Quoting Museum of the American Revolution First Oval Office Project Manager Joel Anderson here. Fourth of July in Philadelphia, Kitty suggested we take the train: a brilliant move. It was so hot we feared our train might be cancelled, which turned out to be justified. If you wear your silly clothes baggage is minimal. Amtrak […]
Read more "In a dog’s mouth"It’s been awhile. Kitty and I have been engaged in long discussions about time drag and what we want to do in the future. The amount of misogyny and prejudice in certain time periods is depressing. Guns are nice, but I’m having a hard time getting excited about recreating conflict and nothing else. Deckard’s rain coat is […]
Read more "High Life under the stairs"Mrs. Delaplace (her name is lost to history) is worried. Strange people appear from the woods and ask pointed questions about the fort. Ticonderoga was more “composed of decayed wood and earth” than a fortification in 1775. Fortunately, the stone barracks are serviceable. Captain Delaplace worked his 23-man guard hard. He acquired livestock, and made […]
Read more "A Perfect Day"Time to retire, after the most extraordinary history day yet. John Brown House returned to 1799 Saturday. The Browns, their friends and servants, took tea in period bowls and sat on antique chairs and sofas. The inhabitants were interpreters who studied period sources for weeks to play people who lived and worked in the home at the […]
Read more "What Cheer, Netop?"Great times were had at Frederick, Maryland. Chaps from the Fort Dobbs garrison and the Fort Pitt Museum formed a combined company of North Carolina Provincials serving with General Forbes in 1758. Good lads. Brandyn Charlton took this Last of the Mohicans shot of us. In the background is the 300-year-old road built by the people we are portaying. […]
Read more "Pew and Pocket Flaps"Salem Massachucetts is hot. A good time to don 1804 attire and become an accountant in a West India Goods Store for the Annual Maritime Festival. Since the building is normally an NPS office, visitors are slightly confused when it magically tranforms into a store. More so when Kitty fills it with some tiny fraction of her 19th-century […]
Read more "The Heat is On"The sight of a recreated company of properly-dressed, shaved, 18th-century soldiers emerging from the woods their ancestors fought over never fails to thrill. These New Englanders covered 16 miles in two 80+ degree days in New Jersey. Historians among them regaled the others with the actual events of the 1778 Battle of Monmouth, a deluxe […]
Read more "Know Your Enemy"Well, it’s comfortable. Genesee Country Village’s early 19th century weekend made an excellent place to test the Summer tail coat. None of the interior seams are finished, the sleeves are not lined and the cuffs just tacked on. It was way too hot to button anything. After some initial confusion, our group of seven and a half […]
Read more "GCM After Action Report"Preserv’ed Tailor remembered his apron this past weekend. The Craven County militia captain appreciated his service and there were extra monies. Our hero used them to pay the laundresses to darn his stockings. To refine things further, a small box would be useful. Time to add shaving supplies, cleaning brushes &c. Interactions with the other men, […]
Read more "Pad Stitching"Back to Dobbs, where the ratio of women, children, and dogs to Provincial soldiers is just right for an 18th-century frontier fort. Sandbyland. Lovely Carolina weather: 80 degrees during the day, 30 at night. The site director kindly allowed his drunkenness to be a valet for two days, a chance to up the common soldier […]
Read more "Servant"