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Chester County Press

Chadds Ford Life: Fascinating things at the Christian Sanderson Museum

01/15/2025 10:22PM ● By Gene Pisasale
Christian Sanderson Museum [9 Images] Click Any Image To Expand

By Gene Pisasale
Contributing Writer

Have you ever wanted to travel back in time? When you walk through the door of the Christian Sanderson Museum, you feel as though you’ve been transported back—not just a few decades, but centuries, to an era when patriots marched in defense of a cause they fervently believed in during the Revolutionary War.  

Chris Sanderson lived all of his 84 years in and around Montgomery, Delaware and Chester counties outside Philadelphia. Chris loved history so much, he amassed a collection totaling 18,000 artifacts showcasing the people, places and important events which shaped our heritage. These items were catalogued by his good friend Tom Thompson after Chris passed away in 1966 and displayed in the home where he lived in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. It was through the ongoing dedication and enormous efforts of Tom Thompson, along with Andrew Wyeth, Frank Rich, Arthur Beard and William Hoffman that we have this great museum today. Tom put together a vast assortment of Americana which Chris felt reflected our times. These items—from the Revolutionary War up through the 1960s—fill both floors of the Sanderson Museum with displays providing a glimpse of how we lived, the wars we endured and events which affected us all.

Chris Sanderson came into this world on January 7, 1882. Chester Arthur was President. N.C. Wyeth was born that same year. Reconstruction was ending and the nation was continuing to heal the wounds from a devastating war. Railroads were criss-crossing the country, changing the way we traveled. Edison had just perfected the phonograph and the incandescent light bulb. Chris would later tell people that he always felt he’d been “born into an historical family.” Both grandfathers had fought in the Civil War; his paternal grandfather was killed in this conflict, his maternal grandfather survived wounds from the bloody Battle of Antietam. Sanderson was so fascinated with the world around him, he began collecting things of historical interest at an early age. These items are now found throughout this fine museum, which was dedicated and officially opened in his honor in Chadds Ford in 1967. 

In the entry room stands the Wyeth-Sanderson Historical Map of Chester County, beckoning viewers to lean closer and view the 45 places of interest and 15 colorful characters who at one time played a part in our heritage. Names like William Penn, Bayard Taylor and General “Mad” Anthony Wayne are there, along with Buffalo Bill Cody. Drawings by a young Andrew Wyeth illustrate the countryside, including sketches of Valley Forge, Longwood Gardens, Brandywine Battlefield and the Star-Gazers Stone.

Across the room, a baseball sits in a case on a small, wooden pedestal, red and blue stitching wrapped around some famous names of the Boys of Summer. The pedestal reads “Some of the autographs on this include: Connie Mack, Herb Pennock, Rube Walburg, Jimmy Foxx, Bing Miller.” Herb Pennock’s signature is the largest. Above slugger Jimmy Foxx’s signature is scrawled “June 12, 1939–100th Anniversary of Baseball.” Foxx was one of the original “power hitters,” earning three Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards and a total of 534 home runs in the 1930s and 1940s. In the large cabinet nearby is something you don’t usually see—a unique “painting” made entirely out of iridescent butterfly wings.

Going into the Battlefield Room, at the far end of the space along the wall you’ll see the superb “Troops by the Hundreds Were Passing,” a lovely scene painted by N.C. Wyeth. Wyeth was asked to illustrate a book titled “Sally Castleton, Southerner” by Crittenden Marriott which came out around the turn of the 20th century. In the painting, Confederate soldiers are marching behind their commanding officer, who is on horseback as two young boys run excitedly alongside the phalanx. The scene has an eerie, dreamlike quality, awash in grey-blues and dust browns, the colors of the Confederacy, which clothed the young men who fought for a cause which was bound to fail. The museum archives contain dozens of letters and cards from soldiers written over the decades, including those who fought at the Battle of Gettysburg.

As you ascend the narrow staircase to the second floor, there’s a small black and white sign above the doorway announcing “Autograph Hall.”  In the first cabinet, there’s a photograph of Geronimo, whose piercing eyes hold you entranced. He’s inches above an autograph of Sitting Bull, signed just three weeks before he was killed. A letter to Chris lies prominently in the center of the case, signed “Very Truly Yours, Alexander Graham Bell.” This gem is near one signed by Samuel F.B. Morse, the man who invented the telegraph and a new industry—telecommunications—in 1844. Not far away is the autograph of another man who changed the world- Orville Wright. The adjoining cabinet holds notes from composers and entertainers, with scripts from Johann Strauss, John Philip Sousa and Irving Berlin. Men whose actions affected American history are close by, including Teddy Roosevelt, F.D.R., Calvin Coolidge and Grover Cleveland- the only man elected President twice in non-consecutive terms. Warren Harding says hello in a letter from the White House dated May 27, 1921. You’ll see the signatures of men who put their lives on the line to help save our nation- Generals Phil Sheridan, Ambrose Burnside (after whom the slang “sideburns” was developed) and Fightin’ Joe Hooker—each of whom served in the Civil War. With all of these signatures, one takes away the immense sweep of history, the tragedies and triumphs, great inventions which improved our way of life and heroic acts in battle which preserved it.

Just across the hall in the Pocopson Room is something which would normally go unnoticed—a barbershop sign. Yet this sign is different. It is the “Chads’ Ford Barber Shop” sign painted by N.C. Wyeth. The wooden relic shows a silhouette portrait of General George Washington, his cockaded tri-cornered hat the mark of a commanding officer. He’s looking to the right at the young Marquis de Lafayette, who fought with Washington at Brandywine and six other engagements of the Revolutionary War, including the final victory at Yorktown in 1781. Below their portraits is written “THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE WASHINGTON & LAFAYETTE HAD A VERY CLOSE SHAVE.”

The sign’s weathered surface reveals its exposure to the elements over many years. It is known to have hung outside the barber shop going back at least 98 years to 1926. Art restorers from the University of Delaware were hired to stabilize the widespread cracking and flaking paint. You don’t have to touch the surface to understand how fragile it is, just as fragile as Washington’s rag-tag, undersupplied army was fighting against the British. So, the next time you pass a barber shop, think twice about how delicate and unstable the beginnings of our young nation were and how two patriots—George Washington, a Founding Father and the Marquis de Lafayette, a Founding Son of the American Revolution… had a very close shave back on September 11th, 1777.

If you want to see a museum that is just a bit “different,” stop in at the Christian Sanderson Museum at 1755 Creek Road in Chadds Ford. They are open Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. March through November. Their website is www.sandersonmuseum.org. 

Gene Pisasale is an historian, author and lecturer based in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. His 11 books focus mostly on the Chester County/mid-Atlantic region. His latest book is “Heritage of the Brandywine Valley.” Gene’s books are available on his website at www.GenePisasale.com and on www.Amazon.com. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]