The Mark Twain House – Hartford, Connecticut

Why Did I Go?

Many people assume that English teachers and majors know every work by every celebrated author backward, forward, and inside out. I’m here to say, this is so not the case. Take Ulysses by James Joyce. I will never read this novel. Ever. I already know it’s going to bore me to tears, and life is too short for that. so why did I want to tour Mark Twain’s house? 

Well for starters, I really like Twain. I think, much like Fitzgerald (who adored Twain), he has an insane talent for capturing American culture in his works. I only learned at the museum that Twain moved to the south to better understand the American South for his writings. His stories read as someone who has lived there his whole life, he has such a strong grasp on the setting and vividly paints a picture before the reader’s eyes. I read Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and loved both. 

Now, do I remember either of them? No. Like, maybe a few odd details, but not very many. (Does anyone else have frighteningly bad memory loss and brain fog?) But, I remember that I liked his works, and so, we took a trip to this museum to learn more about his life. 

Info About The Mark Twain House:

The Mark Twain House and Museum is located in Hartford, Connecticut. From Brooklyn (where we live), it took about two and a half hours to get there in the morning. I know a lot of my fellow east coasters are exploring locally, so this is pretty worthwhile if you’re a book nerd and exploring the area!

If you recall the name Mark Twain, but can’t remember his classics, here are some of his more famous works:

• Huckleberry Finn
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• The Innocents Abroad
• Life on the Mississippi
• The Prince and the Pauper
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
• The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Mark Twain and his family lived in this home from 1874-1891. Fun fact, Mark Twain is not his real name! His actual name is Samuel Langhorne Clemens. 

COVID Info.

Hands down, the Mark Twain museum has an impressive COVID19 procedure. In fact, it’s probably the best I’ve seen. It really deserves a ton of applause. 

• It’s full of details and easy to follow the outline of the regulations on their website
• Tickets are for timed entry ONLY
• There is a maximum of five people per group. Your group NEVER meshes with another group
• Before buying tickets online, you receive (by this point three times now) a complete list of risks and procedures before clicking purchase
• Masks must be worn constantly over nose and mouth
• They turned away someone who claimed he “medically could not have the mask over his nose”. GOOD ON YOU, MARK TWAIN MUSEUM!
• The museum reserves the right to do temperature checks
• All traffic in the galleries, gift shop, and museum is one way
• If you become ill before your tour you can cancel

  

The only downsides were the following:

• The family of three that we were with would take their time looking around the room. We wanted to give them space, so hung back and waited. By the time it was our turn to look around, we had to rush and didn’t get to look as long as we would have liked. 
• We have a toddler, who was beginning to have a small meltdown at the end of the tour. Normally, we would take him to a different room or out completely so as not to disrupt other guests. You weren’t allowed to go anywhere unescorted, so it was a little hair-raising to have him flail and cry for the last ten minutes or so of the tour while the other family became upset. 

Just a thought out loud. Undoubtedly, my son is not the first toddler to have a melt-down at a museum. If museums allow children of any age to participate in tours (which is amazing), maybe there should be designated family tours. The rolling of the eyes and sighing from guests with grown children, who apparently have amnesia about what it was like when their kids were babies, is really frustrating. 

Self Tour Gallery:

Before the tour, guests have the opportunity to tour The Mark Twain House ground floor gallery on their own. As someone who has OCD and values an organized layout, this room was remarkably structured. First, guests can learn about Twain’s early life, and later how he got into writing and printing. After that, there is a section for each of his most famous works which discusses the inspiration for said work. 

I had a hazy recollection of his first longer work, The Innocents Abroad. I learned Twain used humor (he is known as the Great American humorist) to chronicle his tales from traveling to Europe in the mid-1800s. Of course, I knew that Twain was a writer, but learning how much he loved travel, and that his first work was actually a piece of travel writing felt serendipitous. I’m at a place in life where I am working hard to pursue a career in travel writing and to see his influence and love for exploring abroad was certainly riveting. 

Twain adamantly opposed racial bigotry. I cannot say for certain that this is a sentiment that he always held, even in youth, but it is for sure the way he felt towards the later years in his life. We could more than likely attribute his traveling overseas to this forward manner of thinking as he has written:

Enter The Mark Twain House Parlor.

While walking into the home, one immediately notices that the Clemens were apparently fans of Victorian style. Everything in the entrance room is chiefly made of dark wood and mahogany. Unquestionably, the most impressive part of the entrance is the intricately designed, hand stenciled ceiling, done by Tiffany. The Clemens’ home was very modern for its time and had gas lighting, hot water on demand, central heat (in a way), and surprisingly, a telephone. 

Fun FactS:

• Clemens/Twain hated telephones, and thought it was stupid to own one.

• When given the option of investing in the new invention, he said the telephone would never last, and instead invested his money in a large type of printer which never really took off and bankrupted him.

• He was able to earn his money back through a series of speaking tours around the nation.

Clemens’ Children. Tragedy Strikes.

While the Mark Twain home was being renovated, Twain’s daughter, Clara returned to the home and recovered original furniture and helped piece together the layout. She was incredibly excited about the project, and above all, wanted visitors to understand that this was not just Twain’s living space, but a real family home. 

As such, when the tour moves into the parlor, there are photos of Twain’s children all around. The children absolutely adored performing and would put on performances and concerts in the parlor for family and friends. Sometimes, they would turn their father’s stories into plays and re-enact them. 

Samuel Clemens and his wife had a few children, many of whom sadly met untimely and tragic ends. Langdon, their first child, passed away at 18-19 months due to diphtheria. Their second oldest child and daughter, Susy, passed away at 24 due to spinal meningitis. Their daughter Jean, passed away at 29 after having a seizure episode in their bathroom on Christmas Even and drowning. 

The Dining Room.

The Clemens family adored entertaining. Two to three evenings a week, they would host seven-course suppers for guests, and one recovered menu states that meals would sometimes begin with fresh oysters. 

The Atrium.

Victorians believed that being in nature was beneficial for one’s health. All who could afford to do so built atriums into their homes, naturally, being a successful writer, Clemens had one built in his home. His daughters used to run around inside of it and play, calling it their jungle. 

To Be a Guest…

Walking through Twain’s home, two thoughts popped in my head:

1. I would have LOVED to have been a guest staying here!
2. I would max out my credit cards to stay overnight here!

The Clemens family had three guest rooms, and for the time especially, they were Lavish with a capital L! In the main guest room, those staying overnight could use a tube in the room to call down to the kitchen and order whatever their heart desired, be it a snack, meal, or nightcap. With hot water readily available, room services, and central heat – I could only imagine that one would certainly feel very lucky to be friends enough with Twain to be invited to stay overnight. Guests would sometimes stay with the family for several weeks and even months in some cases!

Finding Humor in the Bedroom.

The Girls.

The girls shared a bedroom with their nanny who only spoke to them German so that they could pick up the language and be fluent in it. The girls’ mother, Olivia, believe it or not, was college-educated which was highly unusual given the time period. Additionally, she taught the girls math, literature, French, and Italian. 

Third Floor, Men Only.

The third floor of the home was reserved exclusively for men. If Twain had a male guest coming to visit on business, he would be housed in the spacious third-floor bedroom. 

Another bedroom on the floor belonged to George Griffin who was Twain’s butler. As the story goes, Griffin was a Black man born into slavery in the south. When freed, he made his way up to Connecticut (no one is sure how or why) and was cleaning windows in the area. Not much of known about the specifics, but after cleaning Twain’s window, he became their butler. Griffin’s day began early in the morning and ended very late at night, he was given the bedroom on the third floor in case he didn’t want to walk home so late. He was their family butler for 17 years.

The last room was Twain’s billiard parlor and office. He and his male companions would often play a round of pool and have some drinks in the room. While he wasn’t playing, Twain was working hard on on novels at his desk. Only Clemens’ wife was allowed in this room—his children were not allowed in the room or on the third floor in general. I think every parent should have such a luxury. Don’t you?

Gift Shop. A Coming of Age Story. 

I am the QUEEN of buying shit I don’t need! If there is a museum, and there is a gift shop, you can bet your ass I will walk in a drop some serious money (that I don’t even have) on every themed knick-knack available. 

I’m kind of proud to say that I stopped myself from doing so this time! Did I want a Mark Twain stuffed doll? Yes. Did I want three Mark Twain quote mugs? Absolutely. Did I want to buy every baby version of his texts? You bet. I didn’t impulse buy, for the very first time in my life. Why? I wish I could say I developed as a responsible adult, but it was actually entirely because our son was having a meltdown outside the shop HAHA. 

If you are like me, the Mark Twain Museum gift shop has LITERALLY any and everything you would ever need! 

After the passing of Jean, the Clemens family left the Hartford home and never returned. It was made into a boy’s school for some time, before becoming the museum that it is today.