The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Washington, other artifacts return to Middletown
‘Amazing, exciting discovery.’ Historical society receives pieces of history after a century at Wadsworth Atheneum
MIDDLETOWN — After 110 years, a piece of Middletown history has finally returned home.
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art delivered two pocket watches and a letter written by President George Washington to the Middlesex County Historical Society in Middletown April 17.
Washington wrote the letter on Sept. 1, 1782, thanking Revolutionary War Capt. William H. Van Deursen (1752-1824) for lending him a book, according to historical society Executive Director Jesse Nasta, also assistant professor in African American Studies at Wesleyan University.
Both time pieces belonged to Van Deursen, a notable city resident and integral participant in the West Indies trade, he said.
His family maintained possession of his belongings until the death of his granddaughter Margaret Van Deursen in 1913. She stipulated in her will that the objects be placed in a Middletown museum, yet the objects ended up at the Wadsworth Atheneum, even though the historical society had existed
since 1901, Nasta said.
He explained that the mistake likely occurred because
Margaret Van Deursen presumably wrote a clause in her will prior to 1901.
“Any object tied to George Washington is extremely rare and nationally significant, so to learn that there was this George Washington document tied to such a prominent Middletown figure was a remarkable discovery,” Nasta said. “The fact that it had been at the Wadsworth for 110 years, and not known, was another amazing, exciting discovery.”
Nasta first learned of the letter and pocket watches in 2019, when society board member Jack Bolles received a call from then-Wadsworth registrar Edd Russo. The pandemic and Russo’s untimely death put the transfer process on hold, but now the objects have finally been returned.