Partly to mostly sunny, windy, and quite cool for mid-June. .

Mostly clear and quite cool; still breezy in the evening.

Shortly before her death in 2006, Elizabeth Johnston Prime, granddaughter of early 20th century Bethlehem Steel great Archibald Johnston, had a few words to say about her dollhouse collection on turning it over to Bethlehem’s Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts. She noted that these were more than objects to her. The fact that they had been touched by generations of those who loved them was significant to her. She hoped that all who saw them would understand that and love them and protect them as well as they had been in the past.

Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites, the large organization of which the Kemerer Museum is a part, has certainly kept their part of that bargain. Recently they have created both a climate-controlled state-of-the-art vault to preserve these 44 dollhouses and their more than 6,000 pieces as works of art, and have added a virtual tour so the public can preview the dollhouses on their cell phones and find out more about Elizabeth Johnston Prime.

Known as “Betts” to her friends, Johnston Prime was born in Bethlehem in 1928. She was the daughter of Archibald Borhek Johnston (known as Archibald Jr.) and his wife, Jean Hale Johnston. Johnston Jr. was the son of early 20th century Bethlehem Steel executive Archibald Johnston, who played an important role in creating the modern steel industry and was also the first mayor of a united Bethlehem in the early 1920s. The Hill to Hill Bridge was a major accomplishment begun in his administration.

Born into comfortable wealth, Prime grew up at Camel’s Hump, the large estate of her grandfather, who had a degree as a mechanical engineer from Lehigh University. With its many wonders created on the grounds by him and the wonderful Georgian revival mansion in which they lived, it must have encouraged her imagination. She graduated from Moravian Seminary for Girls (now Moravian Academy) and in 1949 received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Connecticut College for Women where she was a member of the Russian and Riding Clubs. Later she received a Master of Arts degree in Social Work from Simmons College. Following graduation, she lived in Boston and worked as a social worker at McLean Hospital.

In 1965 Elizabeth Johnston met and married Sylvester Gardiner Prime (1916-1987) of New York City and Shelter Island, an enclave of the wealthy at the eastern end of Long Island. It was his second marriage.

According to an article in the New York Times of July 30, 1939, Prime was a descendent of Nathanial Sylvester, a Barbados sugar planter who was the first white inhabitant of the island, arriving in 1651. Sylvester used the island as a plantation to supply his property in the West Indies with other items that could not be grown in the tropics and had a mixed work force of enslaved Blacks, Native Americans and white indentured servants. There were enslaved people working on the property into the early 19th century. In the 18th century Sylvester offered shelter there to persecuted New England Quakers.

Among Sylvester Prime’s other ancestors was a French Army officer who arrived in America with Lafayette and Lion Gardiner, first Lord Mayor of Gardiner’s Island, one of the largest privately owned islands in the country. Another ancestor, Nathanial Prime, founded the New York investment bank of Prime, Ward and King, which handled transactions in America for the British banking firm of Baring Brothers. They were agents for the British investors that financed the building of the Erie Canal and other major internal improvement projects.

At the time of the marriage between Johnston and Prime he was said to be the owner of a great deal of property on Shelter Island and supposedly in 1966 built the first subdivision there. The couple divorced in 1970 and she took an apartment on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. Although she maintained the family home in Bethlehem this was her permanent residence. Prime would later rent another apartment in the city which were used to house her dollhouses.

Although she spent a great deal of time with her dollhouses, “Betts” was far from being a Victorian type of recluse. An avid baseball fan, her team was the Boston Red Sox. She would go to games and hiss the New York Yankees, who she found arrogant. Johnston Prime also had season tickets at the Metropolitan Opera and went on seven photo safaris to Africa, where the only shooting taking place was with cameras.

Although dollhouses were a part of her childhood her passion for them began later in life. Dollhouse historians trace their early popularity to the 17th century. They were not children’s toys. Enclosed in cabinets they were used by the wealthy to show off the interior of their own homes or castles. They were later popular as a way of teaching about housekeeping. Germany was the first to pioneer dollhouse building, followed by the Netherlands and England.

The Johnston Prime collection covers from the 1830s to the 1930s. Curator Brett Peters points out the interiors that sometime go right down to toilets. Miniature red ware spittoons reflect the common practicing of chewing tobacco in the 1830s. There are dollhouses with big, Victorian urban facades that have windows from which it is possible to see the interiors. Others are simple “room boxes” that focus on one room. These were designed for those families that could not afford the more elaborate structures.

As the collection grew so did Johnston Prime’s passion. Her partner in this was fellow collector Anne Timpson. She recalled to museum staff that sometimes she would get a call from Johnston Prime in the middle of the night, wondering what she thought about a new arrangement for furniture in a room. Did she think it was appropriate? Because Timpson shared her passion, she did not mind the calls.

From Timpson, Johnston Prime learned that sometimes it is necessary to “repair” the tiny nails that hold them when they come lose. Museum staff were surprised on a visit recently when Timpson pulled a little silver hammer and ever so gently tapped a nail back into place.

Houses are not the only things on display in the collection. There are stores, stables, and butcher shops. There is even one of early 20th century hunters in Africa. Along with tigers there is a figure with a pith helmet wearing pince-nez glasses that has more than a passing resemblance to President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt.

The museum is located at 427 N. New Street in Bethlehem. It is open to the public 1-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday or by appointment. Timed tickets and masks are required. For more information dial 1-800-360-Tour.

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Partly to mostly sunny, windy, and quite cool for mid-June.

Mostly clear and quite cool; still breezy in the evening.

Mostly sunny, breezy, but pleasant. A nice Father's Day for dads!

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