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 | Jun 12, 2024 | Archaeology, Behind the Scenes, George Washington's Ferry Farm, Historic Preservation, Lives & Legacies
The dig is in full swing, and we are a little over halfway through our 11-week dig season. Over the past few weeks, we have made lots of new exciting discoveries, and as you may have noticed, added quite a few new faces to our crew. Hosting a field school from the...
by gwffoundation | Apr 16, 2024 | Archaeology, Behind the Scenes, Ferry Farm, George Washington's Ferry Farm, Lives & Legacies
Spring is in the air. The weather is warming up, flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing, and of course the dig season is about to start here at Ferry Farm, George Washington’s Boyhood Home. As part of the 2023 dig season, our team revisited the site of a colonial-era...
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...
by gwffoundation | Mar 20, 2024 | 18th Century Crafts, Archaeology, British Empire, Daily Life in the 1700s, George Washington's Ferry Farm, Lives & Legacies
TD Marked Tobacco Pipes That Is! Clay tobacco pipes are a hallmark of historical archaeology. Grandma smoked, the enslaved smoked, the elite smoked, children smoked, just about everyone smoked. Smoking was one of America’s favorite pastimes, and there are...