Introducing Daniel Sousa

Daniel Sousa. Image courtesy of Historic Deerfield.

In January, Daniel Sousa became the latest Decorative Arts Trust Curatorial Intern and will be working for the next two years at Historic Deerfield in Deerfield, MA.

Daniel’s path to Historic Deerfield included many hands-on opportunities with the decorative arts. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where he obtained a Master’s Degree in American History, Daniel most recently served as a researcher with the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Prior positions include two years as an auction assistant at Skinner Auction and Appraisals and a summer internship with Winterthur’s Boston Furniture Archive, spearheaded by Sarah Parks, the first-ever Trust Curatorial Intern, and Trust Governor Brock Jobe (a podcast featuring Sarah and Brock can be found here). In each position, he particularly enjoyed the daily opportunities to work with historic objects, whether for photographic documentation, setting up for an auction at Skinner’s, or researching provenance–a skill honed at the Genealogical Society. This varied sampling of the decorative arts field gave him the taste for more, and the Trust’s curatorial internship provides the perfect opportunity to build upon these experiences.

Daniel examines a tulip vase in the collection of Historic Deerfield. Image Courtesy of Historic Deerfield.

During his first month at Historic Deerfield, Daniel had the chance to conduct research on potential acquisitions, write labels for an upcoming exhibition, and commence research for an upcoming catalog on Deerfield’s English ceramics collection alongside Amanda Lange, Director of the Curatorial Department. His efforts have focused on probate records of Deerfield residents’ estates to see what imported ceramics are known to have been present in their homes. He is also enjoying the day-to-day workings of a curatorial department and looks forward to assisting with exhibition planning and design. “I’m very excited to be working at Historic Deerfield,” he says, “I love being surrounded by so many historic objects every day, it’s one of the best parts of being at this museum! I look forward to working with and learning from the staff here!”

Historic Deerfield is likely a familiar institution to most Decorative Arts Trust members. For the past several years, the Trust’s Emerging Scholars Program has underwritten a scholarship for Deerfield’s Summer Fellowship Program, an intensive nine-week summer course for undergraduates focusing on New England history, material culture, and museum studies. The museum and collection is a western Massachusetts time capsule. Founded in 1952 by Henry Needham Flynt and his wife, Helen Geier Flynt, the institution consists of twelve historic houses furnished with period-appropriate collections to interpret life in Deerfield and New England in the 18th and 19th centuries. In addition, the Flynt Center for New England life and the institution’s two research libraries contain materials spanning from the town’s founding in 1650 to the 20th century, such as samples of the blue-and-white needlework made famous by the town’s Colonial Revival craft industry.

We look forward to hearing about Daniel Sousa’s accomplishments over the next two years! “We are thrilled to have Dan working with Historic Deerfield’s curatorial staff,” says Amanda Lange, “We plan to make good use of his strong skills in the areas of research and writing and are extremely grateful to the Decorative Arts Trust for making this internship available to us and for their continuing support of decorative arts scholarship and emerging professionals in the field.”