New Online Data Source

Anne and I will be working at the Burch house tomorrow (Tuesday). Do join us.

Cathy Thompson forwarded to me the link below. It is for the Richmond Daily Dispatch. This newspaper provides material during the critical Civil War years, a period for which few issues of the Port Tobacco Times survive. I'm drilling through for 'Port Tobacco,' but other keywords may also provide useful material. We'll add this material to our Port Tobacco Times digital database.

http://dlxs.richmond.edu/d/ddr/index.html

Thank you Cathy!

No news yet on Pete's great adventure to Denver. He should arrive in a couple of days.

Jim

A Note to my Fans...

It's the end of my last day with Jim and crew at GAC and I thought I would take this time to reflect on the past three years with GAC and with PTAP.

It was a hot and muggy (typical) August day in 2007 that I started working with Jim. It was a project down in Brandywine with 90% humidity on a 100 degree day. We were surveying a wooded lot with poison ivy everywhere and briars taller than I. It was also my first introduction to Scott. Somehow I managed through the day and despite better judgement (haha) I came back again the next day!

Since that day I have worked on numerous CRM projects with Jim and have been heavily involved with PTAP on many levels. An ongoing shovel test survey, surface collection and two field sessions later, I can say that Port Tobacco has become like a second home to me and the people I have met and worked with there like family.

I was a wide-eye "rookie" when I started but Jim and everyone involved with GAC and PTAP have helped me grow as a professional and as a person.

I hope to continue the great work PTAP has done in graduate school and beyond.

I truly am grateful for my time here. I will miss you all.

So until we meet again in the field, at a conference, in a bar, or elsewhere...it's time to say goodbye!

With great admiration and affection,
Peter

New Report Released

Well, the report on the 2009 field session at Port Tobacco with the Archeological Society of Maryland was new last December. Having heard no requests for revision, I decided it was high time to post the report on the web. April kindly accommodated yesterday.

Readers can download a PDF file of the report from the Society of Restore Tobacco website at: http://www.restoreporttobacco.org/page5/files/Field%20Session%202009%20Report.pdf

or just go to www.restoreporttobacco.org, click on Download, and select the December 2009 report, or any of the other four or five reports that we have posted to date.

The PTAP team will be at the Burch House today, dodging rain drops. Do join us.

Jim

Unbridled Buffoonery

Yes folks, Laurie and I got married last month and we had a small party at our house in Park Hall last weekend. We even had some of the PTAP crew on hand.

Left to right: The Dynamic Bonnie Persinger, Jim, The Oh-So-Lovely Anne Hayward, and me with a face full of food.

We had a wonderful evening and are glad that some of the PTAP folks could celebrate with us. Laurie and I look forward to seeing many of you again in Port Tobacco!

This is Laurie and I from a while back. I couldn't find any pictures from the party with both of us together that would be acceptable on this forum, but as you can see, I am a very lucky man!

PS. The PTAP team will be at the Burch House tomorrow. This will be the last opportunity to see Pete who is off to the University of Denver at the end of the week.

Whaazzit?

What have we here? This copper alloy object was found at Burch House recently. It is decorative, possible a clasp or brooch with a flower applique. It first appeared to be in one piece when it came out of the ground, but the flower center quickly separated from the base. The back of the piece (below) shows a band for something (leather strap? ribbon?) to slide under. So, does anyone know whaazit?


Anne

Greetings from Williamsburg!

Hello!

I know I've hardly been gone, but I thought that I would send a little Williamsburg update to the PTAP team (whether you all want to hear from me or not)! I settled myself into a lovely apartment an easy 10 minute bicycle ride from campus, and have spent the past few days soaking up all Colonial Williamsburg has to offer before I am buried in books and assignments. As a William and Mary student I have access to all of the exhibits, and boy it is easy to fill up a day!

In order to make this blog a little bit more relevant I thought I would highlight my trip to the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. This place has enough intact ceramic pieces to make any archaeologist's mouth water! Here are a couple of choice pieces that I thought you folks may be interested in. Please click on the picture for a close-up.

This fine brown stoneware mug with silver-gilt lid belonged to John Winthrop, one of the first governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The mug was made sometime between 1550 and 1557 in Germany, and it traveled with Winthrop to America in 1630 after he inherited it from his father.




Winthrop's mug is actually part of a larger exhibit on stoneware at the museum right now. Displays were filled with Rhenish Brown jugs with molded faces, Nottingham teapots, elaborately designed Westerwald vessels, and more! The guy on the left was certainly one of my favorites, as was the vessel to the right that portrays a scene from a peasant wedding. Neat!







Of course, earthenware and porcelain lovers would find plenty in the other exhibits. Some of these pieces should look familiar...remember that blog on the Melon teapot? The style really was that popular! This tureen was one of the museum's favorite pieces. It is creamware of the Whieldon-type and was made in Staffordshire in 1760.

This melon was not alone, as the design was part of the larger movement of decorating in the rococo style. I found this corn-cob teapot, a little melon teapot with raised political scenes, and more!








I have clearly gone on long enough, but I hope you all found some of these pieces interesting-I know I did. I assure you that I have not only been hanging out in museums, but have been enjoying the musical demonstrations, folk art, building tours, lectures, and even a speech by Thomas Jefferson. Oh yes, and I have dedicated time to learning the campus, investigating classes, and preparing for school (don't worry Jim, I'm not just site-seeing). So that's all for now, but if any of you think you'll be in the Williamsburg area in the near future be in touch!

Best,
Kelley

The Search for GRB

Jim was recently contacted by Sue Hodes, a descendant of Dr. Gustavus Richard Brown II, of Port Tobacco. She was interested in finding a portrait of Dr. Brown and acquired a copy of an unsigned painting from the Mount Vernon Ladies Association with the inscription "G. Washington in his last Illness attended by Docrs. Craik and Brown". The style of the painting dates to the period of Washington's death in 1799, but it is likely the tableau is fanciful, rather than factual (Note Washington lacks a lower body, though he died of complications from an acute respiratory ailment).

During the 2009 field session, we recovered a wine bottle seal with the letters "GRB." We think it likely that the seal belonged to Dr. Brown, since he had the means to personalized wine shipments. Click here to read a previous blog entry about Dr. B.


Anne