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Relic Box
relics
mahogany (wood)
birch (wood)
Relic, Religious
"Cherished Possessions": In 1835, a sixth-generation descendant of Robert and Ann Pierce of Dorchester, Massachusetts, gathered some family treasures and placed them together in a small box, with a descriptive label. Twenty years later another descendant covered over the first label with one of his own. The most remarkable of the relics are two pieces of bread allegedly brought from England in 1630. Even if it is not as old as claimed, the bread was already undeniably ancient by 1807, when a diarist to whom it was shown described it as quite honeycombed by the worms.
Clapp, John, 1764 (Maker)
Gift of Anne Pierce Shaughnessy
1968.182
Massachusetts (United States)
Dorchester (Boston, Suffolk county, Massachusetts) [neighborhood]
Historic New England is committed to implementing reparative language description for existing collections and creating respectful and inclusive language description for new collections. If you encounter language in Historic England's Collections Access Portal that is harmful or offensive, or you find materials that would benefit from a content warning, please contact [email protected].
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