The Stratford Hall Sign Shop

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

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 Calendar 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

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

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

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

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

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!