Ed Carey

Bowed Glass

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I never know what will come through the front door of the shop, and when a man with a very sad look on his face brought in this beautiful antique framed wildlife diorama with bowed glass, I didn’t quite understand.

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Then I saw the cracks all around the edges of the curved glass. What a tragedy! Not only was this a great example of an antique carved picture frame with real bowed glass, but the glass was actually etched at each corner. Truly wonderful art forms that have all but disappeared.

It was bad enough to have the glass broken, but on top of that, the delicate contents of the wildlife diorama were now exposed. Could anything be done to preserve the talents of an early 20th-century taxidermist as well as the craftsmanship of the individual who put this display together?

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Carey Family Book

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The president of our family organization, E. Niel Carey, asked me to contribute a chapter to a book he was going to publish and I was asked to write about the Careys of Millsboro. They are one of the many Delmarva Carey family groups and ours descends from Elijah W. Carey, through his second wife. I decided to focus upon my Grandfather Carey, their only offspring, and as the summer of 2019 progressed, my chapter “The Careys of Millsboro” began to take shape.

The Carey/Cary Family book consists of 17 chapters, all containing a wealth of relevant Carey family information. You can view the table of contents here. For a link to my chapter click here. All proceeds go to the family organization and to cover publication costs.

The book was released at the annual reunion held at the Nabb Research Center, Guerrieri Academic Commons, Salisbury University, on November 2, 2019. Officially titled “The Carey/Cary Family: Researching, Connecting and Sharing Family History”, it is now available online at these and other locations:

Amazon

Walmart

Barnes & Noble

 

For more about the Carey/Cary Family organization go here.

 

Atlantic Hotel Chandelier

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Temporarily graced by the beauty of Julia Roberts during the filming of Runaway Bride, the Atlantic Hotel in Berlin, Maryland, is now permanently graced by another beauty, albeit antique, that of its historic crystal chandelier.

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Early last year I received a phone call from the hotel manager, followed by a text along with the photo below, and was asked if I could rewire the lighting fixture for them. Quietly resting in a corner in the basement of the hotel, all but forgotten, was this charming antique chandelier.

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I accepted the job and subsequently the fixture was brought into the shop where it was disassembled and inspected, material ordered, and repairs made to mechanical connections. A trial reassembly followed, and as I looked at the chandelier now hanging before me, I realized that I could never let it out of the shop in its badly tarnished state.

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New Year’s Clearance

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The Christmas rush is over! Finish that picture framing project you’ve been putting off and spend only half the money.

New Year clearance of an assortment of artwork-ready frames, some with mats and glass.

Have your artwork, photo, etc., mounted by us, using one of these frames, and pay 1/2 of the normal cost of a custom framing job.

Reopening January 9th following our annual Christmas and New Year break.

Time to get back to work

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They say that busy people get things done, and if that’s true I should not have any open dates in this blog sequence. But things have been happening and while they were, I’ve been accumulating a lot of stuff to share.

I’ve been going through boxes of family photos and documents, doing a little research at Delaware Public Archives, and brainstorming with family members and friends in the community who share a common interest in local history. Along the way, I’ve met a lot of people with whom I’ve shared my story and taken the time to listen to theirs. I hope that some of what appears here down the road may be of interest to you.

Finding old things in my surroundings and studying them in a historical context is a favorite past time and I’ve come to call it attic archaeology.

Family history is likewise important to me and I just had the opportunity to contribute a chapter to a recently published book on the Carey/Cary Family.

Having taken over my family’s picture framing business two years ago, I added a lamp repair service, and I have been very pleased with the response, in both cases.

Now, getting some of the results of these efforts into an interesting and presentable form has become my goal for the year ahead.

Be back soon…

 

Hi ho. Hi ho. It’s back to work I go!

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Family dynamics possess their own set of demands, and with them come responsibilities you sometimes never think about having to fulfill. So it has been since my last post, last year.

Along with the life changes that Mother has experienced came the realization that the frame shop she loved so much was sitting idle, and I began going in to the store to maintain a presence. Not one to sit still for very long, I started

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Oscar My Pet Rabbit

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Let me tell you a story about my pet rabbit “Oscar”.

Oscar 1Several years ago, while working for a major dental supply company, I needed to hire some part-time help, to assist with a backlog of filing and some other office tasks.

I had been given a rather large, unused room in the basement of one of the buildings to clean out and use as an office, for storage of the massive volume of the division’s maintenance and calibration records, and as a calibration shop for my use and for vendors.

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A Common Interest In Our Local History

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image-mike-dixonMike Dixon, local history writer and historian, of Cecil County, Maryland, has made a career of sharing a common interest in our local history with everyone within his reach. With a focus on the Mid-Atlantic, he has worked to encourage public interest for over three decades, appearing on TV, on The Today Show and Maryland Public Television, and has been featured in National Geographic, Southern Living, Chesapeake Life, and other publications. An adjunct professor with graduate degrees in history and behavioral science, Mike is also a visiting scholar for several organizations.

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