At Home Intro

The word “home” has complex meanings, which are expressed in different ways in this gallery. Most familiar is the building we call home, with spaces designated for sleeping, cooking, and working or relaxing. Establishing a home is a creative act—the choices we make in designing, furnishing, and maintaining it reflect who we are and how we want others to see us. At one end of that idea is the grand room created by Henry Davis Sleeper, who built what is now Beauport, the Sleeper-McCann House in Gloucester, Massachusetts. At the other end is the anonymous woman baking in an antiquated—yet atmospheric—kitchen.

More abstract is the place we call home—be it a town, farm, or suburban development. New England has many places that are multilayered: new buildings coexist with much older ones, and natural and economic factors continually reshape the landscape.