Day 13: October 11, 2015--Mark Twain House, Hartford, CT GALLERY

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Pretty much all you'll see today is the Twain House exterior. But first, a couple of things from the Museum. By the way, Wikimedia Commons has a ton of photos of the interior and exterior, as well as floor plans, from the "Historic American Buildings Survey in Connecticut." The House website also has profiles of each room.

In the Mark Twain Museum

Remember that picture of me and
Mr. Twain in today's Post? Well...

IT'S LEGOS!

Click the image to enlarge it. This was the model for a monument that never happened,
which includes Twain and many of his characters. A caption I found online (for a copy of
the model in Hannibal, MO) reads: "This model shows the plan for a sculpture honoring
Twain's one-hundredth anniversary in 1935, but the sculpture was never built. No one
could raise the million dollars needed for it in the middle of te Great Depression." I
have added labels to the picture to tell you which character is represented. Oddly,
several are depicted twice. It was designed by sculptor Walter Russell.

Twain House Exterior

Here's my contribution to online Twain studies: I've stolen a floor plan (ground floor only) of the House, and have indicated approximately where we were standing when we took the pictures. The captions will tell you which side of the house we're on. For reference, west is at the top of the plan; the "Ombra" is to the south, and the other large extension to the north.

Looking up toward the House's southwest corner. (Diagram 1)

The south end of the House. We'll see some details below. (Diagram 2) (Photo by Lila)

The "Ombra" (shade) on the House's southeast corner (Diagram 3) (Photo by Lila)

The "Ombra" and the south end of the House's east side (Diagram 4)

The Porte Cochere near the northeast corner (Diagram 5)

Northwest corner of the long northern extension (kitchen wing) (Diagram 6)

The west side. The rounded room is a butler's pantry, and joins
the kitchen wing to the house. (Diagram 7) (Photo by Lila)

West side butler's pantry from the south (Diagram 8)

Our guide and group in the "Ombra." She was great! (Photo by Lila)

We're back near position 2 on the Diagram. Lila really loved the downstairs conservatory...

...while I liked Mr. Twain's study directly upstairs. See the door? The guide
told us there was a bell system so, if an unwanted visitor arrived, the
servants would ring the bell and Mr. Twain would go out on the balcony. The
servants would tell the visitor, "I'm sorry. Mr. Twain has just stepped out!"

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