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Hello and welcome to the Providence College podcast. I'm your host, Liz Kay, and I'm joined by producer Chris Judge of the Class of 2005 here in the Providence College podcast. We bring you interesting stories from the Frier family.

This week, we're talking with Patti Philippon from the class of 1994. Philipines served as the executive director of the American Clock and Watch Museum in Bristol, Connecticut, since 2014. She has worked at several museums, but spent most of her career at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut.

Philippon majored in Humanities, a PC, and also earned a master's degree in art history from UMass Amherst. Patti, thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

So can you tell us a little bit about the American clock and watch museum and some of the highlights of the history of this industry in Connecticut?

Absolutely. So the American clock and Watch Museum has been in business since its founding in 1952. We opened our doors in 1954. We were the first museum dedicated to horology in the country, which is the study of time.

And we really focus on American clock making. The museum was founded because the founder, Edward Abraham, who was the president of the Ingram Clock Company here in Bristol, was concerned that the legacy of the Connecticut and the Bristol clock making industry in particular was going to be lost.

And so he and 10 other gentlemen founded a museum to preserve the legacy. Obviously, he had a very. You know, he had a vested interest in that because he did own a car company, but he came from a long line of clock makers, clock making in Connecticut was one of the key industries.

They were one of the early industries that helped support the American Industrial Revolution. And so he really wanted that story to be told for future generations. So they founded a museum. It was called the Bristol Clock Museum. When they founded it very quickly, they realized that just the story of Bristol clock making in Connecticut, clock making was

too narrow. They wanted to tell the larger story of American ingenuity. And so they expanded their focus to be American and watchmaking. And that's really what you see here now. What started with a collection of 300 tiny pieces is now over 6000.

And we have about fifteen hundred of them on display at any moment. We change out our exhibitions. We have about 70 of the clocks that ticking time as you walk through the galleries. So it's really an interesting story of of American craftsmanship, American ingenuity in terms of timekeeping and in terms of the technology.

It touches on history. It touches on art. And there's a lot of nostalgia for some of the time pieces that we have here as well.

What are some of the highlights of the collection? Like some of the older oldest time pieces and some of the newer things that you've added?

Our oldest timepiece, interestingly enough, is actually an English lantern clock, not American at all. But we do show it comparing it to what an American version at the similar time was like, and that is from sixteen ninety. And it is a wall clock.

It has one hand. So it's really pre the accuracy of the pendulums. Our tallest clock is nine feet, 11 inches tall. And that was actually Takase clock that was featured in a New York jewelry store. It was made specifically for this jewelry store.

We have early Mickey Mouse watches, which a lot of people love because a lot of people have fond memories of their first character watches and things like that. I know I had a Snow White watch when I was growing up, you know.

And so we have we have a little bit of everything that we have. There's always something here that people it really strikes a chord with them, whether it's we had a gentleman come in the other day whose grandfather worked on the railroad and he wanted to see our railroad watches or time pieces that might be similar to

, you know, the teapot clock that their grandmother had in their kitchen or things like that. So there's always something fun to see.

So I'm sure as the executive director of a small museum, you wear a lot of hats. Can you tell us about your role now and your path to this work in museums?

Sure. I started actually working in museums. My first internships were when I was at Peezy and I started doing summer internships while I was in school. And I worked at the Children's Museum of Rhode Island, which is now the Providence Children's Museum.

And I worked for them both in marketing and in education. And I really kind of fell in love with the museum culture and working in the museum culture. So I continued doing internships while I was in school. I interned at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford and then came to the Mark Twain house, is my

first paying museum job and actually worked there twice throughout my career. As you said, we are a small museum here in Bristol and the only full time staff person. And we have a staff of eight part time and lots and lots of volunteers.

So we all wear a lot of different hats. Yeah, I was reading the garden yesterday. So there you are. And it's garbage day today, too, so. But we you know, I'm really responsible for the fundraising, the promotion of the museum, getting the name out into the community, although we have been here in Bristol since 1950 to 1954

. If I had a quarter for every person who said, oh, I lived here all my life and I haven't been there, or, oh, the last time I was there was when I went on a fifth grade field trip, you know, we would never have to fundraise again for the museum.

So really getting our name out there, getting people interested in coming to the museum, because we have a very niche collection, which is quite a fabulous thing, actually, because it is different than any place you're going to go and see.

But at the same time, you really have to kind of sell the collection and be like, it's going to be a lot of fun when you come in. There's really interesting things to see. There's interesting things to learn.

We do programs for children that people don't necessarily think of. People tend to think of us for an older audience. But in fact, kids love the ideas of some of the clocks because they're very different than what they're used to these days with more digital instead of art.

The log.

You mentioned falling in love with museum culture. How would you describe that? What were the aspects that really attracted you?

So I will say that I have generally worked in smaller to midsize museums, and that's a very different culture than something really huge like the Met or someplace like that. The largest place that I've worked is the Wadsworth, and that was definitely a bigger sized museum.

But I really like the the attitude where people really kitchen and work together. You're in an organization because you believe in its mission or its collections of the importance of them and the preservation of them. And my experience really has been people pitching in and doing what needs to be done for the betterment of the collections and

the betterment of of the experience of the visitor. And that's a really fun thing. And I think it's also because, again, from my experience, people are really willing to think outside the box in terms of some of the things that you can do.

You have a chance to be like, hey, what? You know, there's a lot of what if what if we did this kind of a program or, you know, we could really talk about this aspect of the clock and watch industry that maybe people haven't really talked about or thought so much about.

For instance, we've done you know, we've done programs on women in the industry. And we can talk more about immigration now and the immigrants who worked in the industry that has been done in the past. Obviously, it's something that everybody knew about, but there's more conversation about it, more research about it now.

Hey, what if we did this kind of a program or what have we talked about? The scandals behind some of the clock making industries and things like that. And I really like that possibility of doing something different, you know,

and I imagine you had to do things very differently in the last year and a half, given the struggles that lots of nonprofits had during the pandemic. You know, how was the last year for your organization and what did you do differently when in person wasn't an option?

Yeah, it was interesting. It was very interesting. In in March of twenty, twenty, mid-March of twenty twenty, the state of Connecticut closed. And so the museum obviously closed as well. I remember earlier in the week, a couple of places would start closing.

The state hadn't officially closed. Well, maybe we'll think about closing. And then one day it was like, oh, we're not going to be open tomorrow. And we we really thought that it was only going to be a short period of time.

You know, we changed the the website and our our social media pages and things like that to say we're going to be closed for the next two weeks, because we really thought we were going to be open as of April 1st, which obviously didn't happen.

We were closed for four months, and that's actually a lot shorter than many places were able to closed. That was one of the nice things about having a small museum, small staff, is that we when we were able to open again, we were able to social distance a lot easier in some areas, start people when they could

come in into different galleries and things like that. That being said, we had to make a lot of changes because for time people couldn't come in or even after they could come in. There was a lot of states you had to quarantine from, so we didn't have a lot of visitors, we had to do a lot more

virtual and digital production than we've ever, ever, ever had to do before. And I have to give my staff incredible kudos and credit because they really pivoted and learned new skills and that, hey, what if we could do it this way?

Attitude was amazing. They really just pulled together and figured out ways to get us out there. And we we learn video production, which we've never done before. Some virtual programs. We took our collections online in different ways where we would highlight aspects of our collections.

We took part in things like the state of Connecticut, has a Connecticut open house day every June, and it was a virtual open house day. So we did a virtual open house day for the museum in different ways, highlighting things that in a normal year that you would have seen if you would come in.

But since you couldn't, here it was. And then we even had our major fundraiser of the year, which is called Wine Women and Watches. Men are invited, but it doesn't go with the alliteration. So we stick with wine, women and watches.

We did a virtual a livestream production of that, which was fabulous because it really. Welcome to lot more people into the virtually into the museum than even the in-person program could be. So. I actually have to say that not that I'd ever want to go through a pandemic like that again, but in some ways it was wonderful

because we were able to reach a wider audience with our virtual contacts and virtual programs than we were in in terms of the in-person. So. Well, we will continue and are continuing to do more of that even because our our membership and our donor base is throughout the country.

We get visitors from all across the country. So this is a good way for us to continue to have that contact with people, even though they may or may not be able to come and visit in person.

You know, be they may not live close by, but they're still active supporters.

We have members in California and in Texas. And and if they come once or twice in the in the run of their contact with the museum, that's amazing. And some people will never come at all. And they just support the mission of the museum.

They are interested in the collections, they're interested in in what we do in terms of research and programmatic pieces. So so having a virtual component is something that it's not the way we wanted to have it, but or to start it up.

But it's something that will definitely continue on doing.

So it kind of forced you to exercise some muscles and do some things and test things out.

And yeah, it also made us realize that we needed to upgrade some of our technology in a really big way. So we've been working on that and been working on upgrading our website presence and and things like that.

So it's been a it's been an interesting year for us.

You alluded to this earlier, but I'm really intrigued by the fact that, you know, these days so many of our electronic devices have built in clocks and clocks are kind of like the concept of time is built into so many of the things that just surround us.

But I in my own personal life, I still look at a wall clock. I still have a wristwatch. I'm just curious how you think this this sort of these electronic devices have changed your relationships with clocks and watches?

Well, it's definitely you know, it's something that I think it's both been good and bad. You know, we have with the electronic devices, always having them on us and things like that. We, I think, are in some ways more beholden to the clock than we ever have been, because you can't get away from it.

You can't be like, oh, I was in a room that didn't have a clock on it, because you've got your your phone, you've got your watch, you've got all of these sorts of things that are all linked up together.

So you have no excuse to be late. So you're always you always know specifically exactly what time it is. And I mean, that's not always been the case. We didn't exhibit a couple of years ago talking about the changes in the relationships of of working when you had punch clocks and things like that, because you were then

beholden to somebody else's schedule of having to punch in at a certain time in the morning and work a certain amount of hours rather than working your your own time. And I think that that's a concept that a lot of people don't really realize when they come into the museum, because we're so used to knowing nowadays not

only what time it is, but really exactly what time it is down to the second or even a fraction of a second. People don't think about the the time that people didn't know that, where you might have told time, your clock might have had one hand and it was more like estime time.

It's kind of between, you know, one in five after quarter after even or that or that people. Used to work in a way that you could do your own piecework and you were paid by the piece as opposed to paid by the hour.

And how the idea of factories and people coming into work at factories meant that you had to work for somebody else's on somebody else's schedule. That's a foreign concept to a lot of people. So it's interesting for people when they come into the museum to think that way.

Kids in particular don't think that way. First of all, because most of the time they don't have a concept of having to punch in or start work at a certain time, although you have to start school at a certain time and you can make those parallels.

Your classes are a certain amount of of time and things like that. But I think also that the focus on digital technology in terms of your your, you know, your digital watches and your phones and things like that, also have given people a sense of nostalgia for the more traditional time pieces.

The amount of people who come in who lament the fact that their kids haven't yet learned how to read an analog clock, and really, you know, one of the things that we sell most in our gift shop are the books that teach kids how to tell time, because parents still feel that that's an important skill for their

kids to know and to learn how to do. Even the look of some of the more traditional clocks couple of years ago, I think Apple, when they came out with a new face for their for their Apple Watch, it was a traditional watch face.

It wasn't a digital it was an analog watch face. And it's that sense of nostalgia for the functionality of the more traditional clocks and watches. I think that that is a direct offspring of some of this more modern technology.

It's so interesting to think that people are like harking back to that. I mean, you hear about watch collectors who have these incredibly expensive collections full of like Rolex isn't even brands that I'm not really familiar, but just really high end watches.

And it sounds like that might be there might be a lot of factors driving that, but sort of that nostalgia for a different time.

Absolutely. And watch collecting is becoming more and more popular, I would say, in some ways. There a period of time where clock collecting was really big. That is not as much anymore, although there are still groups of people who definitely collect clocks.

But we hear a lot more about watch collectors. And in some ways, it's really if you think about men who collect watch, it's kind of watches. It's kind of like more men's jewelry. Right? Women may wear different kinds of jewelry, but watches are really kind of a statement piece, I should say, for for men.

But the whole steampunk movement, in terms of some of the arts and creativity is really big into some of those pocket watches, taking even some of the components of them and reconfiguring them into something new. So taking some of the older technologies with clocks and watches and bringing it into into a more modern look and and era

. So there's part nostalgia and part bringing it into the future as well.

So for people who might not know about steampunk CINCPAC, it's sort of like it's kind of like sci fi, but it's sort of like imagining a world where everything is steam powered and like gas engines weren't developed, right?

Yeah. And then there's a whole esthetic that

goes with futuristic world that harkens back to a more, you know, steam powered era.

And so like gears, though, like the static of steampunk is very much like focused on gears and widgets

and very Victorian in terms of clothing styles in some ways. And that's really where a lot of this, you know, some of this technology is really starting with the steam engines and or the high points of it, I should say, you know, with the steam engines and the clocks.

And you see a lot of people with top hats and mechanical arms that made up out of these component parts. It's really great and very cool movement, artistic movement and uses a lot of clock and watch technology and part of it.

Yeah, I can definitely see the pocket watch fitting into this. And pocket watches, I imagine, are a part of your collection as well.

Absolutely. We actually have about thirty five hundred watches in our collection, and it's something that we are working hard on exhibiting more of. We're in the process of creating a visible storage area for some of our watches so that people can see more of them and of what we had.

And it was a big a lot of industry in the United States, a lot of industry in the New England area with watchmaking. So it's it's an interesting. It's an interesting history or a part of history of the U.S..

I recently learned that the pocket on my jeans that I always thought was a coin pocket is actually a watch pocket.

Although who puts their heart with their watches in their pocket like that anymore? Right.

Well, it's good for coins. When who uses coins anymore? You know. Everything we think about now is sort of like through the lens of our pandemic, so I'm curious. We did talk a little bit about this already, but how do you think our time pieces affect our perception of time itself?

And I think about this, you know, in that period in March when things were shutting down or shut down, all of a sudden, you know, a lot of people lost their routines. You know, we may not be punching in a clock, but we lost our commutes to school and work for many, many people.

So and now we're at it feels like the return to some of those routines for people is been been tough. And so I'm curious what you think about that.

Yeah, I think definitely when when the pandemic started, it really, as you said, changed how people functioned in their every day, used to getting up at a certain time, used to having, you know, the coffee pot goes off at whatever time in the morning.

And then you had your cup and you go to work and you started such and such a time, or you go to school and you start such and such a time. And all of that changed. And I think that at the very beginning, it was a very big change for people because that loss of routine really.

You weren't quite sure what to do with yourself because you didn't have that same routine. I think one of the things that we've seen is that people have in some ways enjoyed a little bit of that freedom from routine and that slightly more relaxed ability to.

Not have to be quite so specific in terms of being places at such as in such a specific time. I think people have definitely enjoyed. Some of that routine, I will say it probably went on for a lot longer than people really cared for it to be, and we're hearing a lot more about people being happy to

get back to their routine a little bit more and kind of knowing, OK, if it's Tuesday, I have to be at such and such at nine o'clock. There is a little bit of, I think, comfort for people in knowing those sorts of the timing of your day.

You know, we hear a lot about how kids thrive on some sort of routine and, you know, maybe not being structured every minute of the day, but some sort of routine and structure. And while it's nice to have.

A little bit of a relaxation of that, I think people are happy to get back to some some parts of that structure and that timing and kind of knowing, you know, with the pandemic, you'd have days of like, oh, wait, what day is it again?

Because you didn't leave the house. You know, it didn't matter if it was Tuesday or if it was Saturday, you were home, you know. And so I think that there is a little bit of happiness to get back to that, although maybe not to the same extent that we had been.

And I think in some cases, it's kind of more of an American thing anyway, that that focus on having to be there at certain times and the work days and things like that. You hear a lot more about in Europe and things like that, people having four months off and not ever looking at your, you know, not

even checking your emails when you're away and stuff like that. So I think the the being beholden to the clerk is maybe somewhat of an American construct of

thinking about some of the questions you get from visitors to the museum. I'm curious, what are some of your like the questions that have stood out from children or any other visitors that surprise you or really made you think?

We get a lot of questions from kids about. Well, we get questions from kids about how to tell time, definitely, because they're not that used to it. The idea of how do you tell time? How did they tell time before clocks and watches?

That's something that kids ask a lot. And we do some programs and we actually have one of the things we've developed during the pandemic was kind of a museum to go program for kids that looked at ancient ways of telling time.

So sand glasses and hourglasses and clefs. Tedros So they kids don't really have an understanding of the fact that there was a pre clock method of telling time. And how does that how does that work? You know, they're always fascinated by the oldest clocks in the museum because the idea of something being created in sixteen ninety that

still functions today is again. It's crazy to them because that's such an old piece, and for it to still work is interesting to them, so. We get a lot of questions about what's your favorite timepiece? You know, all of those kinds of things people want to know.

And I think that's one of the things about clocks and watches that are really great is there's a personal connection. So people want to know what's your favorite piece? Because they want to know what's your connection? You want to say, well, this is my favorite, because we've started doing something through our social media about called first Friday

favorites. So the first Friday of the month, we ask people associated with the museum or visitors what their favorite time pieces or their favorite object actually is in the museum and why? Because people really enjoy those those stories about, you know, because some because it's different for everyone.

So they want to know what strikes a chord with you. You know,

kind of like staff picks at the bookstore,

right? Kind of like staff picks at the bookstore. Absolutely. So we started doing that with some of the pieces in the museum, although we've gotten people who have liked books in our library. We've had people who have liked.

We sell a bow tie in our gift shop, which has years on it. And we have a person who works here who that was her favorite piece, because her dad used to play in a Cape Verdean band and he always wore a bow tie.

And so the bow tie made her think of her father. And, you know, and some people like pieces for esthetic reasons and some people like pieces for mechanical reasons. So it's kind of an interesting thing. And we get a lot of those kinds of questions from kids like what do you like best?

You know, show me what your favorite pieces are.

Patti, now we need to know what your your favorite is on the collection.

My favorite the clock in the collection, or I should say my favorite piece in the collection is actually a clock. It's it's an Ansonia clock company clock. It's called it's a Diana swinger clock. And it's a Art Nouveau statue of a woman holding a swinging pendulum in the pendulum is the clock.

And it's purely for a set of reasons that I like it. It's the style that I like. When I picked it and did it for the first Friday favorite. My mom was like, Yeah, I could have told you that that was your favorite just because of how it looked.

Yeah.

OK, so it doesn't have a clock face on. It's just a pendulum.

It's the vibe of the pendulum is the time to use itself as the clock itself. So it doesn't have a traditional dial like a like you would think of for a while clock or a clock.

So I'm also sure, as you do in your travels in this community of fans of time and clocks and watches, that you hear some terrible jokes and puns. Can you share some of your behind some of the best

of the worst highlights and the lowlights, right. Well, in in in response, actually, this goes back to your earlier question of what questions people ask. Everybody walks, stances, do you know what time it is? Because you kind of have to, I guess.

And this terrible answer is that, no, we really don't, because we set our clocks off the ones that are running in the museum. We have them set a little bit off from each other so you can hear the differences when they chime.

So that it noon, not every clock goes off at one time. It's kind of spread out over about ten minutes. So when people ask us what time it is, it's like, well, we really don't know because they're all set differently.

And that one was set at the right time. So we have to look at our computers or our phones and tell them. You know, we hear people say that they had the best time here at the museum and, you know, and things like that.

We we were up at the biggy a couple of years ago, and one of my board members was volunteering at the museum's booth. And every person who came up, it was his goal for every person he talked to to have a different clock or watch our time, pun or joke for them.

You know, so we had some they were pretty bad by the end, but it was pretty great.

Well, Patty, thank you so much for joining us today. This has been a great conversation.

Thank you so much for having me. I've enjoyed it.

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