Lives and Legacies

Category: George Washington’s Ferry Farm

  • A ‘Link’ Between the Washingtons and William and Mary

    William III sleeve link
    Close-up of a mid-1700s sleeve link recovered at Ferry Farm. It features the image of King William III.

    This cuff link or ‘sleeve button’ – made in the mid 1700s – was recovered by archaeologists from George Washington’s boyhood home at Ferry Farm.  It is one of the earliest examples of the Washington family’s resistance to King George III.  What makes this sleeve button so interesting is the man depicted:  King William III, who ruled England with Queen Mary.  This sleeve link was made two generations after the death of this monarch.  Nonetheless one of the Washington brothers wore this politically provocative accessory.  What made William III, a monarch who died in 1702, an attractive choice for colonial apparel during the mid-1700s?  The answer resides in this sleeve link’s political dimensions and reflects the Washington family’s early resistance to Crown policy.

    November is an appropriate time to remember the polemical reign of William and Mary:  they were married on November 4, 1677 and William landed at Torbay, England, November 5, 1688 to begin battles against the supporters of King James II, then ruler of England.  When the unpopular James fled to France with his wife and young son (heir to the throne) parliament met and, after some deliberation, offered the monarchy to William and Mary.  Individual rights, representative government, and justified rebellion became associated with the rule of William and Mary and were part of annual celebrations held for this sovereign pair for generations.  Popular items such as coins, playing cards, plates, mugs, and pamphlets reinforced these connotations throughout their reign and beyond.

    Cuff links, such as the William III link from Ferry Farm, were popular fashion accessories throughout the 1700s.  Made from a molded glass ‘gem’ (see photo) originally situated within a copper-alloy setting (not shown), this sleeve button featured King William III’s silhouette.  It was modeled after coins that depicted the English monarch beginning in the mid-1690s (see image).  At that time, the king’s profile, along with his name “Gulielmus” (in Latin) followed by the initials “D. G.” – an abbreviation of the Latin dei gratia (by the grace of god [King]) – were prominently featured on currency.

    William III coin
    A 1697 sixpence featuring King William III. This silhouette (and text) inspired the design of the mid 1700s sleeve link from Ferry Farm.

    Beginning in the mid-1700s, when the Washingtons wore their William III sleeve link, tensions were growing between Britain and her North American colonies, incited by the colonists’ concern over the policies of King George III.  The Sugar Act and the Stamp Act taxed American colonists, even though they had no representation in parliament.

    Colonists asserted that this was a violation of their rights under the English Bill of Rights (enacted in 1689 under the reign of William and Mary).  Thanks to a popular campaign that originally began in the 1690s, William and Mary came to represent the right of subjects to resist a king who was abusing power, and this narrative proved to be enduring.  In fact, colonists supported this narrative with other figures in English history.  As the Washingtons were looking to William and Mary to legitimize their resistance to King George III, Thomas Jefferson took as his role model Oliver Cromwell, whose rebellion resulted in regicide and who was considered particularly militant by the colonists.  While the Washingtons owned cufflinks to celebrate William and Mary, Jefferson owned a miniature depicting the far more revolutionary Cromwell.

    Regardless, William III thus became a symbol for American colonists in general, and the Washington family in particular, as momentum grew to resist crown powers during the mid-1700s.  By wearing this sleeve link, the Washingtons proclaimed their enduring support for representative government.  And, we all know where that led—the American Revolution and birth of the United States, whose first president grew up at Ferry Farm.

    Laura Galke, Archaeologist
    Site Director/Small Finds Analyst

    Additional Reading

    Cofield, Sara Rivers
    2012  Linked Buttons of the Middle Atlantic, 1670-1800.  Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 28:99-116.

    Greene, Jack P.
    1992  The Glorious Revolution and the British Empire 1688-1783.  In The Revolution of 1688-1689:  Changing Perspectives, edited by Lois G. Schwoerer.  Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 260-271.

    McConnel, James Richard Redmond
    2012  The 1688 Landing of William of Orange at Torbay: Numerical Dates and Temporal Understanding in Early Modern England.  The Journal of Modern History 84(3):539-571.

    McConville, Brendan
    2006 The King’s Three Faces: The Rise and Fall of Royal America, 1688-1776.  University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.

    Schwoerer, Lois G.
    1990  Celebrating the Glorious Revolution, 1689-1989.  Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies.  22(1):1-20.

    1989  Images of Queen Mary II, 1689-95. Renaissance Quarterly, 42(4):717-748.

    1977  Propaganda in the Revolution of 1688-89.  The American Historical Review 82(4):843-874.

    Weil, Rachel J.
    1992  The Politics of Legitimacy: Women and the Warming-pan Scandal.  In The Revolution of 1688-1689: Changing Perspectives.  Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 65-82.

    Wieldraaijer, Matthijs
    2010  Good Government and Providential Delivery:  Legitimations of the 1672 and 1688/89 Orangist Revolutions

  • Photos: Fielding’s Story, A Gentleman’s Sacrifice

    This past weekend, visitors to George Washington’s Ferry Farm and Historic Kenmore learned about Fielding Lewis in the dramatic presentation, Fielding’s Story: A Gentleman’s Sacrifice. They were able to step back in time and see colonial-era Fredericksburg through the eyes of Fielding Lewis—member of Virginia’s gentry, wealthy merchant and leading citizen of Fredericksburg, builder of Kenmore, patriot and supporter of the American Revolution, and husband of Betty Washington Lewis.

    In this historical drama, which spanned from 1750 to 1781, actors portrayed people and events from Fielding’s life in the settings where those events took place. Guests saw Fielding’s courtship and marriage to Betty Washington, visited his newly built home as the guest of Betty , eavesdropped as Fielding considered wartime plans, and witnessed the sacrifices he made for the Patriot cause.

    In certain scenes, dialogue was taken directly from historic documents including a 1750 edition of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, a letter dated November 14, 1775 from Fielding Lewis to George Washington, and an authentic patriotic appeal in the Virginia Gazette.

    Here are images from Fielding’s Story: A Gentleman’s Sacrifice…

    The play began with Betty Washington (standing-Juliana Jones) arranging tea for an important visitor.
    Betty and her mother Mary Washington (Allie Goldstein) hear the sound of riders approaching.
    Fielding Lewis (Joey Weisband) proposes to Betty.
    Betty Washington Lewis (Barbara Cochran) shows visitors her home and talks about the family she and Fielding have built.
    Betty looks out the window toward the home of her mother.
    Hetty (Ashleé James), an enslaved house servant and washerwoman owned by the Lewises, debates whether to runaway to the British, who promised freedom to slaves and indentured servants that belonged to Patriots.
    Charles Dick (Mike Taylor) arrives to discuss the latest war news with Fielding, his business parther and friend.
    Fielding (John Hollinger) greets his friend.
    Charles and Fielding discuss how to fund the Patriot gun factory they have been made responsible for by the Virginia Convention.
    Lawrence (Elijah Beale) questions his father Fielding about whether all the sacrifices he made are worth independence.
    With his father deathly ill, Lawrence wonders about the future.

    The next theater production presented by The George Washington Foundation will be Twelfth Night at Kenmore in January 2016. As we approach the holidays, watch http://www.kenmore.org/events.html for details!

  • In Search of Mary’s Mug

    Child Mugs (0)
    Child’s mug that reads “A Present for Mary” unearthed at George Washington’s Ferry Farm.

    Archaeologists are always trying to link artifacts with the actual people who lived at the sites we study.  As such, we get very excited when we find artifacts with people’s names on them.  It makes our job easy, right?  So, imagine our elation when a small creamware cup bearing the words “A Present For Mary” in black transfer print was unearthed at George Washington’s Ferry Farm.  People immediately assumed it must have belonged to George’s mother Mary Washington, the most famous Mary to live here.  However, upon closer inspection this theory totally unraveled.  The small cup was in fact a child’s mug manufactured long after Mary had grown up and, for that matter, probably after her death.  It could never have been owned by Mary Washington.  What seemed an open and shut case got a little more interesting.

    First off, what was a child’s mug?  Well, it was a common and inexpensive small mug given to children as a reward for learning, doing well in Sunday school, or general good behavior.  The mugs were fairly small and decorated with the child’s name, bible verses, images of play, or references to learning.  Inspiration for these decorations came from the popular children’s books of the time.  A few common sayings found on these mugs were:

    A gift for___.
    A present for ___.
    A trifle for ____.
    A present for a good girl/boy.
    A present for writing well.
    A reward for industry.

    Child Mugs (2)

    Child Mugs (3)
    Example of a complete mended pearlware child’s mug with a whimsical phrase illustrated in black transferprint.

    These mugs were similar to christening mugs, which are still common gifts today.  While they have the same shape and are given to children, the two types of cup differ in material and purpose.  A child’s mug was mass-produced in factories and made of relatively cheap ceramic.  It would have been sold for a few pennies.  In contrast, a christening mug was a fancier gift, often made of far more expensive silver or porcelain.  Similar to our fine china today, these christening mugs weren’t meant for everyday use like the more ordinary child’s mugs.  Indeed, excavated child’s mugs often exhibit extensive use wear from being handled by children.

    Ceramic child’s cups were manufactured starting in the late 1700s and remained abundant by the mid-1800s.  Their rise in popularity coincided with the emergence of a more modern concept of childhood. Prior to the 19th century, children were treated like tiny adults or pre-adults.  They dressed like adults and the few toys that did exist reinforced social roles and instructed children how to perform adult tasks.  It wasn’t until the 1800s that childhood became distinct from adulthood.  With this change, children became a new marketing demographic with books, toys, and ceramics targeted just at them.

    In our efforts to find more fragments of the mystery Mary mug, we scoured the Ferry Farm artifact database and not only discovered more of her mug but also sherds from three other child’s mugs!  While two of these do not contain complete names, one pearlware mug clearly reads “A Present For Billy”.

    Child Mugs (1)
    Pearlware and Creamware sherds representing, clockwise, at least four child’s mugs. All include the phrase “A Present For…” Two names are visible. ‘Mary’ can be seen on far right mug in grouping 2 and the partial name ‘Billy’ is exhibited on the lower middle sherd marked 3.

    Unfortunately, the dates during which these mugs were manufactured fall within a fifty year gap in our knowledge of who exactly was living at Ferry Farm.  From the late 18th century to the first quarter of the 19th century, an absentee owner rented the land to tenants. Information on just who those tenants were has been lost to time.  In a sense, this makes the discovery of the mugs even more special.  Although we’ll probably never precisely know the Mary and Billy the mugs belonged to, we now know that two children with those names lived and played here.  Anonymous no more, these simple sherds are likely all the evidence there is to proclaim their time at Ferry Farm.  While the children may have been sad upon breaking their mugs, we’re very happy to have what remains and hope to one day expand upon their stories.

    Lauren Jones, Archaeologist
    Archaeology Lab Technician

    Mara Kaktins, Archaeologist
    Ceramics & Glass Specialist

  • A Colonial Wedding

    An imagining of the “Wedding of George Washington and Martha Custis.” Lithograph from Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Paris: Lemercier, c1853.

    A wedding is one of the most monumental moments in a person’s life.  The celebrations that accompany the ceremony might range from simple to lavish but they are always highly anticipated and joyous.  In this enthusiasm for weddings, we share much with our early American ancestors.  Although there are extremely important differences between past and present, many wedding traditions of the 18th century would be quite familiar to 21st century Americans.  What did a colonial-era wedding look like?

    Today’s weddings can take place in any imaginable location – a church, dedicated wedding venue, cruise ship, beach resort, park, city hall, and on and on – but, in the 1700s, the large distances people often lived from an actual church building meant that the vast majority of weddings occurred at the brides’ home.[1]

    In another inverse of modern preferences for spring, summer, and fall weddings, many colonial-era marriage celebrations took place in the winter months when there was less to do on the farm or plantation agriculturally.

    That doesn’t mean there weren’t weddings outside the winter season.  Indeed, Fielding and Betty married on May 7, 1750.  We have no definitive evidence to say that their wedding occurred at the Washington family home on the land we now refer to as Ferry Farm.  Since Fielding and Betty lived relatively close to St. George’s Church in Fredericksburg, it is certainly possible that the ceremony took place there, though it would have been fairly unusual.

    If the ceremony did occur at the Washington home, an Anglican minister, perhaps from St. George’s, would have still read the marriage ceremony from the Book of Common Prayer.  An edition published in 1750 contains language that remains immensely familiar even today.

    “Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this Congregation, to join together this Man and this Woman in holy Matrimony…”

    “Wilt thou have this Man to thy wedded Husband, to live together after God’s Ordinance, in the holy Estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou obey him, serve him, love, honour and keep him in sickness and in health, and forsaking all other, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall live?”

    “With this Ring, I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow…”

    Along with these familiar words came familiar acts as well.  The father gave his daughter away, the couple exchanged vows, and the groom gave the bride a ring.  The bride, however, did not present a ring to the groom.

    Just as it does today, a party began after the ceremony.  This celebration also took place at the home of the bride’s family.  “The family might decorate a table with white paper chains and lay out white foods for a collation. It included two white cakes. The guests consumed the groom’s cake, and sometimes left the bride’s cake untouched for the couple to save (in a tin of alcohol) to eat on each wedding anniversary.”[2]

    There was much food, drink, and toasting along with games and plenty of dancing.  For Virginia’s gentry the party’s scale and length could be extremely lavish with the festivities continuing for days!

    If you want to learn more about colonial-era weddings, you can witness a re-creation of the marriage ceremony of Fielding Lewis to Betty Washington on either Saturday, October 10 or Sunday, October 11 during Fielding’s Story: A Gentleman’s Sacrifice, a dramatic theater production taking place at both George Washington’s Ferry Farm and Historic Kenmore.  Fielding’s Story recounts important moments and milestones in Fielding’s life as a member of Virginia’s gentry, a wealthy merchant and leading citizen of Fredericksburg, the builder of Kenmore, a supporter of the American Revolution, and the husband of Betty.  Reservations are required. Please call 540-340-0732 ext 24 or email hayes@gwffoundation.org.

    [1] Jane Carson, Colonial Virginians at Play, Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1989: 5-9.

    [2] Elizabeth Maurer, “Courtship and Marriage in the Eighteen Century,” http://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume7/mar09/courtship.cfm

  • Being Part of the Story: Collecting Oral Histories about Ferry Farm and Kenmore

    Have you ever seen ads for museums inviting you to “be part of the story”?  Well, at George Washington’s Ferry Farm and Historic Kenmore, many people are part of the story and have been for a long time.  Those who have played an integral part in the ownership, history, preservation, and work of the properties have long had a spot for these two places in their hearts.   Collecting and processing the oral stories of those people is an important part of understanding the historical scope of The George Washington Foundation’s properties.  In fact, oral history programs and collections have become an important component of many museums around the world.

    Our Foundation’s own oral history project officially began in 2007.  My requirement was to interview someone for a Historic Preservation Department course I was taking at The University of Mary Washington.  I was to record recollections of a person describing the layout of a house he or she previously lived in and detail how the rooms and landscape around the person’s home were used by its occupants.  Since I worked in the Archaeology Lab at Ferry Farm, I decided to ask David Muraca, director of archaeology, if he knew of someone I could interview associated with the property or who had lived at Ferry Farm during the 20th century.   He suggested Charles Linton, Jr, a local gentleman who had lived in the 1914 two-story frame house on the property as a boy with his large family from 1942 to 1956.

    ColbertHouse
    The Colbert House (right) built in 1914 by James Colbert, owner of Ferry Farm for much of the early 1900s

    In our oral history session, Mr. Linton and his wife, Pat recounted many specific remembrances of the Linton family’s time living on the very same river bank where George Washington grew up He told of the aftermath of the historic 1942 Fredericksburg Flood, rationing during World War II, and his parents’ efforts to house soldiers and provide medical supplies for the troops.  There were many tourists who visited the property during the time that the Linton’s lived at Ferry Farm. So many, in fact, that they kept a guest book!  People traveling through wanted to visit the place where the nation’s first president had spent his boyhood.  They wanted to buy tiny jars of homemade cherry preserves from Charles’s mother, postcards from his sister Barbara, and get a tour of where young George had cut down the cherry tree.  The visitors were not disappointed either as Charles and his brother, Tayloe, sold wood pieces cut from the trunk of a cherry tree (with a hatchet, no doubt) for one dollar each…not a bad income for two industrious boys at that time!  Tiny cherry wood carvings of hearts and hatchets were whittled and sold, too.

    Heart and Hatchet
    Carved cherry wood heart and hatchet (approx. 1” each) dating from the 1940s. Gift of the Linton family.

    The stump of a supposed scion of the cherry tree that Washington had barked was also on the property for visitors to see and was known as “The Shrine Tree.”  It was, no doubt, an important reminder to visitors of Washington’s honest character.    While those early 20th-century attractions no longer exist on the property at Ferry Farm, the Cherry Tree Story is still a subject that is inquired about by the visiting public just as it was in Linton’s day.

    BoyCherryTreeSign
    A young visitor stands next to “The Shrine Tree.”

    Some important revelations came to me as a result of doing this assignment for my class.    I began to really recognize the sacred nature of our presidential property and how deeply affected the public had become by that nature over time.  In the case of Ferry Farm, tourists and travelers have been fascinated by Washington’s boyhood home for 230 years mentioning it in diaries and letters over the centuries.  This realization spurred me on to research the publics’ fascination with Washington’s character via the Cherry Tree Story. Why do so many still ask about this tale?  Why do so many acknowledge that the story probably isn’t true but, in their heart of hearts, they want it to be?  To get the answers to these questions it would be necessary to ask more questions by collecting more oral histories and to begin a Foundation archive.  In doing so, it became clear that the recent past, brought to life by the personal stories of so many who have been involved with Ferry Farm, proved a new and fascinating way to look at our archaeologically-rich property and gain understanding of its social and cultural impact over the decades.  I got to work interviewing and, before I knew it, an archive of stories about Ferry Farm and Kenmore Plantation was created.  Not only did I discover more about the 20th century history of our Foundation properties, but documenting the preservation efforts associated with them proved critical to remembering the hard work of the many dedicated people who saved them.

    By creating a formal database with the mission of gathering oral histories, I saw that we could document much personal and institutional memory about our museum sites and couple the insightful perceptions collected about the Washington and Lewis Family’s with our scientific and historical research findings.  Eight years later, the archive is well on its way.  Samplings of some of the amazing stories collected so far will make their way into future blog postings so you can view for yourself the peoples’ passion for Ferry Farm and Kenmore’s historical treasures.   Anyone wishing to participate in this project is encouraged to contact the Foundation at (540) 370-0732 extension 14 or healy-marquis@gwffoundation.org.

    Melanie Marquis
    Archaeology Lab Supervisor
    Oral History Project Coordinator

  • Photos: Hummingbirds

    Just outside a window of the Archaeology Lab near the demonstration garden at George Washington’s Ferry Farm stands a hummingbird feeder. We regularly receive feathered visitors to the feeder.  Archaeologist Laura Galke recently captured some photos of a couple of the hummingbirds as well as a surprise guest.

  • The Voyage of the ‘Stanton’

    In colonial times, ocean-going ships could sail up the Rappahannock River all the way to Fredericksburg.  This made the tiny but growing town a bustling seaport.  All types of goods were loaded onto ships to be sent to Europe while others were unloaded to be sold right here in the colonies.

    George Washington, Fielding Lewis, their families and slaves, as well as the town’s other residents were all members of a wider community centered on the trade traveling back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean.  The townspeople of Fredericksburg saw sailing ships on the Rappahannock every day.  Those ships brought goods to sell and to buy, news from the rest of the British Empire, and people to settle and work in the colonies.  Washington, Lewis, and their neighbors interacted with the sailors from these ships every day and were aware of the hardships of life at sea.

    Map shows actual voyages of British ships in the last half of the 18th century according to their log entries. Learn more about how the map was created and compare British trade routes with Spanish and Dutch ones on the Spatial.ly blog. Created by Geographer James Cheshire, PhD, and used with permission.

    George even experienced life at sea first-hand when he left Ferry Farm and Fredericksburg to sail to Barbados for a visit at the age of 19. This journey is the only time Washington left the confines of the future continental United States.  For a time, George, supported by elder half-brother Lawrence, even toyed with the idea of joining the British navy until Mary, George’s mother, firmly refused to give her permission.  For his part, Fielding Lewis made his riches from shipping goods to and from the colonies.  Shipping cargo, ship owning, and ship building was the family business started by his father John.

    In the 1600s and 1700s, tobacco was Virginia’s most important export but, for a variety of reasons, many planters in this area chose to export things like wheat, timber, and other raw materials. Using the raw materials exported from the Americas, manufactured goods were made in Europe and then sent to Africa and back to the Americas.  The manufactured goods paid for slaves in Africa and for more raw materials in America.  Often known as the ‘triangular trade’ because of the triangle shape it forms on a map, this historic trade pattern is one we learn as early as elementary school.

    More than goods traveled along these trade routes.  People (sailors, settlers, and slaves) moved along them as well.  All of these movements created connections between nations, colonies, and groups of people in Europe, Africa, the Americas, and beyond.  The Atlantic Ocean was at the center of all these connections.  “Every European or African who moved to or was born in Virginia” was also a member of what historians call the Atlantic World.[1]

    A voyage typical of those that took place within the Atlantic World was made by one of John Lewis’ ships in early 1732.  On December 23, 1731, the 80-ton brig Stanton — captained by Richard Williams — set sail with 8 crew and 2 guns aboard.

    The Stanton was a brig, a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. While we have no idea what the Stanton itself looked like, a replica ship named the Lady Washington provides an idea of a brig’s size and appearance.

    The tall ship, Lady Washington, under sail in Commencement Bay near Tacoma, Washington. Photo by Miso Beno.
    Brig Lady Washington in Morro Bay, California. Photo by “Mike” Michael L. Baird.

    If you look closely at the people toward the ship’s stern in the photo, you can appreciate just how small a brig can be.  Imagine crossing the stormy Atlantic Ocean in a ship that size!

    As it left Virginia, the Stanton’s cargo was listed as “46 Pipe Staves, 1800 bushel corn, 1000 bushell wheat, 40 [tierces] of Bread, 15 barr[els of] flower, 1 bar[rel] of lard, 300 lb of beeswax, 2000 feet plank, 1100 feet heading & 15 barr[els of] Pork.”  Surprisingly to us, in this age before refrigeration, butchered livestock was an important export for Virginia.

    The Stanton was bound for the island of Madeira 550 miles off the coast of Portugal.  The specific cargo exchanged at Madeira is not listed but, after that exchange, the ship set sail for Barbados in the Caribbean Sea.  Once more, cargo was exchanged but specifics were not recorded.

    After a five month voyage covering 8,250 miles, the Stanton finally returned to Virginia on May 10, 1732. When the ship came into port in the colonies, it’s cargo included  “Rum – 21 [tierces and] 16 barrels, Sugar – 14 Barrels [and] 11 Qt. Casks, 8 Negros, 3 baggs ginger, & Sundry household goods.” Though not specified in the Stanton’s case, sundry household goods shipped to the colonies included ceramic and glass dishes, different cloths, jewelry, and books.

    Map of the Stanton's Voyage

    The Stanton’s voyage, the ports it visited, and the cargo it carried are all exceedingly typical of Atlantic World trade throughout the 1700s, whether in the earlier decades of John Lewis or the century’s later decades of his son Fielding.

    Ultimately, situated where farm, frontier, city, river, and road converged on the edge of English empire and the Atlantic World, the people of Fredericksburg found their daily lives governed by Britain’s global economy and imperial culture.  Colonial men – whether gentry, tradesman, or servants – pursued homes, professions, pleasures, and possessions that conveyed their status, wealth, and English identities. Fielding Lewis used the ships he owned and the wealth he gained from actively participating as a British merchant in the Atlantic World to fund the struggle to throw off English colonial control, to do his part to support his brother-in-law’s army, and to create a new nation.

    Zac Cunningham
    Manager of Educational Programs

    Special thanks again to Geographer James Cheshire for permission to use his map of British trade routes. Visit Spatial.ly, his geography blog, at http://spatialanalysis.co.uk/.

    [1] April Lee Hatfield, Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004: 39.

  • 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 series here.

  • 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 few weeks ago, we set out on a nature walk around Ferry Farm to enjoy the flora and fauna.

    Ferry Farm
    Cherries on the cherry trees in the Demonstration Garden.
    Daylilies in the Demonstration Garden.
    The tickseed variety of Coreopsis.
    Magnolia bloom
    Magnolia fruit
    Tall grass
    Groundhog near the river.
    The Rappahannock River
    Trail through the woods along the river.
    Wild strawberry
    Ferry Farm’s Wild Meadow
    Bluebird peaks from inside a birdhouse.
    Bluebird in flight.
    Yarrow
    Crown vetch
    Trail through the Meadow.

    Learn more about Ferry Farm’s natural environment here.

  • 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.