by gwffoundation | Apr 22, 2025 | 18th Century Crafts, 20th century, Architectual Restoration, Collections Management, Daily Life in the 1700s, Historic Kenmore, Lewis Family, Lives & Legacies
Linum (“Flax”) and oleum (“oil”) – Fashionable and Affordable As a Historic Preservation student at the University of Mary Washington, I’ve grown to appreciate almost all aspects of materiality. Over the past four years, my education has...
by gwffoundation | Jan 23, 2025 | 18th Century Crafts, British Empire, Lives & Legacies
We have a lot of silver in our collections, ranging from candlesticks to teapots to spoons. With all the silver, I have become familiar with eighteenth-century silversmith marks, but I have never explored the artisans behind the marks. I was pleasantly...
by gwffoundation | Sep 4, 2024 | 18th Century Crafts, Behind the Scenes, George Washington's Ferry Farm, Lives & Legacies
What do you get when you have a canoe, tools, and a dream team of builders? The Great Oak Pavilion! Okay, maybe the canoe wasn’t completely necessary, but it is a very interesting part of the construction of the Great Oak Pavilion. Many visitors at Ferry Farm have...
by gwffoundation | Jul 24, 2024 | 18th Century Crafts, Archaeology, British Empire, Daily Life in the 1700s, Developing America, Fashion in History, George Washington's Ferry Farm, History of Slavery, Lives & Legacies, Washington family
Figure 1: Ferry Farm cowries Many readers will undoubtedly recognize these two artifacts (Fig. 1). Known as cowrie shells, these artifacts have become synonymous with slavery and serve as identifiers for the presence of free and enslaved Black individuals in the...
by gwffoundation | May 15, 2024 | 18th Century Crafts, Archaeology, Daily Life in the 1700s, George Washington's Ferry Farm, Lives & Legacies, Washington family
Archaeologists tend to have strong feelings about ceramics. Ceramics can play a major role in interpreting a site, as their materials often reflect their function. This can be helpful when determining how a site was used. For instance, finding an abundance of redwares...
by gwffoundation | Apr 3, 2024 | 18th Century Crafts, Archaeology, British Empire, Daily Life in the 1700s, George Washington's Ferry Farm, Lives & Legacies
A quick refresher from part one of the TD marked pipe saga – Clay tobacco pipes with the mark TD are a ubiquitous item at historical archaeology sites dating from the mid-18th through the 20th century. While at one point the mark represented a specific maker, it...
