One of the aspects of a historian’s job is dealing with primary sources, the paper trail of history. The archives here at The George Washington Foundation contain primary sources that include letters, wills, land grants, court orders, military orders, bills and receipts. These hand-written documents are largely related to the Fielding and Betty Lewis family … Continue reading History’s Paper Trail: What Handwriting & Spelling Reveal about Early America
Video: The Science of History – Experimental Archaeology & Stoneboiling
Archaeologists sometimes recreate technology from the past to understand how people lived. This is called experimental archaeology. Native American occupation of Ferry Farm left behind many artifacts including fire-cracked rocks. This video shows how those rock artifacts were made through a cooking technique known as stoneboiling. See the first video in our Science of History … Continue reading Video: The Science of History – Experimental Archaeology & Stoneboiling
Why Did the Chicken Eat the Artifact?
Chances are you haven’t spent much time thinking about chicken digestive tracts. This is normal. Here at George Washington’s Ferry Farm, however, the topic actually comes up from time to time. More than once we archaeologists have found ceramic artifacts that have been rounded in an odd fashion, as if tumbled in a river for … Continue reading Why Did the Chicken Eat the Artifact?
Photos: Nature Walk at George Washington’s Ferry Farm
George Washington's Boyhood Home at Ferry Farm offers a wonderful blend of woods, fields, wetlands, and riverfront. Fox, groundhogs, snakes, lizards, turtles, and deer make Ferry Farm their home. In the meadows, bushy heads of grass seeds provide an important source of food for birds. Beautiful flowers and majestic trees abound across the landscape. A … Continue reading Photos: Nature Walk at George Washington’s Ferry Farm
Of Chamber Pots and Close Stool Chairs
Editor’s Note: Looking back in time, people’s personal hygiene, fashion choices, medical treatments, and more sometimes look, at the very least, bizarre, if not outright disgusting. When confronted with these weird or gross practices, our first reaction can be to dismiss our ancestors as primitive, ignorant, or just silly. Before such judgments, however, we should … Continue reading Of Chamber Pots and Close Stool Chairs
Video: Summer in the Garden
Scenes from the Demonstration Garden at George Washington's Ferry Farm on a peaceful summer morning. The garden contains a variety of colonial-era plants that would have been grown by the Washington family like tobacco, corn, and squash. There are also modern flower species plus birds and other wildlife.
Photos: The Fourth of July at Ferry Farm
Scenes from this past weekend's Independence Day celebration at George Washington's Ferry Farm!
Celebrate!
A quick post today because everyone here at The George Washington Foundation are busily preparing for The Fourth of July at Ferry Farm this Saturday! Still, we did have a bit of time to take a quick look through the archives for some images of celebrations in Fredericksburg's past. First, we share a few 90-year-old … Continue reading Celebrate!
Video: Building George’s House – The Foundation Stones: Dressing the Stone
Master Stonemason Ray Cannetti dresses a stone that will be part of the foundation of an interpretive replica of George Washington's boyhood home being constructed at Ferry Farm in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Watch Part 1: "Splitting the Stone" here. The George Washington Foundation is undertaking a multi-year venture to build this interpretive replica of the Washington house on … Continue reading Video: Building George’s House – The Foundation Stones: Dressing the Stone
What Is This Artifact?
Archaeologists are occasionally confronted with ‘mystery artifacts’ that either cannot be identified or have been altered to serve a purpose other than what was originally intended. Recently, in our small finds collection, we identified an artifact transformed in just such a way. Someone intentionally chipped away the edges of this 18th century leaded glass base … Continue reading What Is This Artifact?
Lives & Legacies 