There's a great book, one of a series that you can probably order through your local library titled 'Gazebos and Trellises-Authentic Details for Design and Restoration' by Peter J Harrison. Taken from field notes, these old fashioned 'pattern' books offer incredible inspiration and are often on my desk rather than on the shelf.

Any chance that the Nova Scotia Center for Crafts and Design is near your area? Or, contacting them could be worthwhile. Instructors at schools of this type very often will assign interesting projects to a class as an exercise for each student when asked, especially for non-profit organizations. Some very creative ideas may be forthcoming, usually at no charge.

Check out this link. You can search for photos that might give you some inspiration. If you scroll down, there is a section on Landscapes.

Here is a link that might be useful: [American Memory Collections](http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/collections:@field(SUBJ+@1(Art+and+Architecture)):heading=Topics%3A+Art+and+Architecture)

Another site that might have links to photos that might help.

Here is a link that might be useful: Living History Museums

This publication may offer information.

Here is a link that might be useful: Historic Gardens Review

Includes some publications you can view online.

Here is a link that might be useful: Historic New England

Thanks for these links!
The Gazebos and Trellises book is not in our library system but I've had a look inside on Amazon.
That is a really interesting idea Nandina, to call NSCAD. They also have a good library, and although they don't do interlibrary loans it might be worthwhile talking to the librarian.
I take it none of you have designed an arbour, or else are keeping your process secret?
Bouncing ideas around and off the pictures I've found so far I'm leaning toward a simple structure made of 6x6" spruce, the top cross beams straight. Trying to avoid the Asian-inspired look of most arbours. Not that there's anything wrong with Asian, it just doesn't fit this project.

Paul, yes we have designed arbors and fences. However, the fact that your project relates to a historical museum would make me pause long enough to delve into some research. The time period for which you design was one of subsistance living; food crops, sheep, farming. There are numerous examples to be found of gate closures using rocks hung on rope as counter weights. Might be an interesting touch to include in the design, even though the gate is not meant to open. Did the common use of fence 'stiles' and/or 'kissing gates' cross the Atlantic with the settlers? I would want to research this for possible inclusion. A plain fence and arbor would be fine, a no brainer. But, what possible historical detail could you add that educates the public and fulfills the museum's purpose?

what possible historical detail could you add that educates the public and fulfills the museum's purpose?

Exactly. We could copy exactly a primitive pioneer fence but I believe local people want and deserve something a little more charming. A very streamlined pressure-treated fence imitating the posts and rails of those old fences, oiled with linseed oil/turpentine/pine tar to give them a richer colour, would be easiest to order and install, and might be alright, if we fancy it up a little by topping the posts with finials suggestive of the preoccupations in this area, three finials all the same size, alternating: an acorn finial echoing the beautiful little oak that presides over the gardens, and harkens back to the vast oak stands that greeted the pioneers; Turk's head knot finials made of sisal, for the Maritime flavour; and a kind of granite stone found on some of the beaches here, perfect globes. My wife thinks this would give a mishmash effect though..

When are you talking about? I'm realizing I don't have a good feel for the information this museums wishes to convey. Here, at least, the words 'settler' and 'pioneer' refer to 19th century westward expansion. So that is more than 200 years after 'early colonial'. The difference between the two in hows and whys and whats are fairly substantial.

So...does the word 'emigrant' sound better? Sorry that I intruded on your thought process, Paul. Those of us who think out-of-the-box tend to make these sort of mistakes.

I guess I've been vague. Mostly I was hoping to find a portfolio of fence and arbour designs online. We're far from libraries. This is a remote area. Around here, early settlers came mainly from rural Scotland, mid to late eighteen hundreds.(And the telephone didn't arrive until the 1950's.)
Nandina, no intrusion at all. The photos of fences I've seen in the museum, which has been closed since mid-Oct., are limited and their style very primitive, and arbours simply weren't used. I'm daunted by the responsibility this project brings with it and would be happy to steal ideas from photographs of other people's wooden arbours, but then come up with something original for here.

Image-searching 'stiles' has been helpful.

Nandina, it sounds as though you've taken offense and I'm not quite clear on why. It seemed to me that Paul acknowledged immediately that you had hit the nail of his dilemma on the head, and responded in quite a positive way even if he did not acquiesce entirely. I wonder if you might have thought that the question from Mad Gallica also came from Paul?

I always find your contributions illuminating, incorporating as they do a knowledge base that is obviously both broad and deep, and would not like your reward for contributing (and educating us all) to be a feeling of offense.
KarinL

OK. The other place the clans were sent was North Carolina. A lot of them ended up in eastern Tennessee, since that was the active frontier at the time. A search on 'Scots North Carolina', brings up some things you might find useful, and will probably find interesting. There should be Revolutionary War historic sites with research/plans but I haven't really been able to dig anything up.

You might also want to see if there is anything on historic ironwork. Historically, custom blacksmithing was much more available than it is now.