Stratford Hall Projects

Field trips are not just for school children

2012-01-27T10:45:00.013-05:00

Visiting other historic house museums is a very important part of staff training. Learning about what has (or has not) worked at other museums helps us develop our own skills and inspires new ideas.

This week the interpretive staff visited James Madison's Montpelier. Our visit stared with a guided tour of the Treasures of Montpelier exhibit with Carole, our fantastic guide, and a screening of the introductory movie. Carole then took us through the first and second floors of Montpelier.

After our tour we returned to the Visitor Center for lunch. We were joined by members of the interpretation and education departments for a question and answer session. For the guides, this was the highlight of the trip. The conversation ranged from the interpreter dress code to what to do when school buses arrive late.

Everyone was let loose for the final hour to explore whatever interested them. Some chose to visit the cemetery, while other walked to the Archaeology Lab. A few decided to check out the outbuildings and explore the gardens.

We all love Stratford, but sometimes it is nice to get out and be a visitor. We are very lucky because there are no shortage of amazing places to visit in Virginia!

New faces on the farm

2012-01-13T12:22:00.011-05:00

Today Stratford Hall welcomed the first of the Red Devons. We first mentioned this project in a blog about a year ago. You can read it here.

This is a breed that would have been found at Stratford in the 18th century. Through a partnership with Lakota Farms, we are now able to give our visitors a chance to see these beautiful animals and learn more about Stratford's agricultural heritage.

We will keep updating you and sharing images as the herd acclimates to their new home.

One Slave's Story

2012-01-06T10:06:00.005-05:00

It all began with an article in the Detroit Free Press…

http://www.freep.com/article/20111223/NEWS05/112230427/Does-uncovered-tombstone-tie-black-family-to-Gen-Robert-E-Lee-?odyssey=tab|mostpopular|text|FRONTPAGE

Discovery of a tombstone bearing the name Elizabeth Lee in a Canadian cemetery and related family oral history have prompted her descendants to claim kinship with Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee, father of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Henry Lee, according to Elizabeth Lee’s descendant, Elise Harding-Davis, is believed to have fathered a slave, Kizzie, who was the mother of Elizabeth’s husband, Ludwell Lee.

Henry Lee, a former Revolutionary War hero, moved to Stratford in 1782 after marrying his cousin Matilda, eldest daughter of Philip Ludwell Lee. Matilda died in 1790 and Henry, who had been elected Governor of Virginia, married Ann Hill Carter in 1793. Henry and Ann’s last child to be born at Stratford was Robert E. Lee. Henry’s financial difficulties, stints in debtor’s prisons, and his son Henry’s claim on the Stratford estate hastened the family’s departure from Stratford to Alexandria in the winter of 1810-11.

Tracing the history of African Americans at Stratford has always been challenging. Slave names gleaned from court records and Lee family documents comprise most of the information that we know about Stratford’s historic slave community. Probate inventories of the first two Lee owners of Stratford, in 1758 and 1776, list the names of their slaves along with other property. An extensive slave list was made in 1782 when Philip Ludwell Lee’s estate was divided between his widow Elizabeth and two daughters, Matilda and Flora (who married her cousin Ludwell Lee, son of Richard Henry Lee). [For further information, see Jeanne Calhoun’s research report, “The African-American Experience at Stratford: 1782” at http://www.stratfordhall.org/learn/african_american.php ] Philip’s estate slave list included names, ages, value, and sometimes occupations of the 137 slaves living on Stratford and two outlying farms. Also, Henry Lee inherited some slaves from other Lees, and these estate divisions are recorded in the Westmoreland County courthouse. Some of these slaves came to live at Stratford. Unfortunately, only a few of these documents indicate family units that existed, and none of them record any surnames. Only one African American family—the Payne family—has been identified as having once been a part of the plantation’s slave population.

Searching for Kizzie:

None of the slaves in the various inventories and lists mentioned above had the name “Kizzie.” However, court clerks and persons entrusted by estate administrators and county courts to make inventories often resort to creative spellings of names in official records. The two Lee probate inventories do not list any slave with a name that could possibly be construed as being Kizzie. In the April 1782 estate division of slaves, there were two girls allotted to Matilda and Flora with names beginning with a “K.” Those names, as far as I can tell, are “Keavy” (age 5) and “Kenny” (age 3). These slaves were born during the American Revolution while Henry Lee was leading his cavalry and before he courted Matilda and married her in 1782.

More promising is a list of slaves that Henry Lee inherited by will from the estate of John Lee of Cabin Point. John Lee’s widow, who had life interest in his estate and slaves, died childless in 1802. Several Lee nephews, including Henry Lee and Richard Bland Lee, received equal portions of the estate, including slaves living there, in 1803. Henry Lee’s 28 inherited slaves included “Kesey” (age 5). The Westmoreland County court records (Book #8, p. 213) show that the same girl slave was listed as “Keseah” in John Lee’s probate inventory.* Could this child, born circa 1798, be the Kizzie who had her own child Ludwell by age 20 in 1818?

If so, Kesey, as one of the Cabin Point slaves, would have led a very precarious childhood. Henry Lee, in perpetual debt, mortaged his Cabin Point inheritance (to Bushrod Washington) in 1798…even before he officially inherited it. A long legal battle with Thomas Rowand over the ownership of Cabin Point resulted in Lee’s eventual loss of the property. Court documents indicate that Lee’s inherited Cabin Point slaves were brought to Stratford after the 1803 John Lee estate division. Henry Lee sold the slaves from Cabin Point to his brother Richard Bland Lee for $2,000 credit against his debt in 1807; Richard Bland Lee hired out the Cabin Point slaves beginning January 1808. However, records of the transaction do not list Kesey as one of those slaves. Nor is she listed when Richard Bland Lee sold the Cabin Point slaves to Henry Lee, Jr. in January 1810. Where was Kesey after 1803?

In 1810, the Federal Census shows that there were only 32 slaves over age 12 at Stratford, a number that had been steadily decreasing as Henry and Ann Lee began selling off acreage not included in the deed of trust to his children by his first wife Matilda. Court records show that many of Henry’s slaves were taken as collateral by persons to whom he owed money, and much of Henry’s time during 1809-1810 was spent in debtor’s prisons in both Westmoreland and Spotsylvania Counties. Henry Lee’s personal property tax return for 1810 showed that he owned no slaves by the end of the year. If Kesey had remained at Stratford after 1803, where was the twelve-year-old girl in 1810? If Henry had given his remaining slaves to his son Henry, Jr., who assumed management of Stratford in 1810, Kesey would probably not have remained at Stratford much longer. Henry Lee, Jr.‘s slave population dwindled to only 4 slaves over age 12 by 1815. Interpreting possible scenarios for Kesey’s fate is tempting, but the sad fact is that Kesey seems to virtually disappear from the historical record after 1803.

It’s possible that combing through Westmoreland County court records might produce some evidence for Kesey’s whereabouts after 1803, but that research project would require a lengthy time investment. And what if Kesey is not Kizzie?

What’s in a name?…..

Ludwell was a surname associated with the Lee family since Thomas Lee’s marriage to Hannah Ludwell in the 1720s. Thomas Lee passed the Ludwell name to two of his sons, and four of Thomas’s sons (one married a Ludwell cousin) passed the name to their sons. Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee named one of his sons Philip Ludwell. Thomas Ludwell , brother of the Philip Ludwell who was agent for the Northern Neck Proprietary, also patented land near the early Lees in Westmoreland County. When the estate of Squire Richard Lee of Lee Hall (just downriver from Cabin Point) was inventoried in 1798, the inventory listed a slave named Ludwell, who was sold to Squire Richard’s nephew, Richard Bland Lee—the same Lee who purchased the Cabin Point slaves. While slaves were often given a diminutive of the names frequently used by their owner’s family, i. e., Harry for Henry, a family name was sometimes used for slaves when it was not used for a member of the slaveowner’s household. While Ludwell may be an unusual name in Canada, it certainly is not unusual in Virginia and elsewhere. Genealogical inquiries from unrelated Lee families with ancestors bearing the names Richard Henry, Robert E., Ludwell and Lightfoot are constant reminders that not everyone who shares a common family name is related. But, combined with an oral history tradition, the Ludwell name link is tantalizing.

Oral histories are important, particularly to black families who are seeking to trace their history in a world where little documentation survives. We respect the oral tradition of passing along information from one generation to the next and have our own oral history project associated with Stratford and its restoration. The Payne family’s history is entwined with that of the Lees and subsequent owners of Stratford, and new findings are shared between the Paynes and the research department here. While oral history can be helpful in directing ancestor searches, it does not take the place of historic documentation. By itself, oral history often leaves many questions unanswered, but it is invaluable as an impetus to document the oral history tradition. We hope that the descendants of Kizzie will continue their quest to discover unknown family names and relationships. Maybe their journey will indeed lead to the Lees of Stratford.

*Other transcribers have read the name as “Kissey” and “Kesiah.”

Rare Book Catalog Project Update

2011-12-16T11:29:00.007-05:00

Over the past summer I have become more acquainted with the library's rare book collection than I ever thought was possible. I was very familiar with a small number of titles that I normally pulled from the library shelves to show to visitors, but the bulk of the collection remained largely unknown to me. Not cataloged and difficult to explore because of the many high shelves, the rare book collection was doing little except for collecting dust.

Last spring, when presented with the chance to participate in the Founding Fathers Library Consortium with Mount Vernon and Gunston Hall, I was delighted. The Library Consortium website already offers on-line and on-site researchers a digital catalog of library holdings at those two historic sites, and, hopefully, Stratford Hall’s rare books will be cataloged along with the others by next summer. Not only will researchers be able to discover which rare books are located here, but we will also be able to know what’s in the collection and where each title is located.

Work on the digital catalog project officially began last summer with the arrivals of intern Julia Hurwitz and a large stack of self-stick barcodes. Julia’s internship involved finding the books that matched the titles in the lists we already had, inserting acid-free identification strips in each book, putting identical barcodes on the i.d. strip and listing for each volume, and compiling a list of titles that were not represented on any list we had. Every day must have seemed like an Easter Egg hunt for Julia as she looked for titles on the duPont Room shelves, in the library basement, in my office, and in various historic buildings where they were used for props. She made many trips up and down the rolling library ladder and successfully located and barcoded over 2,500 books. Thanks to Julia’s unflagging energy, superb organizational skills, and multi-lingual skills, all of the rare books in the duPont Room were readied for the digital catalog.

Now I have the job of finishing the project! With the help of volunteer Maurice Capone, I have begun identifying and barcoding the rare books housed in the library basement. Some books are easy to find on the lists and others present challenges, particularly the books missing their title pages. I have a much higher regard for on-line research after discovering most of the elusive titles using Google search. I also have many more questions about our rare book collection that have tempted me to delve into the history of the collections themselves.

One of our major rare book collections, the Shippen family library, was given by the great, great-grandsons of Thomas Lee Shippen, William R. and Edward Shippen, partly in 1947 and partly in 1969. Thomas Lee Shippen was the grandson and namesake of Thomas Lee of Stratford, whose daughter, Alice Lee, married Dr. William Shippen of Philadelphia. One volume in the collection of around 500 books is Thomas Lee Shippen’s handwritten library catalog dating to 1790. In this book Shippen carefully recorded loans of his books to friends.

Thomas Lee Shippen’s catalog identified the volumes in his personal library, a number of which were inherited from his father, Dr. William Shippen, and have Dr. Shippen’s name inscribed inside. Dr. William Shippen was noted for his service during the Revolution and for his role in medical education.

However, there are many more books in the Shippen collection that came to Stratford with bookplates other than the one used by Thomas Lee Shippen, including a beautiful armorial bookplate of William Byrd of Westover, armorial bookplates of John Banister, and others of James M. Nicholson. Where did they come from? A perusal of my trusty Lee family genealogical reference, Lee of Virginia 1642-1892, solved the mystery.

Thomas Lee Shippen (1765-1798) married Elizabeth Farley, widow of Col. John Banister, Jr., who was the daughter of James Parke and Elizabeth Byrd Farley [daughter of William Byrd and Elizabeth Carter]. Thomas and Elizabeth Shippen had two sons, one of whom [Dr. William Shippen] had a son Dr. Edward Shippen who married Rebecca Lloyd, daughter of James Macon Nicholson of Baltimore. Dr. Edward Shippen was a distinguished Civil War surgeon. Two of their grandsons [sons of Dr. Lloyd P. Shippen] who donated the family collection to Stratford, actually gave us several libraries accumulated by noteworthy families:

The Nicholsons of Maryland

[Nicholson bookplate]

James Macon Nicholson (1808-1875), inherited the library of his father, the Hon. Joseph H. Nicholson of Maryland, who was elected as Maryland delegate to the Continental Congress in 1777 (but did not serve) and as a Republican to the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Congresses. James’ daughter, Rebecca, had “Maryland, My Maryland” set to music and published, just as her grandfather, Judge Joseph Nicholson, had done for the “Star Spangled Banner.” Francis Scott Key had given his brother-in-law, Judge Nicholson, the handwritten manuscript of the “Star Spangled Banner” in 1814, and the document passed down for two generations in that family before it was sold in 1907 to the Walters Art Gallery.

The Banister Family of Virginia

The first Virginia naturalist was Rev. John Banister (c.1650-1692), a close friend of William Byrd I of Westover. Banister was accidently killed while exploring the lower Roanoke River with some men in Byrd’s entourage. After Rev. Banister’s death, his notes and collections were acquired by some of the most notable collections and libraries in England; however, William Byrd became the guardian of Banister’s namesake son and obtained his library of eighty or more volumes of natural history and travel books. Byrd’s library eventually passed to his grandson William Byrd III, whose widow sold the entire collection to a Philadelphia bookseller in 1777. The library was sold piecemeal. However, we know that some books (at least one or more!) were retained by Byrd’s daughter, Elizabeth. Banister’s ownership is signified by his name stamped in ink; thankfully, it was not obscured by William Byrd I’s ornate bookplate.

Another large part of the Shippen collection was owned by Col. John Banister, the grandson of the Rev. Banister mentioned above. Col. Banister (1734-1788) built Battersea in Petersburg, Virginia, and was a member of the first five Virginia Revolutionary Conventions, fought under General von Steuben, and was elected to (and served in) the Continental Congress in 1778. Banister’s widow married Thomas Lee Shippen and, evidently, moved the Battersea library with her to Philadelphia.

We will keep our readers updated on this fascinating rare book project, which will be completed this coming year.

Update from the Preservation Department

2011-12-05T16:31:00.027-05:00

The big ongoing project in the Preservation Department is the restoration of the Parlor. This restoration project will return the Parlor to the 1790's Federal Period of "Light Horse Harry" Lee. "Light Horse Harry" made this room larger while making it his most fancy space in the Great House. The Preservation Department has been working with the architects and architectural historians of Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker Architects, LLP, in order to determine what needs to be done to complete this restoration project.

After extensive investigation and research, the evidence to direct us in the restoration of the Parlor has been found. One item that will be done is the removal of the window seats (see image left) from the window embrasures. The window embrasures will then extend to the floor and contain paneling that will match the existing Federal Period wainscoting (see image below). The next major change will be the installation of a plaster cornice. The exact design of the 1790's cornice is not known, but the original dimensions have been determined. The architects are currently researching other cornices from the same time period in Virginia to help guide them in their design. The paint scheme will also change during the restoration. Through paint analysis it has been determined that the walls will be a yellow-green verdigris while the wainscoting and wood work will be a cream color. These are the biggest changes you will see during the Parlor's restoration.

Another recent project for the Preservation Department is the completion of a Historic Structure Report, also known as a HSR, on the Great House. This report presents an overview of the Great House's physical history from the time it was built by Thomas Lee up until the early restorations of the 1930's. This report was prepared for Stratford Hall by Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker Architects, LLP. The report pulls together years of research along with new research and investigations, and has been an essential guide in the ongoing restoration of Stratford Hall. As we proceed with the room projects, more research and investigation will be added to the HSR. Information from this document will also be incorporated into our tours of the Great House.

A project of a different kind

2011-09-22T12:35:00.018-04:00

Stratford Hall is still cleaning up from the major weather/natural events of the last month. With the exception of a crooked painting and swinging chandeliers (and a few rattled nerves), Stratford Hall did not experience any real lasting impact from the earthquake on August 23rd, 2011. Hurricane Irene did leave a lasting mark.

In the days leading up to the hurricane, Stratford Hall employees made preparations. The shutters in the Great House were closed, plastic tarps places in sensitive areas, and sandbags piled in doorways.

After the storm had passed, it did not take long to discover the beating that the landscape took over the course of 24-hours. It is important to note that none of the historic buildings sustained significant damage, but the trees and some of our support buildings did not fare as well. Multiple trees fell on the bridge leading to the Great House and almost every road was blocked. A few of our cabins were hit by falling trees, with entire bedrooms flattened in a couple cases.

After seven days of cleaning, Stratford Hall was able to open to the public again on September 3, 2011. The Dining Room was reopened on September 16, 2011. The road to the Grist Mill and beach is still being worked on, but we hope to have it open for October.

A huge thank you is owed to our grounds and maintenance staff. They worked around the clock to get us up and running as soon as possible...and their job will continue in the coming months to finish tree removal, make repairs, and reopen the hiking trails.

Greetings from AASLH!

2011-09-16T05:27:00.010-04:00

The 2011 AASLH (American Association for State and Local History) Annual Meeting is being held in Richmond, only an hour from Stratford Hall. This proximity made it possible for me (Abigail Newkirk, Director of Interpretation and Education) and Gretchen Goodell (Curator) to attend. This year the theme is Commemoration: The Promise of Remembrance and New Beginnings.

Attending conferences is an important part of museum work. They are a chance to attend sessions on a variety of topics, network with museum employees from across the country, and speak to companies that provide services to museums. If you have been following this blog, you know how may projects we have in the works. Hearing about the successes (and failures) at other sites is an integral part of the process.

So far, I have been able to attend sessions titled:

Interpreting Divergent Voices and Challenging Narratives
Using Social Media to Engage Audiences in Museums and History Organizations
Inspiring the Next Generation: Adding Value and Outreach to Museum Education Programs
Programming for Pivotal Moments in History
Remember the Ladies: Commemorating Women's Sacrifices, Achievements, and Rights
Beyond Numbers: What Does Success Look Like?

I am out of the office for a couple days, but that does not mean the work stops. Check out my temporary office. Technology makes working remotely much easier!

A Late Summer “Gust”

2011-09-06T13:39:00.004-04:00

Hurricane season has arrived in full force. Irene’s severe impact on Stratford, visible everywhere in the form of downed trees, blocked roads and damaged buildings, reminds me of Isabel’s arrival in September 2003. Hurricane Isabel had Stratford’s stalwart staff cleaning up the grounds during our two weeks without electricity (remember, no computers or lights) and the farm crew sawing up felled trees and clearing roads and trails for months. The damage Isabel and Irene inflicted on Stratford must have rivaled that of a previous hurricane—the “Great Gust” of 1769.

The last hurricane (1749) to impact the Middle Atlantic coast had been about twenty years before. Since that time, Philip Ludwell Lee had built up a lucrative commercial enterprise at the Stratford Landing, which included a gristmill, public wharf and tobacco inspection station, warehouse and store. On September 6, 1769, a powerful storm came ashore near New Bern, North Carolina, and turned northward, with the eye of the hurricane passing over Williamsburg, Virginia, in the morning hours of September 8. It blew violently and, changing course, headed northwest toward the Chesapeake Bay.

Accounts of the hurricane were chronicled in the Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia Gazettes, as well as The London Magazine. The Virginia Gazette, printed in Williamsburg, described the great storm, “Last Thursday night came on the Severest hurricane of wind and rain, that has happened here in the memory of man, which lasted [a] great part of Friday. The damage it has done is inconceivable. Vast numbers of houses are blown down, and mills carried away, trees of all sizes torn up by the roots, and cattle, hogs, etc. crushed by their fall; the corn laid level with the ground, and the tobacco ruined in many places, and much hurt in almost all; In short, such a dreadful scene of devastation presents itself in every part of the colony we have yet heard from, as beggars all description. Add to this, the damage sustained by water, which is impossible yet to form any idea of. Providentially we have not heard, with certainty, of any lives being lost, though we fear it has been fatal to many.” Some of the more gruesome details were reported in a later issue: “At Smith’s Point, in the mouth of Potowmak, seven vessels were driven ashore in the late storm, most of which are entirely lost, and one of these supposed to be Mr. William Black’s schooner. Several dead bodies have been taken up, & chest & trunks containing genteel wearing apparel; and among the dead bodies there appeared to be two Gentlemen and Ladies, by their dress.”

At Stratford, the damage from the Great Gust was severe. Philip Ludwell Lee lost his wharf, warehouse, inspection station, and gristmill. Philip wrote to his brother William, in London, on October 6: “. . .this will be a bad year; the gust a month ago such as never was here has destroyed ¾ of the Tobacco, y[ou]r own Tobacco & y[ou]r Br[other] Paradises… .” William’s plantation, Green Spring, near Williamsburg was hit hard as well. However, the lucky tobacco planters who had received notes for depositing their tobacco in the destroyed warehouses were reimbursed by the colonial legislature. The havoc caused by the high winds and fierce waves of the Potomac River caused the Virginia Council to refuse Philip’s request to rebuild his wharf and related structures; the Council chose to relocate the public wharf and tobacco inspection station to a less vulnerable harbor.

Country houses...in England and Wales

2011-08-25T10:57:00.015-04:00

Throughout the month of July, I had the good fortune to be able to travel in England and northern Wales as part of the Attingham Summer School, a study program run by The Attingham Trust.* My classmates included architectural historians, curators, conservators, and preservationists from around the world (Russia, Australia, Switzerland, India, etc.). For three weeks we traversed the countryside of England and Wales visiting country houses to study their architecture, collections, and the manner in which they present these things to their visiting public. Some were public museum buildings, but some were private residences. The ability to see these places and their collections, and discuss them with colleagues of such diverse backgrounds, was amazing.

In attending this program, I hoped to not only learn about the specific sites we were visiting and life in the English country house in general, but I also came with a specific goal of looking for ideas and inspiration to bring back to Stratford Hall. Because Stratford is in essence an English country house in Virginia, I knew that some parallels would present themselves, and perhaps I could learn some things to help solve mysteries of room use and layout that had puzzled the Stratford staff for some time. Specifically I was looking to understand service spaces "below stairs" and how the spaces in our lower level might have been used in the 18th and early 19th centuries. I also wanted to see what other historic houses were doing as far as exhibits and interpretation. Below, are just some of the things and places that inspired me. Note: much of what I show will be from public houses, as most of the private houses do not allow published photography.

Petworth House in Sussex was one of the sites we visited during our first week. In addition to glorious state rooms and a sculpture and painting gallery, this site has amazing service spaces. Often you see these sorts of rooms relinquished to staff offices or other purposes. But Petworth showcases its service areas with great enthusiasm - interpretive signage and knowledgeable docents throughout the spaces.

Here (left), the housekeeper's chamber (you can see her portrait above the fireplace). The estate also has a dairy building (with ice house below - which we got to tour!) and adjacent cow yard, a wood house (for house's firewood storage), and an early-18th century kitchen block with kitchen, larder, cook's room, scullery, china closet (for storing dishes). In the 1870s an extension was added with a steward's office (the steward was the household manager). There was also a bake and brew house at one point, but the structure was removed a few decades ago.

Some were separate buildings (like the dairy/ice house), but others were part of a 'below stairs' block of rooms. Thinking about these functions in the context of Stratford's lower level was helpful - did we have a brew house, for instance? Beer was the common beverage in the 18th century - small beer was what children drank - but where did the Stratford beer get brewed? Something I need to think about...

Erddig in Wales, visited in our third week, had another impressive set of service spaces and a strong servant interpretation. Here (above), the main house with service wing just visible coming in from the right and extending into the lower level.

Visitors to Erddig are taken on an unusual path - starting with the service areas, and then traveling upstairs to the more "posh" family areas. Do you think this makes them look at spaces differently?

The 1770s kitchen was originally a separate building, but was eventually connected with the main block of the house, along with a scullery, bake house, laundry, and cook and housekeeper's rooms. The servants hall in the lower level of the house is original to the 1730s (around the same time as Stratford's main house was built) and features original portraits of servants from the 19th century. Further study of these spaces and their evolution will be really helpful in our own interpretation....

Chatsworth (have you seen The Duchess?!), a massive private estate in Derbyshire, is beginning to study and interpret their servants and service spaces. Here (above), you see the impressive Great Dining Room complete with a mannequin exhibiting the livery uniform worn by the public servants. Adjacent to the dining room, they have a small display in the original mid-19th century Vestibule that discusses how the space was used as a staging area for dining, as well as the larger topic of service (and servants) at Chatsworth during the 19th century. I like the idea of incorporating service in the discussion of dining in a very visible manner and need to think about how we might do that better at Stratford...

And finally, our last day took us to Attingham Park (after which the trust and program were named) in Shropshire (right). Hands down, I found the most inspiration for historic house interpretation at this site. They have a very active and lively set of programs that keep this site alive and relevant to visitors. Children were invited to follow a trail and find toy mice hidden in some of the rooms (so they could go on the tour with their parents and not get bored). Docents are well trained and provide up-to-date information on new projects like wallpaper restoration/conservation. And visitor feedback is sought out daily, so that the site knows what their visitors think.

The interpretation of the house centers around Attingham Rediscovered, an intriguing project that creates continuing change to the historic house. Faced with a site that visitors found 'cold' and unchanging, the staff now continually work to research and reinterpret their spaces so that visitors come back to see what is new. Restoration projects happen within sight of the visitors, so that they can ask questions of craftsmen or conservators. This make the project take a little longer (and cost more), but visitors feel part of the process. Plus, the staff ask the visitors what they think; what choices they would make along the way.

Getting repeat visitors is a challenge for many house museums, so I was truly inspired talking to the staff at Attingham Park about how they have worked to make visitors feel invested in the site and what is happening within the spaces. See their AttinghamParkTV channel for a taste of what they are doing. I'll definitely be watching...

Thanks for traveling along with me as I reviewed some of the highlights of my Attingham Summer School experience. To say goodbye, a picture snapped at Powis Castle, which had an amazing falling garden...and a couple of very friendly peacocks!

*I was able to participate in this program as the Helena Hayward/Alison Ledes Scholar through the generous support of the American Friends of Attingham, an honor for which I am extremely grateful.

Rediscovering the Historic House Update

2011-08-19T11:25:00.008-04:00

The guided tour has always been a staple at historic sites such as Stratford Hall. While the guided tour is not going away, we are thinking about adding news ways to experience our site. In June 2010, Executive Director PaulReber blogged about this project, highlighting the need to rethink not only the story we tell...but also how we tell the story. The first step was a symposium held October 2009 and it can be found on our website.

So you may be wondering what this means for Stratford Hall. The answer is that we do not know...yet. In May 2011, representatives from our six partner sites for this project (Darnall's Chance, Fonthill, Menokin, Stonewall Jackson House, Durant-Kenrick House, and Governor Henry Lippitt House) and consultants started to flush out what we wanted to do and what is possible. One thing we are looking at is adding smartphone tours to our interpretive offerings.

This photo is from a visit to Versailles with my friends in 2007 . You will notice that we are all about ten feet away from each other while listening to an audioguide. It is a challenge to introduce an interpretive device without isolating the visitor from everything and everyone else. This type of detached and passive tour is what we are looking to avoid using the new technology available today.

So we are asking for your thoughts.

Do you like guided tours or to explore on your own?
Have you ever used an audioguide or smartphone tour while touring a historic site? What do you like/dislike about them?

Please take a moment to comment below or on our Facebook page.

What Liz has been up to...

2011-08-12T13:14:00.017-04:00

Hi Stratford Fans!

As this summer’s Building Preservation/Restoration Intern, I had the wonderful opportunity to work on some of the many historic structures at Stratford Hall and to gain hands-on skill and knowledge under the tutelage of Director of Preservation Phil Mark. Over the past ten weeks, I got to try my hand at masonry, wood repair, glazing and of course (everyone’s favorite) scraping, sanding and painting at the Slave Quarters, the Great House and in the workshop.

My main project, however, was the repair of the Great House second floor windows. Working on a scaffold fifteen feet in the air, I set about giving each 32-pane window some much-needed TLC. I assessed the level of failure of glazing putty and paint, removed and replaced failed putty, scraped failed paint, sanded, primed and painted each window.

My office for the summer

Occasionally I encountered some more advanced damage than cracked putty and peeling paint, like I did on window 220. The sill on 220 had a patch of spongy, rotten wood which, when removed, revealed a baseball-sized void.

The hole in the sill of window 220

Following Phil’s sage advice, I began to repair this hole (and several large checks emanating from it) with a three step process. First the hole and checks were treated with a termiticide, insecticide and fungicide concentrate to stave off further decay. Next, a two-step liquid epoxy resin was applied to consolidate and seal the checks and interior of the void.

Finally, I used a two-step epoxy putty to fill the voids in the sill.

Once the putty hardened, it was sanded down the level of the sill around it….

…and primed and painted with the rest of the sill.

The result may not knock your socks off—in fact, from the ground you may not notice any difference at all. Someone once told me that when preservation work is done well, no one knows you’ve been there at all. I can only hope that in time, the work I’ve done this summer helps the windows of the great house last another few hundred years—or at least until Phil can convince another intern to climb up there...

This summer has been a wonderful learning experience in an idyllic place with some of the nicest people I’ve ever met, and although it was probably the hottest summer I can remember, it was also one of the best.

Best wishes from Stratford Hall,

Liz Christian

Building Preservation/Restoration Intern, Summer 2011

Moving Day

2011-04-14T11:36:00.016-04:00

Well, moving day for one room.

Today we started moving furniture out of the Parlor in preparation for our new restoration project. We had four staff members in the house, four movers, four guys from our grounds crew (special thanks to Tommy, Paul, William, and Randolph!), a moving truck, and a lift to make this possible. It is hard to imagine how difficult it would have been to move some of the furniture and supplies into the Great House during the time of the Lees. The ha-ha wall keeps all trucks, cars, carriages, and any other modes of transportation away from the Great House.

Ar tex was on-site to help move and pack the larger furniture items. While the work is underway, the furniture will be on display in the Preservation Gallery, in other area of the Great House, or off-site for preservation. As you can see from the picture, some of the crates we had made are quite large and took seven people to carry into the Great Hall!

Stay tuned for updates, photos, and videos about this project. Our Director of Preservation, Curator, Collections Manager, and Director of Interpretation will all take turns blogging about their part in the restoration project.

Cultural Landscape Laboratory Update

2011-02-17T15:45:00.006-05:00

How would you like to be able to click on an area of a map and be able to see how that area has changed over the past 80 years or more….and discover information about its history at the same time? That’s what’s happening at the University of Georgia where graduate students in the College of Environment and Design are geo-referencing data from archival maps and aerial photographs of Stratford to show the evolution of the plantation’s landscape. The Cultural Landscape Laboratory project is a joint venture of Stratford Hall, the University of Georgia, and landscape professionals from The Jaeger Company (see Tim Barrett’s introduction to the project in a previous blog).

During fall 2010, students from UGA-CED’s graduate-level class participated in Stratford’s third Cultural Landscapes of the Northern Neck symposium and completed independent research projects on issues in managing Stratford’s landscape. While I scanned Stratford’s collection of aerial photographs with the assistance of library volunteer Maurice Capone, grad students at UGA digitized the larger historic maps and site plans from our archives. The UGA-CED students geo-referenced data from these images, which means they assigned precise locations in physical space to particular points on the images. This will allow us to compare landscape changes over time…even to current satellite images.

Keyes Williamson, of The Jaegar Company, has coordinated the compilation of a Cultural Landscape Inventory for Stratford Hall; this comprehensive inventory (CLI) will identify garden and landscape features, assessing their condition, integrity and significance. Over the course of several visits to Stratford, UGA-CED professor Eric MacDonald and grad students Tim Barrett and Andrew White have completed much of the on-site mapping of buildings, hiking trails, signs, fences, and other features using state-of-the-art GPS survey equipment. UGA-CED also acquired Geographic Information System (GIS) data from various public agencies, which helped with the mapping of water systems, soils, and features such as roadways.

Stratford’s archives are fairly extensive, and, while researching for details to add to the site history (which Ken McFarland and I are drafting), I often find interesting tidbits of information, maps, and drawings that are new to me. For example, when looking for information on the “ice pond”—which, incidentally, no one alive can pinpoint its location—I found a small colored pencil sketch of the vista to the Potomac River drawn in 1940 by Umberto Innocenti, a NY landscape architect, along with some correspondence relating to improving the vista. Innocenti and Richard Webel, his business partner, personally marked 200 trees to be removed in order to make the vista wider and more natural looking. I scanned the drawing and it was added to the number of landscape images being geo-referenced at UGA.

The Stratford Hall Sign Shop

2011-02-09T11:49:00.011-05:00

Along with my responsibilities as Director of Preservation, I am now also Stratford Hall's resident sign maker. We are currently in the process of redoing all of our signs across the entire estate. This includes all of the road signs, directional signs, and informational signs. Below you can see the set-up in my office for making the signs.

The whole operation of making the signs is being done here at Stratford. We use sheets of PVC that are cut to size, shaped, and painted. I then use a computer aided vinyl cutter to produce the lettering that is applied to the signboard. With the new signs we are trying to reach conformity across the entire estate and produce more effective signs. The biggest improvement in regards to effectiveness is that we are using reflective vinyl on all our road signs. This substantially increases the nighttime visibility of the road signs. Below is a picture of the first sign that was made and installed.

When all the existing signs have been replaced, we will begin to add new signs that will help visitors get around the various areas of the estate. We also hope to use our new sign making capabilities to add new interpretive signs around the historic areas. These interpretive signs will help visitors understand what they are looking at in particular areas. Please keep your eyes open for our new signs and I hope you find them useful.

Cold Weather and Winter Projects

2011-01-28T11:13:00.017-05:00

Winter is definitely upon on us here at Stratford Hall. Punxsutawney Phil may have predicted an early spring, but we will not be packing up our cold weather clothes anytime soon!

Stratford Hall maintains reduced hours in the months of January and February, so many of you might be wondering what we do in the winter. The truth is that we do not even notice a difference! There is always a lot of work to be done, so these months allow us to focus on projects that are difficult to complete during our busier seasons. One example is the current repair of the south door of the Great House.

The Interpretation and Education Department keeps busy in the winter even when there are far fewer visitors. Policies need to be updated, reports collated, visitation data analyzed, work spaces organized, and exhibits repaired. A new newsletter was produced for local schools about the educational programs and new outreach plans created to attract more group tours. It is not exciting work, but sets the groundwork for a successful and productive 2011.

The 2011 Cal endar is full of familiar programs and some new ones. Jon Bachman, Education Events Coordinator, has been working all winter to develop these programs and reach out to new audiences. We are very excited that the Triennial Coaching Weekend will be this May. Other programs include Reflections on Black History, The Women in R.E. Lee's Life, Traditional Trades Fair, Wine & Harvest Festival, and the Star Party.

Stay tuned for more updates about all the work that has happened the last few months.

Update on the organic farming program

2011-01-27T12:33:00.025-05:00

Stratford Hall’s organic farming program continues to make progress. With funding from the Department of Agriculture, Natural Conservation Resources Service, we received a grant to support our transition to organic farming. The Gatehouse field, subject of a failed attempt to pursue sustainable practices in 2009, has now been successfully planted with a thriving crop of organic clover. We are grateful for a donation from Seeds of Change, which supplied the organic clover seed. This project will help address soil fertility issues, enabling us to pursue the cultivation of organic wheat and corn on this field in the near future. We will also grow a small demonstration crop of tobacco, the staple crop of colonial Virginia.

Ultimately, we hope to produce enough corn and wheat to supply the Stratford Hall gristmill with organic grain, which will be available for sale at our gift shop and online. We don’t have plans for the tobacco – unless there is a sudden surge of interest in the bitter variety of tobacco grown here in the 18^th century; an unlikely event.

Other elements of our organic program are also evolving through the development of partnerships with compatible organizations and individuals. One of these partnerships is with Seeds of Change, who has graciously provided the seed needed to move the program forward. We have also developed relationships with other organic producers who can enable us to expand and diversify our organic products. In 2011, we initiated a partnership with Stoneleigh Farms, a successful producer of all natural honey. Stoneleigh will utilize our Cliff Fields as home to several bee colonies that will ultimately produce 2,000 pounds of honey annually. The Stratford Hall honey will be available through our own retail outlets and through grocery stores in Northern Virginia.

There has been a tradition of livestock production at Stratford Hall stretching back to the 18^th century and continued intermittently since the acquisition of Stratford Hall by the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association in 1929. A small herd of Devons, a historic breed, has been maintained since the termination of the last active cattle program in 2003. Through a new partnership with Lakota Farms, one of America’s foremost sustainable Devon producers, Stratford will once again be home to a significant cattle operation. Devons are an historic breed and certainly would have been found at Stratford in the 18^th century. This new program will be about more than just production, but provide our visitors with the opportunity to get a close-up view of these animals and the issues related to their care. Lakota is a grass fed producer, so their values are consistent with our growing organic program.

Because of the addition of these new programs, Stratford Hall’s organic program will make a significant contribution to our educational efforts, enabling our visitors to get a glimpse of the diversity of agricultural practice and a better understanding for its historical importance and sustainable options for its future.

- Paul Reber, Executive Director

The curator takes Manhattan

2011-01-21T10:11:00.001-05:00

Greetings from New York City (above, a view of Rockefeller Center ice rink from my hotel). I am currently on a scouting trip to New York during Americana Week - the time in late-January when all the big auction houses have their sales and the major antique shows are running. After arriving yesterday, I spent the afternoon at the New York Ceramics Fair and today it is the Winter Antiques Show and whatever else I may be able to squeeze in. We're not bidding on anything at any of the major auctions, so this time it's just the shows for me.

So what exactly do I do at these shows? Well, I talk to people and I look at things. Those are the two main activities. Before I left Virginia, I made a binder of information related to items that I'm looking for, including pictures and information gleaned from Lee family records like inventories. This trip the focus is on ceramics and specifically items found via archaeology (above - like the rat's nest - or below ground). If you've been to our new slave quarter exhibits, you know that we have archaeology on display. Two fragments of white salt-glazed stoneware are on view (above) and I'm looking to find whole examples to display in the slave quarter rooms.

Talking and scouting yesterday led to this plate: an English white salt-glaze plate with molded rim. Can you see where these fragments might have fit?

I'm also looking for the more rare finds. Like the Chinese export porcelain pattern we found in the rat's nest with a pair of crabs on it. Or the agateware tea bowl found in the West Yard and now on display in our new Southwest Outbuilding exhibits. No luck so far. So I give out my card, gather e-mail addresses, and will send dealers pictures of the fragments so they can help keep a lookout for examples in the marketplace. Keep your fingers crossed for me today and I'll be sure to report back if any interesting finds come my way.

Preparing the Great House for Winter

2010-12-03T09:14:00.008-05:00

This past week we have been working on readying the Great House for not only our Christmas program (1774: A Stratford Christmastide), but also setting up new room scenarios for the winter in general. You've already heard about how I like to change the house displays for the seasons (like summertime scenarios), so the winter is no exception. Here's a glimpse into how I prepare for the winter scenarios and the Christmas program each year...

First, we decide on a theme for the Christmas program. This year Jon Bachman, our Educational Events Coordinator, picked a year - 1774 - as the interpretive theme. Having one particular year gave me a good starting point for deciding how to set up the house appropriately. Then I took some time looking at Lee family papers (like the 1776 household inventory) and period accounts (like the diaries of planter Landon Carter and local schoolmaster Philip Vickers Fithian). Pulling information from secondary sources came next (At Home and The Festive Tradition are two favorites).

I then spend a lot of time writing a memo (11 pages this year) to outline the stories I want to tell in each space. The Blue Bedchamber, for instance, is set up loosely based on a diary entry of Landon Carter where he is taken ill with colic (abdominal pain and constipation) after eating a dinner of pork and oysters. Carter describes taking a syrup of white walnut bark and molasses, and as a result goes "with ease to the close stool pan twice." The diary entry is a rather graphic description of his bathroom habits and we have a close stool (toilet) pulled out in the room along with a glass of the syrup sitting nearby to help interpret this.

The Dining Closet is set up with a hunt breakfast: cold meat and vegetables, bread, hoecakes, and hot coffee. Here we take the opportunity to talk about outdoor activities in the wintertime. Did you know that included in the 1776 household inventory was a pair of snow shoes? Well, fox hunting was a favorite pastime and you can see the gentleman eating breakfast here before their big hunt begins. A couple of hats and a wool great coat lay nearby awaiting their departure.

Downstairs, a number of rooms help illustrate how the slaves and servants experienced the holiday season - some receiving gifts from their masters (coins and bottles of rum) and others with more work to do. The holiday season was a time of merriment for the Virginia gentry, but for their household slaves and servants it was a busy season full of extra guests and fancy dinners and dances. You see the Servants Hall set up as though some of the indentured and hired servants have been able to carve out a few free moments to enjoy some food and fellowship before being called to their next task.

That's just a sneak peak of what we have going on in the Great House this holiday season. Come see it all aglow on December 11th and throughout December, January, and February.

Landon Carter quote: Jack P. Greene, ed., The Diary of Colonel Landon Carter of Sabine Hall, 1752-1778, II (Richmond, Va., 1987), p. 908.

Fun on the Farm: Perspectives from an Intern

2010-11-19T15:06:00.006-05:00

Hi folks, my name is Townsend Hart and I’m a historic preservation and museum studies minor at the University of Mary Washington. I’m currently interning with both Gretchen Goodell (Curator) and Abigail Newkirk (Director of Interpretation and Education).

The objective for the internship is to research various objects belonging to Stratford and create interpretive proposals. Initially I planed to work on five objects in total, but some of the objects required more in depth and time consuming research. It has really been a learning experience and I’m thankful for the opportunity to do such involved, fascinating projects.

The first object I began with was the nursery fireback- marked with two cherub angels and the date 1745. I was able to find some interesting things about both this particular fireback as well as firebacks in general. For example, the fact that the Lee’s even had one greatly tells of their wealth considering firebacks were rare and only in the possession of the upper class at the time. To complete my research I looked through archival information (early RELMA notes, Lee family member accounts), books on iron works, and Robert E. Lee biographies.

The second object that I worked with was a handwritten book of Sermon’s attributed to Hannah Lee Corbin (originally dated to around 1780). My initial task for the book was to determine who actually penned the book because there is no name written. For this I completed a handwriting analysis comparing some letters written by Hannah Lee Corbin and her son-in-law George Turberville. Next I attempted to find a single original source...what a crazy experience this was! Google Archives proved to be an excellent resource. I was able to search an individual sentence and come up with original sources, many from 18^th century journals. If it was Hannah Lee Corbin who penned this, it really shows her moxie and intelligence.

I have loved getting to see the inner workings of a historic house museum first-hand. There really is no better environment to have this experience than at Stratford. I enjoy taking breaks to feed the horses, or Zander and Steve as I call them, but I highly doubt these are their actual names. I’m looking forward to making way on my next project: thinking of something cool for the coaching event in the spring as well as come up with some creative ideas for the interpretation of the coach house.

Hands-on History

2010-11-04T11:19:00.012-04:00

Most history buffs and museum enthusiasts have a specific memory of being at a museum as a child (sometimes called "sticky memories" because we remember vivid details even as adults). Sometimes it is a story that was told, or a specific room. Often it relates to a game or activity...something that could be touched. Accomplishing this in a historic house like Stratford Hall can be difficult, so this fall the new Hands-On Activity Room was opened. Located in the East Slave Quarters, this room is designed to be family-friendly. We first blogged about the project in April.

The building is located to the south-east of the Great House and furnished with child-sized furniture, a colorful rug, costumes to play dress-up, and building blocks. The centerpiece for this new room is a custom made Discovery Chest. This piece of furniture has nine drawers filled with books, stuffed animals, dolls, fake food, shark teeth, and colonial games. Each drawer has a box that can be lifted out, allowing families to bring the items to the carpet or tables to play.

This area will continue to grow and evolve as we get feedback from our youngest visitors, but a great step forward in providing families with a memorable experience at Stratford Hall!

The new Slave Quarters Exhibit

2010-10-26T14:43:00.021-04:00

The past month has been a flurry of activity here at Stratford Hall. All summer we have been updating everyone about our preservation and interpretation projects. Over the next three weeks, we will be highlighting three specific projects: West Slave Quarters, Hands-on Activity Room, and Southwest Outbuilding.

The exhibits in the West Slave Quarters have been updated and are now open to the public. If you would like a refresher on all our activities this summer, please read our posts about Restoration of the Slave Quarters and Furn ishing Plan for the Slave Quarters.

The first pieces to go into the new spaces were the new barriers. Andrew and Eric from AK Metal Fabricators spent two days at Stratford Hall to install our new barriers. The design is the same as those used in the Southwest Outbuilding. These barriers will protect the collection, allow visitors a clear view of the exhibit, and stand-up to the elements. They also pivot open, making cleaning and maintenance very easy.

Our next component was the new text panels. Neal and Doug from Gropen spent a day installing text panels and reader-rails (text panels that sit on top of our barriers).

The last installation was the archaeological samples. Built-in to our new reader-rails are archaeological boxes. These plexi-glass boxes contain archaeological finds that were discovered around the Slave Quarters and provide insight into the lives of the slaves who lived here. The final step was for Curator Gretchen Goodell and Collections Manager Sarah Holland to move the artifacts and furniture into the new exhibits.

Below are some more images of the finished exhibit. Next week we will highlight the new Hand-on Activity Room.

So that is what the scaffolding is for...

2010-09-16T13:39:00.012-04:00

If you have visited Stratford Hall this past week, you probably noticed the scaffolding that is on the south face. This is for the preservation of the cornice (the uppermost piece of molding right below the roof line). It is hard to see the details from the ground, but the decorated cornice also contains a large number of dentils (series of tightly packed rectangular blocks).

The layers of paint are being removed using infrared heat and scrapers. Once the paint is removed, any required preservation of the wood can be done. The entire cornice will then be primed and repainted. This is a very labor intensive project that will continue throughout the fall and continue in the spring (work will stop for the winter months).

While you may not notice a huge difference the next time you visit us, this type of work is an integral part of the preservation of Stratford Hall.

Women's Equality Day

2010-08-26T13:57:00.013-04:00

Ninety years ago today (August 26, 1920), Secretary Bainbridge Colby signed the 19th Amendment into law. After generations of struggle, voting rights were extended to women. In honor of this anniversary, we decided to highlight a few of the remarkable Lee women. Compared to their famous brothers, fathers, and husbands, we know little of the Lee women.

Much like her husband Thomas Lee, Hannah Ludwell Lee was known for her strong personality. Before moving to The Clifts, Thomas and Hannah lived at Machodoc. In January 1720, thieves broke into their home and set fire to the plantation. Thomas, Hannah, and their children escaped the flames by jumping from an upper window. Hannah, pregnant with their fourth child, miscarried. Thomas and Hannah eventually recovered their financial losses, beginning construction on Stratford Hall in 1738.

We do not know the architect of Stratford Hall, but Thomas and Hannah’s eldest son provided a hint when he mentioned that he regretted Hannah’s taste had been followed in the design.

Alice Lee was a young teenager when her parents died. Giving up hope of receiving her inheritance from her father’s estate, in 1760 she went to England where she met and married William Shippen, Jr. of Philadelphia. During the meeting of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, she and her husband entertained her brothers and other important revolutionary figures, such as the Adamses. Alice Lee Shippen actively collected money in Philadelphia to support the American troops and accompanied her husband (appointed Director General of Hospitals in April 1777) at several encampments of Washington’s army. These encampments included Middlebrook, NJ, Reading, PA, and Valley Forge, PA.

Alice's sister also expressed views that were not typical of the time. Hannah Lee married Gawen Corbin II of Pecatone Plantation. When Gawen died in 1759, his will stated that Hannah would forfeit the estate if she remarried. Rather than lose the property, Hannah entered a common law marriage with Dr. Richard Lingan. Dr. Lingan moved into Pecatone and there they raised their two children.

In 1778, Hannah Lee Corbin wrote her brother Richard Henry to advocate for voting rights for women landowners. Richard Henry's response (dated March 17, 1778): "Perhaps 'twas thought rather out of character for Women to press into those tumultuous Assemblies of Men where the business of choosing Representatives is conducted."

Slave Quarters Exhibits On The Way

2010-08-17T14:59:00.005-04:00

At the beginning of July we officially closed our slave quarters to the public. These two buildings are reconstructions on the site of the late-18th century stone quarters that housed "home farm" slaves (domestic workers and other skilled laborers).

You've heard already about the preservation work currently in progress, and the planning for educational hands-on and classroom space that will open in the east building in the coming months. But remember I mentioned that there are two buildings? What about the west building (the one closest to the Great House, pictured above)? In October 2010 we'll be revealing a brand new exhibit space in this structure. Designers are putting the finishing touches on the text and graphic panels. I'm working feverishly on lists of museum objects and appropriate reproduction objects to furnish the two lower-level rooms (the building is a double quarter for two families, with main living rooms below and attic lofts above). And Sarah, our collections manager, is getting dirty this week as she tries to safely clean and move the historic furnishings out of the spaces and into storage.

What will you see when we reopen the space in October? You will see two separate living spaces. One will house an enslaved gardener named Anthony (he appears in a 1776 inventory) and other skilled male workers. I am hesitant to call this a "bachelor" household, though. Slave women often worked as field laborers, so perhaps the single men living here had wives and children that they visited on Sundays and holidays at outlying farm quarters away from the Stratford home farm.

The other living space will be furnished to represent a female domestic family, specifically a woman named Nelly and her daughter Mary. Nelly and her child Mary appear in a 1776 estate inventory, and we find Mary again in a 1782 slave list with the descriptor "blind" after her name. What was life like for Mary? That's just one topic we'll touch upon in these new exhibits.

You'll also soon see on display fragments found in archeological digs in the area. We've included things like a stoneware and creamware dish fragments, a sewing needle, and a shell button. Artifacts that indicate that slaves were consumers. They purchased fashionable goods using money earned by raising and selling vegetables and other goods, or bartering their skills.

This project has been in the research and development phase for close to two years, drawing upon period documents, archaeology, and current scholarship. Stay tuned for the big reveal in October. We look forward to having you visit and hearing what you think!

Summer Projects and Interpretation

2010-08-12T13:16:00.026-04:00

As you can see in the last five blog entries, we have been very busy at Stratford Hall this summer. Projects are underway in the Southwest Outbuilding, Slave Quarters, and Kitchen. Extensive research and investigations are in progress for the Historic Structure Report (HSR) and Cultural Landscape Inventory (CLI).

So, now what? Two areas greatly impacted by the projects are the interpretation and educational programs.

The interpreters at Stratford Hall guide visitors through the Great House seven times a day, seven days a week. This July, almost two thousand people toured the Great House. When you add in bus loads of school children and special events, our staff interacts with thousands of people each year.

I am the Director on Interpretation and Education. My job is to help take all this new information and ensure it is reflected in the interpretation (guided tours, school activities, and programs). Our interpreters are constantly learning more about Stratford Hall and updating their tours. While the investigations and projects are underway, the interpreters must also know how to talk about what the visitor is seeing (construction, restoration, furniture out of place, and open probes in the walls).

After the projects have been completed and the reports submitted for review to the staff here at Stratford Hall, all aspects of the interpretation will be reviewed. Just like the tour we provide today is very different from the tour a decade ago, the current tour will undoubtedly be updated to reflect the changes in scholarship.

We hope you continue to follow our progress and visit Stratford Hall to see for yourself all the work that has been done. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below or on the Facebook Fan Page.

Investigating the House...

2010-07-29T14:20:00.005-04:00

If you have been to the Great House in the past couple of weeks, you probably noticed that a few things are out of place. This is due to the fact that we are in the middle of investigations for a Historic Structure Report (HSR). What is a Historic Structure Report you might ask? It is a report that provides historical, physical, and graphical information about a historic structure (you can read the National Park Service's Preservation Brief here). They often include current condition assessments, but ours will not since the Preservation Department conducts assessments on a regular basis.

We have hired the firm of Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker Architects to prepare our HSR. They have been working hard to collect all the historical information they can on the Great House from the past 270 years. Armed with this information and years of experience, a team descended on the Great House last week for three days of intense physical investigation.

Prior to their arrival, we opened multiple probe areas throughout the first floor so they could see what evidence might be behind the plaster. Other physical evidence they examined and scrutinized included nail holes, wear patterns on the floors, scars and patches in the wood work, and wall framing that could be observed from the attic. We are waiting for the team to analyze their finds before we share too much, but I can share one or two discoveries. One question we think we answered is that the unique niches in the East and West Passages appear to be original with a little reworking by "Light Horse Harry" Lee. One other discovery we were not expecting is that the evidence points to a closet being present in the back section of the Nursery that would have been accessible from the adjoining Chamber.

We are very excited about this report being finished and sharing the information with everyone. This HSR will be a invaluable resource for the Preservation, Collections and Education Departments here at Stratford Hall. The HSR will be a guide for all of us as we continue to restore, refurnish, and interpret the Great House for our visitors. And we would all like to thank everyone for their patience as we work to make the Great House an overall better educational experience.

Cultural Landscape Report in Progress

2010-07-19T10:24:00.015-04:00

Hi Stratford Hall blog followers, my name is Tim Barrett. I am a Master of Historic Preservation student in the University of Georgia’s (UGA) College of Environment and Design. A summer assistantship has brought me to Stratford Hall (SH). This opportunity has been made possible through from a recent multi-year partnership between SH and UGA. The result of this partnership will be reports, recommendations, and management strategies to improve the interpretation and stewardship of the SH cultural landscape.

Initially, a cultural landscape inventory, or “CLI,” is being developed with assistance from the Jaeger Company (a private landscape architecture firm based in Georgia). A CLI typically includes an inventory of historic features and an assessment of their condition, integrity, and significance. This field has become familiar to me through an internship with the National Park Service’s Cultural Landscape Program, nonprofit consulting work supporting the acquisition of historic sites, and a mapping project with National Geographic Society staff on the Chesapeake’s “Treasured Landscapes.” However, the depth and richness of SH’s cultural landscape is unparalleled. From its beginnings, SH has been defined by its people and landscape, and undoubtedly these forces have had a profound influence on American history. Where else can you find early 18^th century buildings, nesting eagles, old sunken roads, world-class geological resources, two miles of contiguous waterfront, and 1900+ acres affording unspoiled historic viewsheds all in one place?

The SH cultural landscape inventory is still in its early stages. Thus far, we have begun to identify and document the historic landscape features that can be found throughout SH’s significant land holdings. Field work has been both fun and revealing and has even required occasional bushwhacking through some of the property’s remote, densely-forested areas whose landscape has stories to tell but is no longer accessible by roadway or trail. Here, the ticks and chiggers thrive, the poison ivy is thick, and the summer sun is unforgiving. Sunscreen and calamine lotion are constant companions.

I have had the privilege to work with and learn from Stratford’s exceptional staff, including former education director, Ken McFarland, and research and library collections director, Judy Hynson. Ken and Judy’s collective knowledge and commitment to Stratford’s landscape resources is truly remarkable. This work has taught me a lot about the proud legacy of stewardship that SH has enjoyed over its long and storied past and the people who have made it possible. Living and working on the site has been an experience that I will always remember and treasure.

Please stay tuned for research developments, state of the art maps depicting SH’s cultural landscape, and perhaps even a few surprises as the work of this exciting partnership continues to unfold in the fall and beyond.

What's Cooking in the Kitchen?

2010-07-08T12:00:00.002-04:00

Well, there may not be anything stewing on the coals (yet!), but the kitchen is getting a makeover! I'm Brenda Hornsby Heindl, summer intern and recent graduate of the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, and I'm reassessing the furnishings, room use, and interpretation of the Southeast Dependency/Kitchen building.

After researching the restoration of the space in the early 1930s, I've been reading through original documents of the Lee family, period recipes, archaeological reports, and other eighteenth-century documents from the region. I've also been comparing the kitchen to other eighteenth-century sites (intact and archaeological) such as the Shirley Plantation, Menokin, Kenmore Plantation, Mount Vernon, and Montpelier. I recently returned from a research trip in Williamsburg, where I met with curators, archaeologists, and historic architects and architectural preservationists who helped me with assessing the context of an eighteenth-century kitchen. Because of Philip Ludwell Lee's surviving 1776 probate inventory, as well as the strength of other Lee family records from that decade, I'm leaning toward a kitchen setting of the third quarter of the eighteenth century.

One of the most exciting things listed on the 1776 inventory is a chocolate stone! During a recent conversation with Frank Clarke of Colonial Williamsburg, I learned that there were two types of chocolate stones. Perhaps one day Stratford Hall will have a foodways program that includes making chocolate!

Did you know that Stratford's kitchen likely once had a large closet space located near the hearth? After examining pre-restoration photographs, as well as a 1763 document mentioning materials stolen from the "kitchen closet," the kitchen proposal will definitely suggest looking for evidence for that closet! (Look at the ceiling and wall to the left of the hearth in this pre-restoration photograph--see the outline where the plaster is missing?)

Working with curator Gretchen Goodell, my hope is to create an interpretative space that can be visited without an interpreter, but also a useable space for cooking demonstrations. Combining original sources, objects, and archaeological and architectural material will provide for an in-depth look at the kitchen of Stratford Hall.

Summer Preservation Interns at Stratford Hall

2010-07-01T15:09:00.010-04:00

The interns of the preservation department, under the supervision of Phil Mark, are commencing work on their summer restoration project. Erin White, a graduate student from the Heritage Resources program at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, started the ten-week internship at the end of May. Jess Warren, from Georgia, is a student in the building preservation technology program at Belmont Technical College in St. Clairsville, Ohio, and he started his internship in mid-June.

This is what they have to say:

Our main project for the summer is the restoration of the reconstructed slave quarters near the Great House. Before Jess’ arrival, Phil and Erin started by removing the back window sashes on the east quarters. The sashes were labeled and taken back to the preservation shop. Using environmentally-friendly silent paint remover, which uses infrared heat, Phil and Erin began removing the glaze, glazing points, and paint from the exterior side of the sashes. We then removed the panes of glass, taking much care not to break them. After all of the glass was removed, the interior sides of the sashes were sanded.

Jess cut the Restoration Glass to replace the broken panes. Restoration Glass is cylinder glass made in Germany in the manner of early glass production before the invention of float glass in the 20th century. Restoration Glass is appropriate to the period of the main house. After the panes were checked to ensure a proper fit, Jess used Sarco glazing to set the glass, which requires a very steady hand.

Currently, we are removing paint and sanding the eaves and window frames of the quarters. We then use Boracare, a non-toxic insecticide, to protect the wood. After this dries, primer, then paint, is applied. If you come by the slave quarters and see us on scaffolding, this is probably what we are doing, so feel free to ask any questions. We’re there Monday through Friday, 9:00-5:00!

Update from the Preservation Department

2010-06-25T10:15:00.000-04:00

Hello, all! It's time again for an update from your friendly Preservation Department. With the Southwest Outbuilding and Northwest Stairs opened to the public, we're moving on to our summer projects. The big project of the summer is the restoration of the two slave quarters that will be reinterpreted and used for educational space. We also have some preventative maintenance projects that we need to address in the coming monthes. The good news is that my two summer interns have arrived and are at work now. It will be nice to have some help for the next couple of months! As work really gets going this summer, I will be back with a detailed update on the Slave Quarters Restoration and the work of the interns.

In the meantime, I did want to share a recent trip I took to Vermont for a Timber Framing workshop held at Shelburne Farms, a few miles south of Burlington. The workshop was held by the Preservation Trades Network and the Timber Framers Guild at the Shelburne Farm's Breeding Barn. The workshop focused on restoration and in-situ repairs of timber framed structures.

The participants of the workshop were able to learn various techniques by repairing the 1891 Victorian Breeding Barn. Most participants split into groups and worked on repairing large support posts. This was accomplished by using lap joints to install new timbers at the bottom of the posts. I was part of a group that replaced a section of rotten gert between the first floor and the hay loft and six rotten floor joists of the hay loft. Of course this was the messiest job of the week, but I enjoyed it. All in all, the workshop was a great experience--I was able to learn some techniques that I will be able to use here at Stratford Hall, I met some great people, and I helped out another historic site. All the instructors for the workshop were incredibly helpful and passed along a lot of great information to us.

Re-discovering Stratford Hall

2010-06-11T11:47:00.008-04:00

It is no secret that visitation at historic sites like Stratford Hall has been declining. This is not a new development, but part of a long-term trend that began over 30 years ago. Careful observers have lots of opinions on why this is happening, but it is clear these trends reflect a significant cultural shift in the way Americans understand the past. In short, being led around an old house and being lectured about the dead (and usually white) occupants is not the attraction it was for our grandparents.

So what to do about it? This is the big question. For those sites that are no longer viable economically, they may be better off as private homes than public institutions. This way, the buildings would be preserved and perhaps occasionally opened to the public. This solution was adopted by Colonial Williamsburg when they sold Carter's Grove. In contemporary Wall Street parlance, however, there are some sites that are "too big to fail." Or putting it another way, their stories have such national significance that they must be preserved as public institutions. Stratford Hall is one of those places.

For this reason, we are embarking on an ambitious effort to remake the Stratford experience in a way that is designed to appeal to a new generation of museum visitor. Many of the comments posted on this blog are pieces of this bigger plan. One of the most important components of this plan is re-thinking how our visitors experience Stratford Hall. Or more specifically, how do we convey educational content to our visitors?

In October, we hosted a conference entitled "Re-Discovering the Historic House." This conference brought together people from a variety of disciplines, like game designers, story tellers and cultural critics, that could help us think differently about how this experience can be re-fashioned for a new audience. If you want to hear about these ideas, you can listen to the podcast on our website.

As the next phase of this process we are planning to implement a new tour experience here and at two other sites, probably in Boston and Philadelphia. The new tour experience would be developed at all three sites simultaneously, accompanied by extensive visitor evaluation. The hope is that this will lead to a replicable model that can be adopted by other sites across the country. It will be a multi-year project.

What will this new experience be like? Right now we don't know the specifics. That's the principal question we need to answer. However, it is fair to say that the new experience will be much more visitor directed and will allow the exploration of history from multiple perspectives. We will still offer the guided tour for those who want them. But for most visitors, we will provide another way for them to explore Stratford at their own pace so they can learn about and discover the things about this place that are important to them. As this process unfolds, we will provide updates here. Stay tuned!

Posted by Paul Reber, Executive Director

Archaeology Field School at Stratford Hall

2010-06-03T15:00:00.002-04:00

For five weeks in May and June, Stratford Hall is once again hosting a Field School in Archaeology in cooperation with the University of Mary Washington's Department of Historic Preservation. Under the direction of Dr. Douglas W. Sanford, students learn to survey, excavate, document, and interpret the archaeological record of Stratford's 18th century landscapes. Students are housed on the plantation, and in addition to field work they also participate in weekly class discussions of archaeological readings and take field trips to nearby historic properties and other archaeological sites in Virginia and Maryland.
The focus of this year's dig is the Oval Site (ST92), a farming complex which dates from approximately 1740 to 1780, and is located about 800 feet south of the Great House on the western side of the Oval drive. The site was originally discovered in the 197os during a plantation-wide survey directed by Dr. Fraser Neiman. Beginning in 2001, the site has been investigated by 8 UMW field schools. At present, the site consists of what we suspect to be an overseer's house featuring a full-height brick-lined basement, a large 20' x 40' post-in-ground barn, and a third structure, also post-in-ground, that was discovered last year in the western portion of the site. This structure is believed to have been either a kitchen or slave quarter.

The 2010 Field School is continuing to investigate and uncover portions of this possible kitchen or slave quarter. We are currently in our third week, and have already found a portion of what we hope is another posthole for the building, several other features, and numerous artifacts. The artifacts include both architectural debris and domestic refuse ranging from countless brick fragments, hand-wrought iron nails, and pieces of window glass to a wide variety of ceramics including coarse utilitarian earthenwares to fine porcelain tablewares. Brass tacks, white-clay pipe stems, table glass, gun flints, brass buckles, iron bridle bits, and even a prehistoric projectile point have been found as well.
By carefully digging 5' x 5' squares of dirt, layer by layer with shovels and trowels, in the area of the suspected third building, the students and crew continue to learn more about the size of this structure, what it was used for, and what was around it. The artifacts screened from those layers of dirt tell us when the site was occupied, what kinds of materials were used in the building's construction, and what kind of activities were carried out by the occupants of the site. Learning more about this building and the enslaved African Americans and free white employees who likely worked and/or lived in this structure contributes to the understanding of Stratford's complex 18th century communities and landscapes.

The Field School is onsite Monday through Friday from 8am to 4pm and runs until June 18th. We hope you'll come and visit while we're working and learn more about this site!

Setting up house

2010-05-20T09:42:00.004-04:00

It is wedding season and I've been looking at a lot of wedding registries lately for a few friends who are getting married. Most couples today register for "fancy" goods like china and expensive wine glasses, but also for "practical" goods like a dish drainer or trash can. It got me thinking...when Thomas and Hannah Lee set up house at Stratford in the late 1730s/early 1740s, what did they need? Granted, at that point they had young children and a household already, but I bet they needed new furniture and other items when they moved into the new digs.

Looking at the inventory taken after Thomas Lee's death in 1750 (excerpt above - click to zoom), you definitely see a mixture of fancy and practical. A clock worth 10 pounds and a "Chandeleer" worth 21 pounds are listed along with "a Parcell of Cannisters," a coffee roaster, and "4 Water Glasses and other things" worth less than a pound combined.

Recently I've been trying to fill in our collection with the small, everyday sorts of things that I know would have been needed by residents of Stratford in their daily lives. One of my most recent acquisitions for the collection is a small looking glass that would have been useful in a family bedchamber or upper servant's chamber. We see low-cost looking glasses in the Stratford household inventory, like in the Blue Room inventory in 1775, where appraisers found "1 small glass" valued at 3 shillings. Not every room in the Lee household would have had fancy, gilded and carved looking glasses (although some would have!). Like our own homes, the rooms at Stratford would have been decorated in a hierarchy - the fancy public rooms with expensive furniture, the more intimate family rooms that you used on a daily basis, and the private service rooms that only the staff or family would see.

Now I just need to decide which way to go with my wedding gifts...

Looking glass image courtesy Pook and Pook.

"A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words..."

2010-05-13T09:30:00.005-04:00

...but sometimes doesn't tell the whole story. This week several members of Stratford Hall's staff, including me, participated in a Virginia Association of Museums (VAM) workshop on planning digital projects. One particular project that we want to pursue is the digitization of our historic images so we could easily share them--or at least a good number of them--with on-line visitors (via our web site, e-newsletter, Flickr, and social networking sites) as well as having them available for our collection catalog, exhibits, publications and research.

Stratford Hall's collection of visual images contains thousands of photographs and slides just waiting to be organized digitally into a searchable database. Although many of them are interesting images in their own right, even without an additional layer of history attached, just a short caption makes them much more meaningful. We want to catalog our images in a database that will also capture background information. For example, a 1930s black-and-white image of a setter with pups is charming; however, the fact that Stratford Hall's Resident Superintendent, Gen. B. F. Cheatham, sold the offspring of his cherished Irish Setter Shirley (pictured) to raise money for reconstructing the springhouse is a much more compelling story.

Historic images of the Great House at Stratford have the additional importance of documenting changes in the structure. This circa 1908 cyanotype [this process used predominantly between 1880 and 1920 and identified by its blue tint], taken by Edward A. Preble and given to Stratford by his daughter Marjorie Preble Thorne, shows a small porch at the east end of the house, straight front steps, outside window shutters, and a painted five-board fence bordering the lawn.

Digitizing our images will allow us to make more of our collection accessible to the public and will prevent needless handling of precious originals, helping to preserve them for future generations. The project is a challenging one, but we've already begun "brainstorming" about logistics and plan to have a digital strategy developed within the next new months. Check back with us for updates and more shared images.

A Collections Manager in her element

2010-05-06T15:27:00.003-04:00

Many people in and out of the museum world wonder what a Collections Manager really does on a day-to-day basis. My job description is long and filled with specific language targeted for people knowledgeable in Collections Management. I receive questions ranging from “So you handle the money right?” to “What is there to manage?” As the staff of Stratford Hall recently completed the restoration and reinterpretation of the Southwest Outbuilding and Northwest Stair Passage, this is a prime opportunity to explain what my job entails at a Historic House Museum.

The Southwest Outbuilding, with its reinterpretation of a workshop and servants chamber, has a mixture of both period correct reproductions as well as pieces from Stratford Hall’s decorative arts collection. The workshop, filled with close to one hundred tools from the M-WTCA and other donors, needed to be individually cataloged, their condition evaluated, photographed, measured, and labeled with accession numbers using museum appropriate materials. Once this information is collected, I input the data into our collections management database, Rediscovery, as well as create and maintain paper files with photographs, invoices, and other pertinent information regarding the objects. Even objects that are considered non-accessioned (which means they are not part of the permanent collection) receive the same treatment as accessioned objects. They are labeled, cataloged, photographed, and measured so that future employees at Stratford Hall do not pick up a pillowcase on the newly crafted field bed and wonder if it is part of the permanent collection. Even the hands-on activity was numbered to prevent future confusion!

This information assists members of the Stratford Hall Collections department with one of their most important tasks in managing the collection – inventory. Images, measurements, and accurate locations for pieces in the collections enable us to know where everything is on the estate. An accurate inventory helps with insurance values, donor and lender communications, and relationships with other departments within our organization.

Even though the areas are now open to the public, there is still much to do, including securing loan pieces to be displayed in these areas (which include working with insurance companies and fine art shippers), monitoring the building environment, adjusting cleaning routines, inventorying the pieces from the Architectural collection used in the Northwest Stair Passage, and other tasks as they arise. So please, come and see the reinterpreted spaces at Stratford Hall – who knows, you might see me in the back of a room - crawling on the floor – inventorying! J

Coming Up Next: The Slave Quarters

2010-04-29T09:54:00.008-04:00

Now that we've mostly completed the Southwest Outbuilding and Northwest Stair Passage restoration and reinterpretation, staff is moving on to the next project on our list. This project is restoring and reinterpreting the slave quarters. The slave quarters were built in 1939, supposedly on original foundations (though archaeological work has not discovered those foundations). These buildings are the types that house slaves and skilled slaves might have lived in--they are much closer to the Great House and made of stronger materials (stone, instead of wood) than those lived in by field slaves. Thus, we are using what we know to help us tell the story of the enslaved people working in and around the house at Stratford Hall.

Phil Mark will begin restoration on the buildings in May, and Gretchen Goodell is hard at work researching the people's stories that we are going to include in these buildings (you'll hear more about these parts of the projects in the coming months). We have two slave quarters--one will continue as an interpreted space, where visitors can learn about the enslaved people who would have lived here, their relationships, and their lives. The other slave quarters building is going to become a hands-on history area for families to use. This is where my work comes in.

I'm currently researching hands-on history areas at various historic sites and deciding what kinds of activities we will be including in our own. This space will be open during the same time as the Great House, and parents will be able to take their children there to do activities throughout the day. We will have fun activities available for young children--like building blocks--and we'll also provide 18th-century costumes that children can dress up in, a discovery chest for learning about some of the items that can be found at Stratford Hall, and colonial games that children will be able to play with throughout the day. These are just a few of the activities we'll be providing once this space opens in October.

We're hoping that having this hands-on space will give parents more activities to do with their children at Stratford Hall. Coupling the hands-on area with our Signers' Club program that's already available (this program is similar to the Junior Ranger program with the National Park Service) will provide a number of activities for children of all ages.

We'll be updating you throughout the summer on the progress on the slave quarters project!

Dressing J. Paxton the joiner: using primary documents

2010-04-15T16:18:00.013-04:00

The collections team is working feverishly to get ready for the installation of the Southwest outbuilding next week. One of my tasks in all of this is to create a furnishing plan that draws on what we know about Stratford and its residents. In the servants' chamber, we have chosen to highlight the domestic life of the skilled craftsmen who worked here based on archaeology and documentary research. J. Paxton, a joiner, is one of our named residents. From a surviving account book, we know he worked at Stratford, that he borrowed specialty planes from nearby Chantilly plantation, and that he was paid in cash as well as brandy and sugar. But that's about it.

So we have the who, but how do you bring Paxton to life through objects when you have very few clues? Well, I've been using 18th-century runaway advertisements from Virginia newspapers (here and here) as a start. Strange, you may think, but take a look at the entries for indentured joiners* and you get a whole host of details about what joiners like Paxton wore, looked like, how they spoke, or their personality quirks.

For instance, newly-indentured joiner Robert Robinson ran away from his post in 1775 and his "owner" advertised for his return:

"Run away from the subscriber, Robert Robinson, a valuable joiner and carpenter...had on, a fasionable good beaver hat, a fine cloth coat, of a parson's gray color, with hair buttons...light blue worsted (wool) stockings...wears in his sleeves either a pair of black or a pair of oval purple buttons set in yellow metal."

Another fellow, by the name of Hugh Rogers, was not only described in appearance, but also in personality:

"Run away from the Subscriber...an indented Servant Man named Hugh Rogers,...has light brown straight Hair, is very fond of Liquor, and when drunk is talkative and quarrelsome, but when sober is peaceable and of few Words, by Trade a Carpenter and Joiner, and can saw with the Whip Saw. He had on, when seen upon the Road, a Check Shirt...and a fine Hat about Half worn."

A studied survey of these advertisements left me with a list of clothing and personal articles (as well as some good laughs). Patterns began to emerge that helped illuminate the common dress of joiners working on Virginia plantations in the 18th century. Early next week we'll install reproduction clothing in the chamber, reflecting those findings and ultimately bringing J. Paxton, the joiner, and his companions to light.

*To find indentured joiners in the Colonial Williamsburg database, browse under 'indentured' and then 'joiners' in the list.

Traditional Hand Ground Paint in the Stair Passage

2010-04-02T10:36:00.017-04:00

We are on the home stretch in the Northwest Stair Passage. Each time I visit the project it looks a little closer to completion and its final designation as a functioning staircase. One of the most recent exciting activities that occured was the application of traditional hand ground linseed oil paint.

This paint was made by Erica Sanchez Goodwillie of Clinton, NY. Erica also spent a week here at Stratford Hall applying this special paint with the help of Jack Fisher of Plains, VA. The hand ground paint was made by hand grinding the pigments in the linseed oil. The pure pigments were then mixed with more linseed oil until a color match was achieved. At this point more linseed oil and chalk were added to extend the paint. Then, when it comes to applying the paint, it is a completely different beast than modern paint. When applying the paint you must be sure all surfaces are properly prepared or the paint will "flash," which means the paint loses its appropriate gloss. You must also be sure not to apply the paint too thick or it will wrinkle. These are only a couple of the differences between hand ground paint and paint we use today.

The colors used in this space were identified through Cross-section Paint Microscopy, done by Susan Buck of Williamsburg, VA. This is a process of taking small samples of paint and using a powerful microscope to analyze the paint history of the room's elements. We were lucky to have enough paint history retained in areas to provide us with an accurate representation of how the Stair Passage would have been painted during Light Horse Harry's time.

In the lower space of the Stair Passage, all the woodwork--including the chair rail, door archtraves and the mantel--was painted a light gray color. The stair elements (hand rail, balusters, risers) will be painted a "Spanish Brown". All the baseboards in the Stair Passage will be painted a dark black-brown. The most exciting color that was identified during the paint analysis was on the main floor woodwork. The color that was identified to be in place was Verdigris--this is a bright vibrant green color that you would have found in the nicer homes of this time period.

The processes of discovering the paint colors, having the paints made, and having them applied has been very exciting. I am looking forward to seeing this space complete with all the colors and woodwork in place, and I'm also very excited to hear the responses from you and our visitors to this restored space.

The Lees and Independence

2010-03-24T15:48:00.007-04:00

It's early for me to be posting something about an event in June, but I want to make sure you all mark your calendars! On Saturday, June 5, 2010, we will be presenting our annual Lees and Independence event at Stratford Hall. This free event commemorates the day when Richard Henry Lee made the motion for independence from England, which is arguably as important as the Fourth of July.

This year’s Lees and Independence event will take place in the late afternoon, beginning at 3pm. This event is free and will be fun for all ages! Our activities include:

- A Revolutionary War encampment and firing demonstrations by the 2nd Virginia Regiment

- Fun children's activities, including signing the Declaration of Independence with a quill pen; getting a photo taken in colonial costume; and colonial games with the Rappahannock Colonial Heritage Society

- A 5:30pm talk and book signing by Albert Tillson, author of Accommodating Revolutions: Virginia's Northern Neck in an Era of Transformations, 1760-1810. Tillson’s talk will be entitled “The Abduction of the Atwell: A Northern Neck Incident of the Revolutionary War.” His lecture is based upon a small set of documents he found after completing his book. These documents deal with two deserters from the British army who made their way into Westmoreland County in September 1779 and met two local loyalists who urged them to kidnap the commander of the Westmoreland militia and steal a sizable quantity of money from Richard "Squire" Lee, then join with a group of John Tayloe's slaves, seize Robert Carter's ship, the Atwell, and sail off to rejoin the British forces. Although ultimately unsuccessful, they did in fact implement much of the plan.

The Lees and Independence event culminates in a concert by the 380th Army Band out of Richmond, VA. This concert will be at 7:00pm. Bring your lawn chairs or blankets to sit in front of the Great House and enjoy the music of the 380th Army Band, which served as an integral part of the 80th Division (Institutional Training) as the 80th Division Band for many years. The band was initially constituted on August 2, 1943 as the 80th Infantry Division Band and activated on August 12, 1943 at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The band received the Meritorious Unit Citation for service in the European Theater during World War II with Campaign Participation credit in Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe. The Band was relieved from assignment to the 80th Division, reorganized, and re-designated October 16, 2008 as the 380th Army Band.

(Please note: If it rains, the concert will be held in the Council House, and admission will be on a first-come, first-serve basis.)

Come and join us for a fun time!

Interesting Collection Finds

2010-03-17T11:05:00.010-04:00

Managing a library collection sometimes has its surprises, especially when you open a book and find little treasures saved within its pages. How many of us have ever used a photo or other piece of paper to mark a place in a book? And have forgotten to remove it after we finished with the book? Without a doubt, librarians over the years have encountered many pieces of "ephemera" (printed matter of passing interest, such as postcards, tickets, ads, etc.) inside volumes upon their return.

Luckily, my find was better than generic ephemera: two precious little watercolors painted by two young girls in 1858 and saved by their father, Charles M. Taynton, in one of his personal books. Each painting was carefully dated as to when it was painted and when its caption was written. Although my search for information about the family has been unsuccessful, I hope Mary and Phebe would be pleased that their father inadvertently saved their artwork for posterity.

A week in the work shop with the M-WTCA

2010-03-11T07:19:00.005-05:00

Last week we had the pleasure of hosting a group of members of the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association (M-WTCA). This knowledgeable group had agreed to help us with the furnishing and installation of our work shop and were very eager to get the job done. Using research collected regarding the skilled craftsmen who worked at Stratford in the 18th and early 19th centuries, a wish list of tools typical of an 18th-century work shop, and images of period work benches, the group was able to gather a donation of period tools appropriate for the shop as well as construct a reproduction work bench from native poplar.

Phil Baker and Jack Sciara of the group came armed with a plan for a reproduction work bench based on one in the shop of the Dominy family of East Hampton, New York (now at Winterthur Museum), as well as period paintings and illustrations. With help from our own Phil Mark and Doris Sciara, the team constructed a 14-foot work bench with back boards to hold tools. Although they used modern saws and nailers for efficiency, they made sure to finish the wood with hand planes to take away any indication of modernity.

Meanwhile, Neil Bohnert, Henry Caudle, Herb Caudle, and Jim DePoy worked with our Collections staff to identify and assess the group of tools donated by M-WTCA members. The men examined each tool, noting any maker or owner marks, recording time period, woods, and other important factors. Through the members of the M-WTCA, Stratford Hall now possesses a group of 18th- and 19th-century woodworking tools of great quality - perfect for our plantation work shop.

With the exhibit set to open to the public on April 22nd, we still have some way to go: Collections and Preservation staff still need to finalize tool donations, reinforce the bench top with reproduction rose-headed nails, and arrange the tools in the shop to mimic period images of working shops. A big thank you goes to the M-WTCA and their contributions to this exhibit. The progress made last week was invaluable to the display and what we hope to teach our visitors about skilled crafts at Stratford.

The Music of the Stratford Lees

2010-03-05T15:59:00.017-05:00

Throughout my time serving as Stratford Hall’s director of education I’ve hoped to develop a program examining the music enjoyed—and performed—by the Stratford Lees. It is indeed a richly detailed subject. The 18th-century Stratford Lees shared with their Virginia friends a love of music and dance that stands out as a salient feature of their society. Especially in the grand days of Philip Ludwell Lee, their Great House resonated with music of great composers, while fair weather extended the entertainments to a roof-top platform as well as a barge on the Potomac.

It was not just in Virginia, however, or even in other colonies, where the Lees enjoyed some of the era’s best music. Studying law in London just before the Revolution, Arthur Lee took in the famous concerts of Carl Friedrich Abel and Johann Christian Bach. His merchant brother William Lee, also in London, wrote rapturously in 1771 of hearing performances by renowned French cellist Jean-Pierre Duport and violinist Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen, famed student of the Italian-Venetian master Giuseppe Tartini. It’s fascinating to imagine what concerts or operas the two heard while later serving as “militia diplomats” in France and elsewhere on the continent…heady stuff indeed!

Now, on the afternoon of Saturday, October 2, 2010 the Great Hall will again ring with “Music of the Stratford Lees,” through a program presented by The Four Nations Ensemble, a group internationally praised for their historically informed performances. (We’re coordinating research efforts with Four Nations harpsichordist, Andrew Appel, to ensure the most accurate possible selections. And fortunate blog followers here for the 2008 Great Hall performance of the highly acclaimed Muir Quartet will recall just what a fine venue this is!) There’s more however. This full day of “Lee Music” will begin in the morning with scholarly talks featuring Charleston, South Carolina historian and musicologist Dr. Nicholas Butler, author of Votaries of Apollo, the widely praised history of Charleston’s St. Cecilia Society.

Perhaps Dr. Butler can then tell us more of the fate of Philip Ludwell Lee’s runaway indentured servant, Charles Love. In an advertisement of October 6, 1757 in the Maryland Gazette, Lee noted of Love that “he professes Music, Dancing, Fencing, and he plays extremely well on the Violin, and all Wind Instruments.” Carrying with him a “very good Bassoon” belonging to Lee, it was “supposed he will make towards Charles-Town in South Carolina.” Did he make it to Charleston, or did someone claim the reward Lee offered of up to £10 if Love were “taken?” Indeed, as said before, the music of the Stratford Lees is a richly detailed subject. Look for further details soon.

Preservation Intern

2010-02-25T11:35:00.007-05:00

After interning at Stratford Hall this past summer, I returned to the University of Vermont in the fall to finish up my masters degree in Historic Preservation. Since graduating, I’ve been on the job hunt and was asked to come back to Stratford for another internship this winter. Working again with Preservation Director Phil Mark, I have experienced a different side of the preservation world during this internship (not to mention more snow than I ever thought possible in the South!). Last time around, my tasks were mainly focused on the hands-on restoration of the estate, providing me with skills in window restoration, painting, plastering, repointing, and investigation of architectural features, among other things. This winter, my efforts have been focused on helping to compile research for the Historic Structures Report which is being created for the Great House by the firm of Mesick, Cohen, Wilson and Baker. Through archival research and physical investigation, the goal of the report is to tell the story of the house and how it has changed, architecturally, over time.

To help facilitate the process of creating this comprehensive report, I have been working in the archives to digitize resources which will be of most help to the firm. I began digitization with the correspondence of preservation architect Fiske Kimball, who worked on the restoration of Stratford Hall in the 1930s. In reading through all of his letters to various members of the board, contractors, and others, I have been able to understand more about the people who undertook the restoration. In those days, historic preservation standards did not exist like they do today; the National Historic Preservation Act was not even on the books until 1966. Consequently, those involved in the restoration tried to do what they thought was right for Stratford, yet had no standard by which to judge their actions. As a student of historic preservation, it has certainly been interesting to see the correspondence regarding certain preservation issues and the process by which certain decisions about the house were made. Though I have only just begun to really delve deep into these boxes and boxes of letters, I feel as though I have learned a great deal about the man behind the restoration of Stratford Hall.

In addition to digitizing the Kimball correspondence, I have assembled a collection of previous reports, paint analyses, drawings, sketches, photographs, etc. for the architectural investigation team so that they can be well-informed about what has already been reported about the Great House. Mark Wenger, of Mesick, Cohen, Wilson and Baker, recently visited to begin researching Stratford Hall. Along with archival research, he looked for places in the house where it would be advantageous for the team to set up probes to determine architectural history of certain rooms in question. The probes consist of removing plaster or trim work in order to see what is occurring in the wall underneath. Ghost marks, which are remnants of past architectural or structural features, can tell a lot about the history of the house. Wenger and the investigation team will be looking for these and other clues to help determine the chronology of the changes made within the house.

Through working with the team from Mesick, Cohen, Wilson, Baker, I anticipate learning a lot more about architectural investigation and the clues that tell important details about a house. The valuable knowledge I gain through this internship will certainly help me as an emerging preservation professional after I leave Stratford Hall and venture forth into the “real world.” Until then, it’s back to learning all that I can while I’m here and, of course, sending out all those resumes and cover letters.

Please note: the photo of Fiske Kimball comes from the following source: http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/finearts/exhibits/fiske/bio/index.html

Archaeology Intern

2010-02-17T22:54:00.012-05:00

Material culture, or the artifacts recovered from archaeological excavations, act as windows into the lifeways and mentalities of those who came before us. The act of unearthing something that hasn’t been held in two hundred years is really an indescribable experience and is what I love about archaeology. I hope to bring the same passion that I feel on a dig to my archaeology internship at Stratford Hall.

The main priority of my internship project here at Stratford is to re-house the archaeological artifacts that currently reside in the basement of the Council House. They include artifacts from J. Paul Hudson’s excavations in the Mill Field from 1969 to 1975, and Fraser Neiman’s excavation of the Clifts Plantation in the Mill Field (44WM33) from June 1976 to January 1978, as well as numerous other artifacts that have been found at Stratford over the years. Working with Sarah Holland, the Collections Manager at Stratford, I’ve come up with the proper supplies needed for long-term storage of these artifacts. Thankfully, many of these items were conserved post-excavation. Therefore, despite the amount of time that has passed since their unearthing, most are still in a fairly stable condition, and will remain so with proper storage conditions.

Another goal of my internship is to catalog each and every artifact that is recovered from the Council House basement in as much detail as possible, with the expectation that the information will someday be expanded upon and entered into the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (or DAACS). This database, based in the Department of Archaeology at Monticello, is an invaluable resource for the interpretation of the slave-based society that developed in the Chesapeake, Carolinas, and Caribbean throughout the colonial period. It provides the researcher with comprehensive archaeological data from several sites within these regions that were at some point associated with slavery. Stratford Hall actually has one site, ST116, entered into DAACS, but the hope is to contribute more in an effort to further our understanding of the lifeways of enslaved peoples. For more information on ST116, an earthfast slave dwelling excavated by the Mary Washington College Field School, one can view its entry by Dr. Douglas Sanford.

Currently, I am going through the artifacts catalogued by J. Paul Hudson, which include both the artifacts he and the Archaeological Society of Virginia, Williamsburg Chapter, found in the Mill Field and those that had been recovered prior to that (about 7,000 total). Hudson, who at the time was a member of the Executive Board of the Archaeological Society of Virginia, recovered most of his finds from surface collections, though several hundred came from more intensive excavations, which revealed a root cellar (MF-1) and a refuse pit (RP-1). Though the majority of artifacts in Hudson’s inventory are from the 19th century, they also run the gamut from Native American spear points to 18th century English Buckley earthenware to a 20th-century Stratford Hall souvenir cup (complete with the Stratford squirrel!). So, while I’ve gone through less than half of the artifacts at this point, I’ve already been privy to material culture from all stages of occupation of the area that is now Stratford Hall.

Being a ceramic fanatic, my favorite find so far has been the Josiah Spode stone china transferware plates in the Temple pattern, manufactured from 1805 to 1830 (see picture). These could have been used by the Lees, who lived at Stratford Hall until 1822. While not as expensive as Chinese porcelain—which this blue and white, chinoiserie style earthenware attempted to emulate—this was by no means an inexpensive tableware, and demonstrates that either the Lees or the Somervilles were purchasing items with a certain amount of social cachet.

Next, I’ll be moving on to the artifacts recovered from Frasier Neiman’s excavations at Mill Field. Neiman, the current Director of Archaeology at Monticello, did much more extensive excavations, which led to the discovery of the Clifts Plantation. The land was owned by the Pope family from 1656 until its sale to Thomas Lee in 1718. Built in 1670, and expanded upon throughout the next 60 years, the Clifts was occupied by tenants until 1730, when it was demolished by Thomas Lee. As I’ve been working mainly with artifacts from the late-18th and 19th centuries, I’m anxious to explore the earlier ones recovered from Neiman’s excavation of the Clifts.

So, for the remainder of my internship, I anticipate a lot more tongue testing (best way to figure out what kind of pottery you have in your hand!) and the rediscovery of some awesome artifacts.

Winter Collections Management Intern

2010-02-10T13:48:00.011-05:00

When flood waters hit Iowa in 1993, The Des Moines Center of Art was on ground high enough to protect the art center from immediate danger. However, when the municipal water-purifying plant lost power/was damaged, the streets raging with flood waters were of no help to The Des Moines Center of Art. The museum had to truck in thousands of gallons of water each day to maintain steady relative humidity levels to protect The Des Moines Center of Art collections from irreversible damage.

With the rising snow accumulation levels on everyone’s mind in the Virginia area, we can all relate to the dangers of winter weather. At the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, MD, that danger became reality in February of 2003. The roof of the museum collapsed under the strain of gathering twenty-five inches of snow within a twenty-four hour period. Half of the museum’s Roundhouse roof collapsed on the oldest and most comprehensive collection of American railroad equipment and artifacts. The museum has since estimated that it would take at least six years for the objects and locomotives to be repaired.

Disasters, both natural and man-made, occur on a daily basis. However, not everyone believes a disaster, whether large or small scale, will directly affect them. We are also not able to fathom the destruction and heartache a disaster can cause. The museum field, looked upon by the general public as protectors of our cultural resources, has to not only believe that disasters can happen to their buildings and collections, but prepare and train their staff to help mitigate them. If cultural resource institutions do not prepare for the “worst case scenario,” they risk damaging not only their most important assets--their collections--but also risk putting visitors and staff in danger and hurting their professional reputations.

For my third internship here at Stratford Hall, I have taken on the task of updating and rewriting the institution’s Disaster Plan. It has proven to be a challenging yet incredibly educational experience, especially for someone who is an aspiring Collection’s Manager. Even as someone who cares for collection objects on a daily basis, it is astounding how many ways pieces in the collection can be harmed and how much responsibility it is to keep them safe. Objects aside, a museum must also plan for the safety of its staff and visitors. Everything from responding to a small injury to reacting to a bomb threat must be considered and carefully planned for. Luckily for me, disaster planning is a big business in the museum world so there is an unlimited amount of resources out there and a very willing staff right here to help.

A Disaster Plan addresses the prevention and response to natural disasters and risks an organization is most likely to face. Most plans cover disaster: mitigation and prevention; preparedness; response; and recovery. Disaster mitigation and prevention attempts to eliminate or reduce the probability and effects of disasters by making large-scale improvements like:

building structures to withstand earthquakes or floods;
removing trees that are close to buildings; and
installing security and fire suppression systems

or things as small as:

keeping gutters clean;
periodically testing generators;
regularly servicing equipment; and
performing routine building inspections.

Disaster preparedness is simply being as organized and equipped as possible to immediately respond to a disaster in order to save lives, minimize damage, and facilitate the recovery stage. A few examples of disaster preparedness include:

providing training for staff;
performing practice drills; and
having procedures in place for saving high-priority assets to the organization.

Disaster response provides temporary care and relief to victims and ensures avoidable casualties and property damage does not occur. Examples include:

following evacuation procedures;
having easy access to disaster packs with emergency supplies and instructions; and
using clear communication and a quick response time for getting emergency responders on the scene.

Finally, disaster recovery includes those tasks which return life and daily operation of the organization to normal or at least to an improved level. Some important examples include:

salvaging and conserving the collection objects;
receiving relief from grants, donations, and government funds
restoring the buildings; and
reinstalling the objects and reopening the exhibits to the public.

Too many cultural institutions do not have Disaster Plans in place, be it due to the lack of staff, time, or money, or pure naïveté and denial. However, even if you do have a plan, you cannot always account for all the possibilities or grasp the potential damage that could occur. Below are a few more examples of museum and historic structure disasters.

The Buckingham Palace has caught on fire not once, but twice. In 1992 a fire broke out that damaged more than 100 rooms and numerous items from the Royal Collection. The fire started because of a spotlight shining on a curtain in the Queen’s Private Chapel. Then in 2002 a smaller fire broke out but luckily spared artwork and historic treasures.

Just last year the Historic Archives of Cologne, Germany suddenly collapsed due to subway construction beneath the building. One of the only collections in Germany to survive World War II completely intact, the collection spanned more than a thousand years worth of documents, maps, drawings, photographs, books, and artifacts.

In June of 2008 the University of Iowa Museum of Art had flood damages of $5.5 million to the museum building and $500,000 to its contents. Due to a well conceived and implemented flood plan, the museum was able to evacuate 80% of their collections in less than four hours – that’s over 10,000 objects!! And fortunately, there was no lasting damage to the rest of the collection.

- Kathryn “Kat” Marshall, Collections Management Intern

Behind the scenes: the curator in winter

2010-02-03T14:48:00.006-05:00

What does a museum curator do in the depths of winter when her museum galleries and historic house rooms are closed to the public? Research and writing, of course! The quiet of these weeks since the new year have allowed me to focus on some major tasks that often fall by the wayside during our busy seasons.

One of my winter projects has been the detailed planning for the room settings in the upcoming Southwest outbuilding (you may have seen a Facebook video talking about the building, and read more about the project here and here). I've been planning for object conservation, reproduction objects like trunks and a bed, working with a private collector who will be lending a table for the chamber, and discussing textile options with an historic textile scholar.

I've also been working on an object list and furnishing details for the Northwest Stair Passage in the house (which Phil Mark, our Director of Preservation, has touched upon quite a bit in his blog posts). There's not much floor space in this stair passage, but a few key objects will be on display: a clothespress (for linen storage), a folding bed (for overnight guests or servants), and a close stool (a toilet for, well, personal hygiene).

Another of my goals this winter has been to catalog a backlog of objects that have been sitting waiting for a little bit of research. We had two pistols, for instance, that were found by our accounting staff in a vault in our administration building. 18th-century pistols, I should clarify. Were they accepted for the historic collection and just never transferred over? I've been working with a firearms dealer to help with the identification of the pistols, researching their makers and the marks on them.

Directional Update from the Preservation Department...

2010-01-27T13:28:00.014-05:00

It feels like lots of my time lately has been spent in a directional space here at Stratford Hall, these spaces being the Northwest Stair Passage and the Southwest Outbuilding. Each project is moving along, but it can be a little hectic trying to juggle the two and keep them both safely in the air.

In the Southwest Outbuilding, two of the three rooms are about 90% complete. In the workshop space I began to finish the cleaning and conservation of the chimney breast. I am continuing where the conservator left off so he can return to finish conservation of the horse mural. This cleaning and conservation consists of picking off the remaining paint with a scalpel and then washing the wall with distilled water and cotton. My intern, Abby Muse, helped me one day and the two of had so much fun it was difficult to contain ourselves...

The Northwest Stair Passage is also progressing. There have been a few recent snags, but nothing major. Every day, the spaces begin to look more and more like rooms again. The plaster contractor, Cooke's of Richmond, Va, has been hard at work plastering the spaces. They are almost finished with the lower level and will be moving to the Main Floor space next week. They have been very cooperative and respectful while working in the Great House. Our other contractor, Chuck Rackley, is getting closer and closer to wrapping his work up. He was here this week installing some beautiful door architraves that he made. His assistant, Billy, has also been a great help on the project. Next week we will be bringing in a ladder stair that Chuck and Billy made for access to the attic. When the ladder stair is in the room, the plasterers will be able to close everything up and finish the plaster work. Decisions on paint color have been made but I will save that for a future post, so stay tuned!

Interpretation Department Happenings

2010-01-21T09:13:00.014-05:00

With our shortened hours, visitors may wonder what we're doing during the winter months here at Stratford Hall. I wanted to report on some of the projects my staff and I are working on this January, February, and March so all of our readers could understand what goes on behind the scenes--while we may not be open to the public seven days a week right now, we're certainly keeping busy!

Our biggest project right now is revamping our school programs for elementary students. The first step in this process is going through our current programs and making some necessary changes to those. For one thing, we're making each station approximately an hour, instead of 25 minutes. This means putting a couple stations together--for example, beginning in the fall, when teachers want the Indentured program, they'll also get the slavery program, too (these were previously separate, and it was possible to choose one over the other). If we talk about indentured servitude without talking about slavery, students are only getting part of the picture of workers on this plantation when the Lees lived here. Thus, we're putting those programs together, adding additional hands-on activities, updating the information we tell students when they're here, and tightening up all of the programs' ties to the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs).

We're also updating the information that goes out to the schools--pre-visit information will become more detailed and post-visit information will ask how this trip affected the students' learning, so we can judge whether or not our programs are effective. This is going to be a long process, but we have high hopes that all the work will be done by the summer so we can use these newly updated programs for the fall 2010 school visits. To do this work, I've asked several of the interpretive staff to spend their time researching, brainstorming, writing, and doing these programs. I also have two interns from the University of Mary Washington working with me to create a new school program and update several of the older ones. We're all working together to make school visits here top-notch.

Along with this big project, the interpretation department is conducting a lot of training this winter. Aside from several in-service days where we discuss (and practice!) techniques to working with school students, the importance of a theme in tours, and the different types of interpretation, we are also visiting several local historic sites to see how those places do their tours and programs. Last week, we went to Montpelier to see the changes made there and how its staff works in an atmosphere that is always evolving (a very helpful learning experience), and soon we're going to drive the opposite direction to visit Shirley Plantation and Berkeley Plantation on the James River.

These are just a few of the projects going on in the interpretation department this winter--as you can see, we're keeping busy learning new things in order to make your visits to Stratford Hall better every time!

Winter Changes at Stratford Hall

2010-01-06T15:25:00.008-05:00

For the months of January and February, we are following new winter hours. Stratford Hall's Great House andVisitor Center will be open only on weekends and holidays--January 18th for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day; January 19th for Robert E. Lee's Birthday (not an "official" holiday, of course!); and February 15th for Presidents' Day. On March 1, we will return to normal operating hours. The grounds are still open every day from 9:30-4pm, so people are still welcome to hike the trails or visit the beach and look for fossils.

While we operate on this shorter schedule, we're making some changes around the site. For starters, we will be opening a new cafe in our current gift shop building, putting the food services and gift shop together. This cafe will offer light fare for people to purchase, including sandwiches, soups, and salads, and will be open on days Stratford is open to the public. The cafe will have both indoor and outdoor seating, so visitors can enjoy sitting outside during the warm summer months. It will officially open in the spring, once Stratford returns to its normal operating hours. The photos on this blog posting are of our contractors working on the new bathroom in the gift shop/cafe.

This also means that our dining room will now be open only for catered events (this is a permanent change). To book a catered event, please call Kay Campbell at (804) 493-8038, ext. 9696, or e-mail her at kcampbell@stratfordhall.org.

We hope you'll be able to visit us in the spring to experience the new changes at Stratford Hall!

Progress in the workshop thanks to the M-WTCA

2009-12-21T15:29:00.005-05:00

Phil Baker and Neil Bohnert of the M-WTCA look over potential tools with Phil Mark, Stratford's Director of Preservation

With the official reopening of the Southwest outbuilding slated for April 2010, we are coming down the home stretch with furnishing research. The workshop area of the building (the first room you walk into) is in good shape thanks to the support of the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association (M-WTCA).

These avid tool collectors and scholars have been helping to identify period-appropriate tools for a woodworking shop and are helping us understand the meaning of notations from our Lee family documents.

In the inventory of Stratford taken in 1758, for instance, we see listed:

Coopers Ditto [tools]

sawyers tools

Carpenters Do [tools]

What specialized tools did each of these kinds of craftsmen need?

And in Richard Henry Lee's memorandum book [in the Huntington Library collection] we have been finding even further information about woodworking at Stratford. In the document are notations for Lee lending J. Paxton, Stratford's joiner, tools such as "1 1/2 inch Mortice chisel" as well as planes and other items. This raises questions for us: What does a 1/2 inch mortise chisel look like in 1787? Where did the Stratford joiners, carpenters, sawyers, and coopers get their tools? Who were these men?

We hope to answer these questions and many more with our new display.

Christmas at Stratford Hall

2009-12-09T15:11:00.010-05:00

Our yearly Christmas at Stratford Hall will be held this Saturday, December 12, 2009 from 12pm until 8pm.

This year, we're doing things a little bit differently. From 12pm to 4pm, we will have a variety of children’s activities in the Visitor Center, including Christmas crafts and visits with Santa Claus. We will also take pictures of children with Santa Claus and will charge only $1 per picture to print them. This family-oriented portion of the day will also include fun activities in the area around the Great House, where children and parents alike can learn about Christmas during the Lees’ time at Stratford Hall.

At 4:30pm, visitors will begin visiting the Great House to learn about Christmas in the 18^th-century. The evening will begin with refreshments and entertainment in the Visitor Center. Then, as you travel across the bridge to the gift shop area, you will enjoy a bonfire where you will meet your guide. From there you will step back into Colonial times as you are guided through parts of the Great House, where you will see how food was served and view the festivities with the Lees’ guests in the Great Hall. You will end your visit in the outdoor kitchen, where you will learn how food was prepared for the Lees and their guests. African American foodways historian Michael Twitty will be cooking in the kitchen. The last tour will take place at 8pm.

Please note that the Great House will be closed until 12pm on December 12, 2009. If you have any questions about this program, please contact me at llawfer@stratfordhall.org. The cost is $10 for adults and $5 for children ages 6-11.

Hope to see you here at Stratford Hall this Saturday!