Posts Tagged ‘archeology’
A Fort from 1779, a Redcoat from 1799 (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
The Associated Press reported on a dig in Georgia that located Carr’s Fort, site of a skirmish in February 1779. The article explains:
Robert Carr was a cattle farmer who settled with his wife, children and a single middle-aged female slave in Wilkes County after colonists started arriving there in 1773. Carr also served as captain of a militia company of roughly 100 men. Responsible for leading his militiamen and looking out for their families, Carr built a stockade wall to protect his farmhouse and surrounding property, which ...
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New Reading from Williamsburg (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
Less than a decade after the conclusive battle at Yorktown, ordinary Britons could point to few lingering consequences of the war. Americans who had traveled to London for culture and knowledge before the war were coming again. Prewar trading patterns had been ...
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The Secrets of H.M.S. Hussar (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
The cannon was donated to Central Park about the time of the U.S. Civil War and remained on display, its mouth plugged with cement, until 1996. Then it was removed for preservation. Conservators who started to work on the gun recently discovered that underneath the plug was cotton wadding, iron ball, and 800 grams of black powder. ...
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A Housewright’s Workshop in Duxbury (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
The small building is on land of the Berrybrook School for little ones, and had been used for storage. In the late 1700s that same land was owned by Luther Sampson (1760-1847), a housewright and joiner who had fought several years in the Revolutionary War.
There are no tools remaining in the shed, but the room’s fixtures show how Sampson and his workers operated:
Framed in original sills, joists, and pineboard ...
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Call for New Papers on “Foodways in the Northeast” (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
In fact, the term “Peking ravioli” is another element of New England foodways, invented by restaurateur Joyce Chen in the mid-20th century. Other folks call those dumplings potstickers, jiaozi, or just dumplings.
The Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife will examine that whole range of New England culinary culture at its next conference. Back in 1984, the seminar published a collection of papers titled ...
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The Return of “Parker’s Revenge” (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
In recent years, archeologists have uncovered several musket balls, a shoe buckle, a knife, and other Colonial-era artifacts on land that is part of the Hanscom Air Force Base property. And at a ceremony last month, Hanscom officials officially loaned eight of the items to the neighboring Minute Man National Historical Park, which plans to create a display for its visitors. . . .
Part of the Hanscom property extends near ...
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Archeology Lectures Coming Up Next Week (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
On Tuesday, 16 October, at 7:00 P.M. Boston City Archaeologist Joe Bagley will speak at the Bunker Hill Museum in Charlestown on “The Archaeology of Charlestown: Boston’s Little Pompeii.”
The presentation will focus on the sites discovered at the Bunker Hill Monument, and Bunker Hill Community College, and the Central Artery Project. Several Native American sites, a Native American village, John Winthrop’s 1629 ...
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New Old Letters from Isaiah Thomas (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
The American Antiquarian Society recently acquired twelve letters written by its founder, Isaiah Thomas. Among them are two to William Tudor, Jr., a Boston editor (and son of the America military’s first judge advocate general). According to the A.A.S.’s Almanac newsletter: One is a reply to Tudor’s request for Thomas’s memories of James Otis, Jr. and the other concerns a Jewish phylactery found in western Massachusetts that was regarded by some as a proof that Native Americans were descendants of the lost tribes of Israel.Thomas wrote both letters in 1819. Tudor published his Life of James Otis, ...
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Seeking a Mass Grave in Brooklyn (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
However, one recurring theme of that article is skepticism from other historians about the feasibility or importance of that quest, given how much Brooklyn has changed over the centuries:
The Marylanders’ story is among the more underappreciated chapters of the Revolutionary War. Vastly outnumbered, they launched a series of counterattacks that stymied rapidly advancing British forces, enabling thousands of American ...
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Stories from Old Homes (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
From Plymouth came word of an archeological dig that might include evidence about the lives of enslaved people of African descent:
An excavation this summer in a small shed and nearby grounds on North Street has yielded more than 30,000 artifacts dating back 1,000 years. But the prized finds have been the bits and pieces that “might point to an African origin and [dwellers’] desire to maintain a physical, spiritual, and [m]ental connection with ...
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Newfangled Displays at Pluckemin and Concord (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
The Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House announced the release of the 3D Visualization of the Pluckemin Artillery Cantonment, the lost 1778-1779 winter cantonment of General Henry Knox’s artillery in Pluckemin, New Jersey. While no buildings survive on the site except General Knox’s Headquarters at the Jacobus Vanderveer House, significant archeological work and other historical records permitted the creation of the first of its kind 3D virtual renderings of the ...
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One Man’s Trash….. (USHistoryFiles - American History Blog)
An interesting history-related post from USHistoryFiles - American History Blog:
On Tuesday my wife and I took the, “Rubbish, Treasures, and Colonial Life” tour at Colonial Williamsburg. Yesterday, C-SPAN was running a documentary on archeology at Jamestown so this has been a bit of archeology week for us. Now, when one thinks of Colonial Williamsburg one usually thinks of carriage rides, costumed interpreters, restored buildings and such. Truth is Colonial Williamsburg has an active research program and sponsors archeological field schools working in conjunction with The College of William and Mary. Considering Colonial Williamsburg’s history one wonders just how much “stuff” (and by “stuff” I mean artifacts) can be ...
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Visiting Stone Structures of the Northeast (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
In a comment, James Gage reported that his mother, Mary Gage, is at work on a database of milestones all over Massachusetts, and would welcome additions, particularly west of Springfield.
The Gages maintain the Stone Structures website, devoted to all sorts of ways people pile and stand up stone: milestones, gravestones, root cellars, walls, arches, &c. They offer forms for documenting structures, and folks can email them with new reports and ...
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Howe Explores the Durant-Kenrick House in Newton, 12 Apr. (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
The Durant-Kenrick House was built in 1732 by a blacksmith and merchant named Edward Durant (1695-1740), who moved out from Boston with his family and enslaved servants to enjoy the life of a country gentleman. Howe’s talk, titled “A New Refinement: the Durant-Kenrick House in the Context of Colonial Housing,” will examine it as a sign of domestic trends:
At its ...
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Fish Scales, Tea Saucers, and Changing Habits (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
We actually have a lot of archeological data that speak to food consumption....Fish is actually a good example. It’s one of those things that you find in the Chesapeake, in Baltimore, D.C., and Virginia. We see lots and lots of fish scales early on in the 18th century into mid-century and then the scales kind of disappear and then we only see fish bones, and that’s probably ...
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March Lectures from the Friends of Minute Man National Park (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
4 March: Hilary Anderson Stelling, “Sowing the Seeds of Liberty: Lexington and the American Revolution”
On a spring day more than 200 years ago, battles at Lexington and Concord launched the American war for independence. “Sowing the Seeds of Liberty: Lexington and the American Revolution” will introduce some of the members of the Lexington community who played a role in these important events, discuss the political and social circumstances that led to the armed confrontation and explore what the choices made on ...
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Dr. Rush’s Bilious Pills (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
Even today, archaeologists tracing the campsites used by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in their historic expedition across the Great Plains from 1804 to 1806 can still rely on the relatively high mercury deposits to be found in the soil where the explorers dug their latrines. According to Sam Kean and his excellent book, The Disappearing Spoon, not only did Lewis and Clark set out on their expedition armed with microscopes, compasses, three mercury thermometers, and other scientific instruments, ...
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The Wreck of the Industry, 1764 (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
In 1763, the Treaty of Paris brought the Seven Years War to an end. As part of the peace negotiations, Spain’s territory of La Florida was ceded to Britain. After almost two centuries of Spanish rule, all of Spain’s troops, military supplies, and citizens living in Florida were transported to Havana, Cuba, and the colony was re-populated by British troops from the Royal Army headquarters in New York. Four sloops were sent from New York to St. Augustine, the ...
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Dig at the Durant-Kendrick Homestead (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
I’d never heard of this site. Growing up in Newton, as my friend Jack Riccardi has said, means you learn on school field trips that the Jackson Homestead is the center of U.S. history, perhaps followed by Independence Hall and the White House. But Historic Newton, guardian of the Jackson Homestead, also spearheaded the study of the Durant-Kendrick site.
Of the main house there, the Globe states:
The circa-1730s structure is endowed with centuries of history.
For starters, Edward Durant III - ...
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“Making History” at Boston College through 11 December (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
Founded in 1707 and receiving a royal charter in 1751, the Society of Antiquaries provided a center for the systematic study of Britain’s past. In essence, it was Enlightenment thinking applied to history.
Among the society’s early work on display in Chestnut Hill are:
- A 1785 reproduction of a painting of the coronation of Edward VI, showing a broad ...
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John Walton, accidental archeologist (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
A few days ago some ancient figures etc. were discovered in a scar on the Ribble side near Ribchester, a few miles from this place, about 9 feet below the surface of the earth. The river had washed part of them there, which induced the persons who discovered them to dig up the earth, where they found a metal helmet or cap-a-pie, embellished with a number of small figures of men on horseback, with swords in their hands…The person who first discovered those “ancient ...
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Tide Mill Conference in Kennebunkport, 18-19 Nov. (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
The Kennebunkport Conservation Trust and the Tide Mill Institute will hold a conference on 18-19 November at the trust’s headquarters in Kennebunkport, Maine, where historians from Europe and North America will discuss the history of tide mills. The conference description says:
One presentation will lay out legal issues that affected early tide mills and confront those seeking to make use of tidal energy today. An ...
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Archeological Findings along Battle Road (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
Archaeologists in Massachusetts recently excavated several military artifacts from a Revolutionary war era site probably dating back to a well-documented skirmish of April 19, 1775 known as “Parker’s Revenge.” The previously undisturbed site, located on an unused area of Hanscom Air Force Base in Concord, is being prepared for transfer from the United States Air Force to the National Park Service.
Among the artifacts found are musket balls (fired and un-fired), a brass shoe buckle, a fascine knife or ...
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CSI Annapolis Royal (Boston 1775)
An interesting history-related post from Boston 1775:
Lillian Stewart, of Parks Canada, was there when the bones were found. . . . Of special interest to researchers was the added treasure of almost perfectly preserved artifacts ranging from shoes and regimental buttons, to an unidentified piece of leather.
The bones were sent to the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, where scientists thought it was likely an 18th century soldier in his thirties, about 5'6" ...
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George Washington Crossing The Delaware River