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Joseph
Peter Spang III (May 11, 1934 - May 6, 2020) was a member of the
Horace Walpole Society, elected
in 1983.Queer Places:
Harvard University (Ivy League), 2 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA 02138
Pleasant Grove Cemetery
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA
Joseph
Peter Spang III (May 11, 1934 - May 6, 2020) was a member of the
Horace Walpole Society, elected
in 1983.
Joseph Peter Spang III was born in Chicago on May 11, 1934, the younger son of Joseph Peter Spang Jr. and Gwendolen Green. In 1938, after his mother's death and his father's appointment to the Gillette Company, the family moved to Massachusetts, where they had a large extended family. He and his brother, Thomas J.G. Spang, were raised by their father and their aunt, Marie F. Spang, in Brookline and, later, Milton. In 1957, Peter and his aunt found a house on the North Shore, where Peter spent 62 summers. Peter attended the Dexter School and Brooks School, and graduated from Harvard College in 1956. Following a period of travel and study abroad, Peter moved to Deerfield in September 1959, when he was appointed as the first curator of Historic Deerfield, Inc. Working with the museum's founders, Henry Needham Flynt and Helen Flynt, Peter grew the collections, contributed to the academic programs and cultivated and maintained relationships over many years with a growing group of constituents and donors. He retired in 1986 but remained affiliated with the museum, first as senior associate for special projects and later as a trustee.
His interests in American history, architecture and material culture extended to affiliations and service with other institutions including Historic New England, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association and the Trustees of Reservations. He was elected a member of the Walpole Society in 1983, participating enthusiastically in the twice-yearly gatherings of this group of collectors and scholars and was a fixture in New York City each January for Americana Week and the accompanying antiques shows, auctions, and social gatherings. Other memberships included the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, the American Antiquarian Society, the Club of Odd Volumes, the Somerset Club and the Singing Beach Club.
Collecting was for Peter a professional responsibility and a personal pleasure. In his student days in London he explored Portobello Road and began assembling a collection of architectural pattern books that is now housed at Historic Deerfield. Another passion was ocean liners. Peter loved his early travels across the Atlantic before air travel eclipsed the ocean liner.
My published books:
