Sunday Nov. 19th at Denison Homestead

Good Day,
First, Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the American Colonies celebrating today.

I thought I would share a bit of my Sunday last, which was spent at the Denison Homestead. This was a combination of a Harvest or Holiday Farmers Market (a one-day extension of their summer Farmers Market) and the first Sunday of their Holiday Tour days. So, three events in one, and a few of us reenactors were there to demonstrate cooking the harvest food. Here is info from the Denison Homestead.

Here is a round-up from "The Day" in New London/Mystic area.

I was joined by fellow members of my unit, Dave Shaw, Wade Stoner, and Mike Hagen, and also by Suzanne Windsor and her daughter Blair, son Evan, and daughter's friend Bonnie. They are with the CAR General Ebenezer Huntington Society. The girls churned butter, which the crowd always enjoys. Oh, they were using a churn made by Erich Steinhagen -- please see my blog on redware potters because I have one of his little (portable) redware churns and highly recommend them.



This is me talking to the crowd. I was afraid it would have a poor turnout, but I was wrong. We had a lot of visitors in the field with the farmers, and I heard they had about 200 people in the house between noon and 4pm, which is a record. Thank heavens for a calm, mild November day!!!

Here's Wade Stoner sipping cider.

I'll post more pictures when I can figure out how this blog does multiple pictures elegantly.

YH&OS,
Sarah / Chauncey

"Steal Not This Horn" at Historic Deerfield

Good day,
I'm just back from a fantastic (and, for November 11, WARM) weekend at Historic Deerfield, where I attend the symposium " STEAL * NOT * THIS * HORN: The Material Culture of Conflict during the French and Indian War".

My interest in this was (1) to see the exhibit of "Engraved Powder Horns from the French and Indian War and the American Revolution: The William H. Guthman Collection", part of a recently aqcuired collection of 75 engraved powder horns; and (2) to learn more about my powder horn made by my friend Mike Slease in the style of John Bush and others.

The Symposium began in the evening of Friday Nov. 19 with a lecture, a reception where the exhibit is, and a splendid dinner at the Deerfield Inn. It was a great seminar, but unfortunately, one of the speakers (author R. Scott Stephenson) was unable to make it. The Friday evening lecture was given by Phil Zea, President of Historic Deerfield and the man most responsible for Deerfield acquiring the powder horn collection of the late William Guthman.

[For a list of the powderhorns acquired in this collection, download this pdf from Historic Deerfield.]

Saturday morning's Keynote speaker was Fred Anderson, author and professor. He's written a number of excellent books on the French and Indian War, including (but not limited to) "Crucible of War," "The War That Made America" (which he co-wrote with R. Scott Stephenson), and "A People's Army.' Massachusetts Soldiers and Society in the Seven Years' War." His lecture was titled "Of Arms and the Yoeman's Son: The Social Contexts of Warfare in Eighteenth-Century New England." Although I haven't read "A People's Army," I got the impression from what he said that this lecture was an extension of that book.

After Fred Anderson was Wallace B. Gusler from Williamsburg, VA. His talk was "The Hunter and Provincial Soldier: Their USe of Powder Horns and Other Equipment" and he basically presented a description of southern (VA) equipment such as what would have been part of Washington's VA regiments, as a comparison with the New England styles.

We then had a box lunch outside in the sunshine. It was so warm I didn't even need my cloak!

After lunch, we had "From Brown Bess to Basket Hilt: British Arms in the French and Indian War" by Erik Goldtein, Curator of Mechanical Arts and Numismatics for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. This was a discussion of basically 18th century arms and weapons, including how to identify them and understand their context.

Next was "An Analysis of the Engraving on the Powder Horns Attributed to John Bush" by Lee A. Larkin, Master Horner of the Honourable Company of Horners. This was very interesting as he reported on a very detailed examination of horns attributed to John Bush and the Selkirk-Page horns. These are horns very similar in style and his analysis essentially identifies which were Bush's horns and who that carvers were of similar horns that have been attributed to Bush. Some of these horns are part of Deerfield's new collection (Whiting's, Israel Putnam's, and more) and some are elsewhere (e.g., Robert Rogers' horn in the museum at Fort Ticonderoga).

That concluded the day, as we were unable to hear Scott Stephenson talk about "The Word of John Bush." Stephenson wrote, among other things, "Clash of Empires
The British, French, and Indian War, 1754-1763," which is primarily a look at the amazing exihibit "Clash of Empires" that is was at the Heinz Museum (where he is a curator) and is now traveling around the country (sort of).

The day ended with dinner and Tavern Night at the Hall Tavern Information Center, including punch, wine, music, and dancing.

Sunday morning featured show-and-tell, as some collectors brought a few of their treasures to share with the attendees.

It was a great weekend and Huzzah! to Historic Deerfield and Phil Zea.

Cheers,
Sarah / Chauncey

Links of the Day: Czech Living History site

Dear All,
My gosh, it's been a year since I started this blog and I've done almost nothing with it! That's so sad!

Well, today I want to share something interesting with you, which is a Living History website for reenactors in the Czech Republic. I got an email from one of them via my contact email at my unit's website (http://rogersrangers.org). It was obvious the email writer was struggling with his English and his email had a .sk ending (Slovakia, I assume). I answered his question about tarps/tents in the field; he asked a follow-up and I answered that. In my second email, I included a link to my own website's trek tarp as well as a link to Tentsmiths who made my trek tarp.

Well, then I noticed on my site statistics that I was getting hits from the Czech Republic and I followed the link to -- guess what? -- a chat board. My first email had been posted, then translated, and my two links had been posted. Since then, I've had a lot of hits from .cz!

Here is the chat board.

Here is their Living History site, with Troupes de la Marine, Rogers' Rangers, and the 77th Highlanders (and Natives still to come).

I shared this with the FandIWar egroup and bcc'ed Tim Todish, and he wrote back that he had been in contact with a Rogers' Rangers unit there for many years. When I hit the British flag icon on their Living History site, I got a translation that told me this was in fact Tim's friends. It's too cool!!

I hope you find it as interesting as I do.

YH&OS,
Sarah aka Pvt. Chauncey