Jane had submitted the idea to Historic Homes of New England, the organization where her friend Evan once worked, which bought up old estates and farms and houses for this very purpose. She wrote an impassioned pitch, beginning with a quote she had never forgotten, from that professor she had studied with for two seconds at Bates when she was in high school: Most lives will be lost to time. Jane detailed how the museum’s focus could be the real women who lived in the house, in the context of their historical moments. HHNE loved the idea. They hired Jane to be the museum’s director.
