[1] Then in 1937 they purchased a 165-acre property in Essex, Massachusetts, carefully restoring the 1738 farmhouse, preserving original finishes while documenting their work.
[3][4][5] The couple collected and decorated their house with various "country arts" until 1984 when Mrs. Little transferred property ownership to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, reserving life tenancy rights for herself and her family.
[7] The couple received the inaugural Henry Francis du Pont Award from the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in 1984.
[10] Nina Fletcher Little (1903–1993) published six books including American Decorative Wall Painting: 1700–1850, and over 100 articles and exhibition catalogues.
She was a primary consultant on the original 1957 conception of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in Colonial Williamsburg,[11] the United States' first[12] and the world's oldest continually-operated museum dedicated to the preservation, collection, and exhibition of American folk art.