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Dudley Museum Receives Grant for Dawnland Annex

The Dudley Farm Museum has received a $50,000 donation from the Summer Hill Foundation of Madison that will allow the organization to construct a new building to house an newly curated private collection of Native American artifacts. Museum Director Beth Payne said the donation of both the artifact collection and the funding to provide the space are an incredible gift for the organization and they hope to have the new annex completed sometime this coming fall.

According to Payne, the Quinnipiac Dawnland Museum was established in the 1990s by longtime Dudley Foundation member Gordon “Fox Running” Brainerd. As a life-long amateur archaeologist and collector of indigenous artifacts from the shoreline region, an area once the territory of the Quinnipiac and Paugusset people, Brainerd amassed a sizable collection of stone projectile points, scrapers, and other tools that encompass the foundation of the collection, said Payne.

“I think that there certainly is an increased understanding and an increased desire to understand the role of native peoples in the development of this country. There is real interest all over America in this,” said Payne. “To better understand who we are as a nation, we need to better understand our roots.”

Payne said the Dawnland Museum has been housed in a loft section of the Munger Barn at the Dudley Farm Museum, which made access difficult, and the organization has been seeking funding for ways to display the collection in a more inclusive and permanent presentation. Brainerd, who died in 2021, donated his extensive collection to the Dudley Foundation with the understanding that the collection be maintained and accessible to the public.

Brainerd’s passion and respect for the history and culture of the Quinnipiac people is something the museum is striving to uphold.

“What will be doing really is trying to tell the story of the Quinnipiac people from precontact up until about 1935 or so,” said Payne. “The building we are about to create will house his pretty extensive collection. It will tell his story as a man who learned as an adult that he may have been part Quinnipiac, and how he learned as much as he possibly could about these people. He was very adamant as to how the collection should be displayed.”

According to Payne, the most important aspects of the Dawnland Museum’s mission are threefold:

· To preserve and present the history and culture of the Quinnipiac people whose history along the shoreline region of Connecticut stretches back more than 14,000 years.

· To be a vehicle by which the public can learn about the rich cultural life of the Quinnipiac people who thrived in Mennunkhtuck (Guilford) and surrounding communities.

· To honor the Quinnipiac Dawnland Museum Founder Gordon “Fox Running” Brainerd and his life-long quest to preserve the history and culture of the Quinnipiac people.

Payne said the creation of chronological displays and exhibits will tell the story of the evolution of Quinnipiac peoples during the 14,000 years enhancing the experience for patrons. According to Payne, another special display will relate the history of the Mennunkhtuck peoples of Guilford during the contact and post contact periods to further the understanding in the local community of the complex issues associated with the arrival of Europeans.

The exhibit will focus on the following phases of human occupation in the Northeast and their corresponding themes:

· The Paleo-Indian Period (14,000 to 9,000 years ago) Theme: The Ice Age and the First People

· The Archaic Period (9,000 to 3,000 years ago) Theme: Adaptation and Survival

· The Woodland Period (3,000 to 400 years ago) Theme: Flourishing in a Land of Plenty

· The Contact Period (400 to 300 years ago) Theme: Disruption and Disaster

The organization that endowed the donation, the Summer Hill Foundation, is a non-profit based in Madison with a mission to assist in funding for land trusts and other organizations that are dedicated to protecting the environment, especially in ecologically sensitive areas. The foundation will support charitable organizations that help to preserve land in its natural state, re-introduce native plants to areas where they have been removed, and preserve historically significant buildings that are associated with open space.

Payne said that despite the donation from Summer Hill, there are still critical needs for the museum. According to Payne, donations and volunteers are always appreciated by the museum.

“The mechanics of the building such as the climate control equipment is likely to cost some money. The display pieces, the cabinetry, the design itself, the murals and such are all going to need to be funded,” said Payne. “Any money toward those items would certainly be appreciated.”

The Dudley Farm Museum, 2351 Durham Road, Guilford, is open from June through October. To make a donation, email Beth Payne at director@dudleyfarm.com. For more information, visit www.dudleyfarm.com or call 203-457-0770.