Day 3; the last one.

Our day today was split nicely into two nice halves; in the morning we toured the palace, Grate Hopes plantations, the weight writes, the Everard house and the capital, then in the afternoon we went on a behind the scenes tour!
         At the Governors palace the most impressive thing was the grand entrance, the walls are covered in weaponry, guns, and swords also the floor is made completely out of marble. The weapons are the most impressive to us today, however the floors would have been most impressive back then because that was the only marble floor in Virginia. The governors palace was also fascinating because of the out buildings. There was a kitchen, a salt house, and a smoke house this means that all of the food preparation was done outside of the house. This was a common theme in all of the houses and grate hopes plantation and this if for two main reasons. First because it was a huge fire hazarded, all off the cooking was done over an open fire and it could easily spread and burn the whole house if the kitchen was part of the main house. Secondly the kitchen was kept separate from the house for temperature control, in the summers the kitchen building reached temperatures of up to one hundred degrees in the living quarters of a house and that wouldn't be pleasant! There was a kitchen in the Everard house the place and grate hopes plantation, grate hopes and the place a smoke house, and only the place had a salt house. A smoke house is obviously for smoking meat and a salt house is for salting meat. Also at the Everard house there was a dairy for cooling things and really wasn't that effective. Finally the most interesting thing at the capital was the difference between where the where the peoples officials worked and where the kings officers worked. One the kings side of the building all the chairs were nicely padded with large pillows and nice table and window dressings. However on the peoples side the chairs were barely upholstered and everything was a sparse as it could be, while still being nice. This was to send a clear message to the citizens, that the king was in charge in every aspect of life.

In the afternoon we went  on the behind the scenes tour. The tour wasn't actually in the historic district it was at the Bruton Heights School, which was a school for African  American children and is now the brains of Colonial Williamsburg. It is where they do all of their research and restoration it also houses their library that has all sorts of wonderful books dealing with the Colonial period specifically all the buildings in the historic area. The two most interesting parts of our tour were learning about their virtual filed trips and getting to see the paper restoration lab. Virtual field trips are educational videos that make different periods of history come alive for grade schoolers. They have done field trips for many different periods of history, not just Colonial times.
    The paper restoration lab was the highlight of the tour, we got to see all the fancy equipment that is used when working with old papers. There is this machine and looks like a huge table with a bubble lid and hoses come out of that. It creates a vacuum and can also be used to filter water through a paper that water soluble ink on it. You would want to do that because water can flush stains, mold and other discoloration that a paper may have picked up over the years. The fact that this machine exists is proof that this is done. However this machine is only used on paper with water soluble inks, other papers can just be dunked in a water bath to clean them. While in the paper lab we got to see four pieces of paper, three pictures and a map. One of the picture had already been processed and we also got to see the blotting papers, the papers had all of the stains from the original picture and just a tiny bit of the pigment, it was extremely impressive.  One the other two picture the curator showed us how she identified all the different stains and discolorations and what that told her about the piece. What that really showed me was a different application of the chemistry I've been learning. The curator had a fully functioning knowledge of chemistry and form what I saw it seems like she uses it almost everyday. In fact when she was talking about the education required in her field she said that most people entering it now double majored in art history and chemistry. The map we got to look at was not really well  preserved, it was ripped and had bad crease lines, but we looked at it for two reasons. First because it was signed to an general on the occasion of him winning a Battle. Secondly because it demonstrated an other aspect of a curator associated with Colonial Williamsburg's job. The map she was looking at doesn't belong to Colonial Williamsburg, it was just be assessed to see if it valuable and to find out what needs to be done to restore it.

P.S.
1. The Everard house was a privet residence for a few hundred years, and has the graffiti to prove it!
2. Paint was made by mixing coloured chalk with oil.
3.  The colonies there were never any female politician.

Day 2, a full one!

Today I went to two special programs, one about women who were business owners or tradeswomen, and the second one was about theaters place in society. In the first program we met three women in different trades; an actor, a midwife/apothecary, and a cook. At the beginning of the program the women were having a normal everyday conversation as a group of friends might; they discussed their work, families ect.. Then they interpreters dispelled the myth that women weren't tradeswomen, the reason we believe this is because once women was married she couldn't legally own her own business her husband had to do it for her so in all the records we see the mans name, it isn't until you start looking deeper that you see that the women was the one actually in charge.
         The second program was mostly a collection of scenes, monologues and sermons, from the Colonial period that discuss the relationship between the Church and the theater. There was obviously some dialogue in between that mostly served to prove that the Church viewed theater as a frivolous tool of the devil and expressed that opinion from the pulpit. The playwrites retaliated by making fun of some of the most prominent of the anti-theater preachers and sometimes even mocking the entire idea of theater as satanic.
         Today I also visited many of the shops, specifically the milliner, the print shop, the book binders, the apothecary, coffee house, the wig makers and the jail. At these sights I learned many things about thous various trades.
         At the book binders I learned the details about how books were bound specifically about the different ways books could be bound and the difference that could make in price. An unbound book would cost a normal farmer only a half days wages but the most expensive binding (fully covered in imported leather) would cost a full weeks of wages. Later at the milliner's there were two things that struck me the most were first that there were three different professions that dealt in clothes production; tailors made men's clothes, Mantua makers who made ladies clothing, and milliners who sold unfitted garments and raw fabrics. The shop in Colonial Williamsburg is a combination of all three. The second thing I learned was that both boys and girls wore stays (the English equivalent of a corset) to improve posture. As they grew up boys obviously stopped wearing them and girls changed to become part of a women's shape wear.
          While I was at the wig makers I learned about the different fashions in wigs. For men their wigs told the story of their professions (curls across the back were for merchants and academics where as curls on the sides of the head indicated military men, the more curls the higher the rank,). For women the fashions changed almost everyday. I tell you more about what I learned at thous shops in the three facts at the end of this post.
        To finish of the day we went on a special program called 'Williamsburg before and after' and it explained all about how, when and why Williamsburg was restored the guide explained the process and named a few of the most famous people who have visited Williamsburg (Shirley Temple had her tenth birthday there). Then she showed us a lot of pictures of Williamsburg before it was restored. Finally at then end of the program we got an first class tour that showed us how and where the most major changes had taken place before the restoration.
        Tomorrow I am getting to go on a behind the scenes tour, but before that I am going to tour the Governor's palace and the other attractions in that area and I will tell you all about that!

P.S.
1. The wig makers used only imported hair because hair from the colniess was too brittle.
2. Jail time wasn't used as a punishment, only as a way to hold criminals before a trial.
3. There were three diffrent S's used, two lower case ones and a upper case one.

P.P.S.
I am sorry for not posting this yesterday, I hit save instead of publish.

Day 1; at last

If you read my last post you know that went on a ghost tour last night. It was fun and spooky. There were three ghost stories presented my three different female interpreters. One about a ghosts that exacts revenge on everyone who moves into her house, a second about a cannibalistic family whose line may or may be extinct, and a third about a pastor that meets a ghost who want revenge on her murderer and a proper burial.
                   Today however I opted to stay away from spooky things. I started out my day my visit by doing a program about three famous female musicians who defied society by playing a man's instrument flute, violin, and oboe and performing publicly. I learned that there were certain instruments that women couldn't play because of the way one had to hold one body to play that instrument.
                  After that I went to another special program about women during the colonial period about how women were able to join the military. The interpreter presented a piece as if she was a disguised female solider addressing new recruits. Then she talk about how easy it would have been for a women to join the military. First off no one would have recognised a female soldier because women were always done up in stays and hoop skirts. Secondly no one would have questioned the female solders modesty because everyone was always modest. Also because the latrines would have been disgusting it wouldn't have been uncommon for solders to use the restroom in the woods. Finally, society was programed to think that women would not want to be soldiers and that they weren't capable of become soldiers; so no one would have been looking for women as soldiers. We also learned that women joined the army for three main reasons, to be with a loved one, for money and independence, or because they were true patriots. If a women was discovered she would be drummed out and if they weren't with their husbands then they would be assumed a prostitute. Except for one important exception; Anna Lane, she was given a honorable discharge and a one hundred dollar pension (a huge increase from the usual forty dollar one) and no one knows why... All we know is that she was wounded and served valiantly during the war.
               Next we went around a visited some of the historic buildings; the garden, a Presbyterian Church, the shoemakers, the courthouse and the smiths yard and the African America religion exhibit. At all of the thous place I got to talk to some interpreters  and learned an ton of interesting things. For example I was able to answer my question about the religious freedom of slaves! That, as with many other things was up to the masters. Some liked the idea and others did not because if slaves believed that all people are created equal then they would be more likely to revolt. The religion that they did practice was a mix of African religions and Christianity. I also learned two interesting about women during this period; they were able to own/run a business and were subject to the same punishments under the law as men (even gruesome things like getting their ears nailed to the pillories ) however, they couldn't be sued or sue someone that had to go through  their husbands.
             Well, this is how I'll leave things for today, I am loving my time here, learning a lot and well on my way to answering my questions   

P.S.
I'm going to each post with three interesting facts I've learned!
1. The phrase 'ear-marked' comes from the practice of nailing criminals ears to the pillories as a punishment.
2. Women could become a part of most any trade or profession they wanted.
3. Pews in Churches used to square shaped and enclosed so that a fire could be lit in the middle during the winter.
     

  

Why I am in Williamsburg.

As you may or may not know my school does this thing called intersession. Intersession is a week between the third and fourth quarters where students either get to take classes that teachers design (usually something that is not core content related) or go off campus and have an educational experience. So this year I am spending the week here at Colonial Williamsburg visiting the sights and talking to the interpreters and learning as much as I can. There are two main things I would like to learn about while I am there they are minorities during the colonial period and the behind the scenes workings of Colonial Williamsburg. In order to make sure I learn as much as possible about I have come up with a list of ten guiding questions five relating to minorities, two about behind the scenes, and three general opinion questions. Here are my questions;
What opportunities did women have for advancement?
What kind of religious freedoms did slaves have?
What was the religious diversity like in Williamsburg?
How much say did a girl have in her marriage?
What kind of education did kids (esp. girls) receive?
How much research does each interpreter have to do?
What kind of maintenance is required at the historical buildings?
Why did you become an interpreter?
Why is Colonial Williamsburg important?
Should there be more places like Colonial Williamsburg?

Anyways, during my time here I will visit every single historical sight and talk to all of the interpreters there. I will also be attending at least three special programs, a ghost walk, a program called Williamsburg before and after and a behind the scenes tour. Also, since I am in Williamsburg I will be visiting The Collage of William and Mary.

Until either tonight or tomorrow when I'll tell you about the ghost walk!