51st Annual Delaware Show

EARLY HISTORY William Corbit (1746–1818), the tanner and a successful real estate investor, completed a magnificent Georgian house in 1774. He also built a dynasty— fathering thirteen children from four marriages. Of those children, Daniel, as last male heir, assumed responsibility for orphaned family members and businesses as all his married brothers died before 1833. He actively embraced the family history, gathering documents and furnishings and preserving the family homestead. In 1847, three years after his wife’s death, Daniel married Mary Wilson, who had grown up next door in the imposing house built about 1769 by her father, David (1743–1820). This alliance of two of the town’s most prosperous families spread stewardship interests broadly in the ensuing years. In 1901 Daniel and Mary’s daughter, Mary (later Mrs. E. Tatnall Warner), purchased and restored the Wilson family house, which functioned as a museum—another example of historic preservation in this small town. And Daniel’s own efforts to preserve the architecture, furnishings, and history of the Corbits ultimately found the perfect patron in H. Rodney Sharp (1882–1968), who acquired the intact family house in 1938, restored it to its original appearance, and gave it to Winterthur as a house museum in 1958. Sharp, a Delaware native, restored other historic buildings in Odessa as well, fundamentally preserving the late 18th-century character of the town. LOAN EXHIBIT WhenWilliamCorbit and other leading residents of the region were in need of the very best in furniture, they turned to cabinetmaker John Janvier (1749–1801), also of Cantwell’s Bridge. Among Janvier’s work is a tall clock case that houses a movement by Odessa clockmaker Duncan Beard (working 1765–97). Like Janvier, Beard was a highly competent artisan who attracted broad patronage. The clock bears the engraved initials “JA” with Masonic symbols on the dial and may have been made for a fellow member of the Appoquinimink Masonic Lodge. The case embodies all of the imaginative earmarks of Janvier’s work. Another Janvier product, a regionally distinctive four- drawer chest signed in chalk on the bottom “John Janvier John Janvier Sr. and Duncan Beard, tall clock, mahogany and brass, 1775–90. Historic Odessa Foundation — 17 —