If you’re up late at night wondering where the oldest surviving American-made chair is located, well, I have the answer you’ve long been waiting for. Outside of Boston, Massachusetts is the Dedham Historical Society, home of the Metcalf Chair, made in 1652 during the Colonial Era. Its date is even carved right in the wood for all to see. That’s over 350 years of sitting!
Besides the one-of-a-kind chair, the small museum’s collection also includes pre-Columbian stone tools, Dedham and Chelsea pottery, Civil War artifacts, one of only two known “astronomical shelf clocks” by Simon Willard, as well as paintings by John Constable, Gilbert Stuart, and Henry Hitchings. So remember it’s not just the big museums that have interesting and worthwhile things to see.
