Blogging Along the Brandywine: Lynch lights up the village

Posted by Sally Denk Hoey on October 12, 2022

A projected image of Andy Wyeth on the Sanderson's front porch.

Anyone driving through the center of Chadds Ford Sunday evening, Oct. 9, may have been puzzled by a warm glow emanating from somewhere on Creek Road. No, it wasn’t just the full Hunter Moon rising in the east, as the light seemed to be coming from… the Sanderson Museum?

Wait. Did I just see Sanderson Museum founder Andy Wyeth sitting on the porch steps? And was that Betsy Wyeth striking up a conversation with Chris Sanderson himself?

Yes!

Multiple pictures taken from the 1930s through 1950s of Chris, his mother Hanna, neighbors Andy and Betsy Wyeth, along with village children listening to Chris play his violin were all being projected on to the very location the pictures were taken. One picture was so precisely projected as to have Wyeth’s legs resting on the same porch steps. Another had Hanna reaching for her hand-made American flag in the exact spot a flag still hangs every weekend.

As a word of explanation, the side porch of the Sanderson Museum was actually the Sanderson’s front porch. The circa1854 stucco over fieldstone house was owned by neighbor Lottie Brittingham Eachus, who rented the main house to village blacksmith Willard Sharpless and the added back frame wing to Chris and his widowed mother, Hanna.

Sunday evening’s “Photo Portals into the Past, An Evening of Historic Projection Installations.” was conceived by museum volunteer and guide Michael Lynch, self-styled projection artist, who, along with projection specialist Matt Nelson, has been creating these evenings for two years.

Lynch grew up in Radnor and Newtown Square, then moved to West Chester to earn his undergraduate degree at West Chester University. And although he earned his master’s and doctorate degrees through Drexel and Temple Universities, respectively, he said, “Since then, West Chester has become my home, and I've completely fallen in love with Southern Chester County.”

The audience watching the projected images.

He currently teaches Research Methods at Lincoln University in Oxford.

When asked how he found himself projecting historical pictures and paintings in place, Lynch offered, “I’ve been an artist the majority of my life, with my primary focus being graphic design and street art. The current project stemmed from experimenting with the projectors in a street art context with my projection partner, Matt Nelson, during the pandemic. We were projecting large-scale animations, colors, and patterns on parking lots and buildings, and then made the conceptual leap to project historic photos and paintings as superimposed images onto their original locations."

Museum curator Chuck Ulmann said, “I personally liked the image of Chris showing several children how to play the fiddle in the side yard of the house."

“There was a good atmosphere outside,” museum board member Jim Christ added, “and many first-time visitors inside looking over all the museum offers.”

So, what attracted Lynch to this tiny eight-room museum on Creek Road?

“The magic of the Sanderson Museum pulled me in immediately upon my first visit,” he explained.”

“The sheer breadth and depth of the collection is so unique and impressive, as it is truly a one-of-a-kind treasure. That one cannot fully see everything the museum has to offer in one visit is compelling, which inspires me to keep coming back and to dive deeper into the story of Christian Sanderson.”

Ulmann noted, “This event allowed people the opportunity to see the collection at the Sanderson Museum after having driven by it a thousand times.”

Perhaps Michael Lynch lit up not only the Sanderson Museum but its collection as well.

About Sally Denk Hoey

Sally Denk Hoey, is a Gemini - one part music and one part history. She holds a masters degree cum laude from the School of Music at West Chester University. She taught 14 years in both public and private school. Her CD "Bard of the Brandywine" was critically received during her almost 30 years as a folk singer. She currently cantors masses at St Agnes Church in West Chester where she also performs with the select Motet Choir. A recognized historian, Sally serves as a judge-captain for the south-east Pennsylvania regionals of the National History Day Competition. She has served as president of the Brandywine Battlefield Park Associates as well as the Sanderson Museum in Chadds Ford where she now curates the violin collection. Sally re-enacted with the 43rd Regiment of Foot and the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment for 19 years where she interpreted the role of a campfollower at encampments in Valley Forge, Williamsburg, Va., Monmouth, N.J. and Lexington and Concord, Mass. Sally is married to her college classmate, Thomas Hoey, otherwise known as "Mr. Sousa.”