion from place to place or person to person. Then there is the issue of entitlement that somewhat overlaps with ownership. Being entitled to an object does not necessarily mean ownership of that particular object. By cultural domination, I am referring to the fact that because the world is Eurocentric we often trace inventions back to Ancient Greece/Rome and mostly in European nations.  I bring up these issues because clearly in the case of the invention of the alarm clock these are issues we are forced to stop and think about because of the disputing claims we are presented with. Then we also have to take into consideration the possible invention of an alarm clock during the Nok Civilization in present day Nigeria, for example.

As I stated in my last post, I am curious to know about how people who needed to wake up early woke up. Luckily for me, as I was reading an article about the 2,000-year history of alarm clocks I came across the term “knocker-upper.” Indeed, I was just as puzzled as you probably are right now. Apparently, knocker-uppers were people who were hired in Ireland and in Britain to wake people up. This trade started during the Industrial Revolution and continued through the 1950’s because alarm clocks were not as cheap or as reliable then as they are now. Sometimes these jobs were carried out by older men and women and constables making patrols early in the morning*. It is unfathomable for me to even think of being a knocker-upper as a real job. I find it funny to think of, but I also find it profoundly fascinating. To think that there was period of time when people hired other people to wake up for them leaves me speechless. However, it also makes me question how those knocker-uppers woke themselves up. It could be argued that these people had become so used to waking up early in the morning that their circadian rhythm changed accordingly. As of now, I cannot think of anything free of tangled questions that could answer this question.

*All this information was gather from Wikipedia.

I have decided to write this week’s post on the alarm clock I wrote about last week. I must say, it will probably be easier for me to write about a new object since I had already gone in depth about the clock in my last post. However, I have decided to take on the challenge of doing a bit of research about alarm clocks, their origins and how they have come to change to what we know them as today. I have decided to do this research because time has become such an important part of our studies in this class. We have read and spoken about how the objects in our lives are further meaningful because of how long we have had them. Also, we have spoken about how objects have adopted different uses over time or even lost function because of time; yet, we hold on to them and cherish them.

Alarm clocks are strange little (or big) objects that a quite odd if you take a minute to think about it. We have created a device that can be programmed to wake us up at any time of the day/night all based on our construct of time. Time alone is such a phenomenal invention but because its concept is so ingrained in our society we do not think of it as a construct but as a reality. Instead of making time beneficial to us we have come to structure our societies around time and subsequently have become its slave. We get scolded when we are late to places and get praised when we are early. Our timeliness to places is now determined and based on not our circadian rhythm but on these little devices we call alarm clocks. I fully recognize that I am writing about time mannerisms in a very Westernized cultural view.

Apparently, the first alarm clock was created by an American who needed it to wake up early for work. The first patented alarm clock was created in the 19^th century. It is interesting to think of the first alarm clock as being invented so late in human history but then it only makes sense because around the late 18^th century there was a shift in the way we lived. We had the industrial revolutions in Europe and then in North America, but we also cannot forget European imperialism into Africa and Asia. All of these surely impacted the way we structured our lives because now people needed to be at places on time, to be put very simply. It also makes wonder what people had to do before alarm clocks became popular. Of course, we can guess that people depended on their circadian rhythm to wake up on time.

I honestly do not where I am going with this post but I do not want to give up yet. Perhaps, what I am trying to write about will make more sense in person. Perhaps, I will have something better to say based on next week’s assignment. Either ways, my alarm clock does not have much history because it is such a practical device.

–I would love to hear what all of you think about the little I have written about.

I am writing about an alarm clock my father gave to me in the 8^th grade when I just moved to the U.S. The clock is small, black and very portable. The length is about 3 inches and the width 2. The clock has a small black cover that takes up about half of the front of the clock. The small black cover when opened forward reveal two small black buttons and two small indicators. The two small buttons have “hour” written on one and “minute” on the other, whereas the two small indicators have “TIME SET/ NORM/ ALARM SET” on one and “ALARM ON /ALARM OFF” written on them. Above the two indicators, and outside the realm of the small black cover is a long dark blue button measuring about an inch. On one end of the blue button is the word “LIGHT” and the other “SNOOZE.” Above the long blue button is a screen of some sort that digitally displays the time. The back of the alarm clock holds two battery slots and has a curved bump to it.

Out of all the other alarm clocks in my home and even others I have come across, this one my father gifted me is fairly simple and ugly. From the look of the clock, it is as if the alarm clock was made with just the purpose of it functioning to wake its owner up. The alarm clock is not aesthetically pleasing and neither does it carry out any other function than to wake me up. The style of the clock reveals two things, one about my father and the other about me. The first thing it reveals is that my father is a fairly simple and practical person. He does not see the function of having overtly multifunctional and ultra-stylish products. My father is a person that believes that for something to serve a function it does not have to do anything but that function. The other thing it reveals about me is that I am the same as he is. Why would I need a stylish alarm clock if the only time I will have contact with it is when I am going to sleep and waking up? The practical mentality of me and my father can be deduced just from a small alarm clock as the one I have.

I write about the practicality of my father and I, and how that is reflected in alarm clock he gave me, but what this object fails to do is show how close I am with my father. While my father gave me this clock with the explicit intention of using it as an alarm clock, how I have come to keep it after six years does not in any way have to do with the clocks function. The last time I used this clock was my freshman in college, but I have made sure that anywhere I moved this clock comes along. It does not have a practical function for me anymore but this clock has come to represent and almost embody the relationship I have with my father and how much I cherish it. I feel like whenever I take this clock with me to a new dorm building I’m living in I am taking my father with me. I am taking the memories we have had; the late night talks and the hours we spent watching documentaries.

John is a friend I met last year through a job, and ever since then we have had one of those friendships that blossoms against time. What I mean by that is that our relationship defies all the notions and conventions of becoming friends because of how quickly we were to open up our living spaces to each other. In a matter of days, I was already hanging out in his room and he in mine. I have decided to write about John’s living space because ever since meeting him I have been puzzled about how he manages to live and function undisturbed and surrounded by heaps of clothing on the floor and on his bed. When you walk into John’s room the first thing you notice is nothing, everything is all over the place and there is no focal point in his room that particularly draws your attention. He has clothes on the floor, his dresser, his bed, his closet and even on his desk and they are not arranged in any specific manner. John has some wall decorations but the one he always mentions and perhaps the only part of his room that is put together is beside his bed. The wall is a collage of pictures with people he unconditionally loves. John would always point this out to me when he caught me staring at the unfamiliar faces on his wall.

Part of why John and I clicked is because we had heard about each other from a mutual friend but most importantly because he is one of the most hardworking, competent, amazing and the most careless person I have ever met. From the start, this combination of qualities was unheard of for me because I always associated smart, intelligent and amazing people with organization and structure, but John did not just fit that narrow box of mine. Picturing John’s room as I write I can now understand how his living space is a direct reflection of him. John is one of those people that has meltdowns the night before an essay because he had procrastinated for too long but he was also one of those people that would wake up at 6am to go visit grad schools across the nation. Again, it almost seems like I am writing about two different people but this is the type of person John is, and his messy and chaotic room reflected his character and how nonchalant he is. From having his clothes thrown all over his room, John demonstrates that he is a carefree person that does not need too much structure for him to feel happy or at peace. The collage of pictures on his wall show that he is a person that values friendships and his family while the amount of clothes he owned shows his love for looking and feeling good.

John has a certain nature of urgency about him because he would always put himself in situations that required him to be nervous and act fast and his room was exactly the same way. His belongings were always scattered and always required of him that sense of urgency he lives off. After knowing John for a couple of months, I came to realize that John is a person that does not plan and does not need to because as long as he knew what he had to do he did it, but in his own way. John’s room is a reflection of his personality but it is also a reflection of his upbringing in a society that requires so little structure of men. We live in a society that thinks that masculinity means being rough and having imperfections and part of that is carried into their living spaces and John’s room exemplifies how our place in society in addition to our upbringing and personality affects the way we arrange our living space. I say this because I know that part of me being a very organized person is that it was expected of me as a young girl to not be messy.

I have moved from room to room and building to building so many times in the past two semesters that currently my room is filled with unpacked boxes and empty drawers and because of that for this exercise I have decided to sort through my pens. I chose my pens because I always have at least five with me at all times and in my room I have all of them in my pencil case on my desk. My pens are accessible to me at all times so I figured why not choose a category that means a lot to me, but at the same time something I don’t think much about unlike my clothes for example. I started off with 54 pens which when I thought of just in terms of the number 54 I did not think that it was a lot, but in comparison to how much it looked when I had it laid out on my bed it felt like there were a lot more pens. I should perhaps also mention that I chose to sort through my pens because I was aware that out of everything in my room they were the things I was willing to part with if needed be. In a way, I did it to intentionally save myself from the pain of either sorting through my books or clothes or perfumes. By the end of going through my pens I had decided to throw out 8 out of the initial 54 and the ease with which I was ready to part with them was striking. I felt no pain or loss or happiness or fulfilment while choosing which ones were of no use to me anymore and I think this ease is because the reason I had for discarding them was practical and logical: they had no function anymore because the ink had dried out.

I honestly expected going through my pens to illicit more emotions from me but I only realized things or vaguely remembered some memories that are now long faded and some non-existent as I was sorting. One of my realizations was that whenever I was testing out which pens had dried out ink I wrote “hello” on the notepad placed next to me. I had vaguely noticed this habit in the past, but this time it was noteworthy. It is as if I am introducing the pen to the pages and myself; a first impression of some sorts. I am not entirely sure why this became a pattern but it did and I thought it was so interesting that out of all the words I know the one word I would constantly use was “hello.” Another thing I noticed was the way in which the colours of pens I own are the same repeating colours: blues, greens, oranges, reds, and blacks. While I have a reason for buying different coloured pens (to colour coordinate my planner and get creative and colourful notebooks) I still expected more variability in the colours I chose. The most important thing I noticed, however, was that most of the pens I own are not really mine to begin with. The pens were either given to me or I had taken it from a friend or something. The ones I bought or remember buying are so small compared to the ones I got from people or from events I have attended in the past couple of years. It is almost mind blowing to think of owning so many pens and giving them each a function or saving them for a function would turn out to be pens that I got from other people. I find it puzzling and almost disturbing because here I am placing so much pride and value in the amount of pens I own yet I barely really own any of them.

While going through my pens I realized that they serve a purpose of just existing and for some reason that is comforting to me. Why would pens give me comfort even though I do not feel any particular emotion towards them? I wish I knew but I think finding out will say a great deal about me and how I collect and store objects.