When reenacting or acting as a historical interpreter, its good to have a few historical dates and stories to share. This series will publish a few. June 9, 1772 – The HMS Gaspee, a British customs ship that ran aground in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. The Gaspee, commanded by Lieutenant Dudingston, was engaged in a …
Category Archives: Ideas
Historical Tidbits
When reenacting or acting as a historical interpreter, its good to have a few historical dates and stories to share. This series will publish a few. June 8, 1775 Lord Dunmore retires to British shipping. Dunmore and his family fled the Governor’s Palace in the middle of the night and took up residence aboard the Fowey. Want …
Historical Tidbits
When reenacting or acting as a historical interpreter, its good to have a few historical dates and stories to share. This series will publish a few. June 5, 1767 The New York Restraining Act — forbade the New York Assembly and the governor of New York from passing any new bills until they agreed to …
Basic Colonial Brewing #10 –Making the Brew
Once you have wort, its time to actually “brew” (from the Dutch brouwen: to bubble or effervesce) the beer. I hope by now you realize that a lot more work goes into preparing to brew than actually brewing the beer. When I do demonstrations, someone always remarks that brewing takes a long time but in …
Continue reading “Basic Colonial Brewing #10 –Making the Brew”
Historical Tidbits
When reenacting or acting as a historical interpreter, its good to have a few historical dates and stories to share. This series will publish a few. June 4, 1738 – King George III is born. He will rule England from 1760 to 1820. George III (Georg Wilhelm Friedrich) was born on 4 June 1738 in …
The Colonial Chandler
Candles were made by either dipping a wick in molten wax or pouring that wax into a mold around the wick. By the late 1700s, many of the candles used in the American colonies were produced by commercial chandlers. Soap is a natural by-product of candle making, so many chandleries also sold soap. To make …
Memorial Day 2021
“I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, …
Colonial Surveyor – Determining your Position using Celestial Navigation
A sextant is an intimidating complex instrument. It consists of an A-shaped frame with an apex of 60° on a sextant or 45° on an octant. Along the rounded lower edge of the frame is an arc, the limb, that is marked with numbers for the degree of the angles that the sextant can measure. An index …
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Surveyor’s Class was a Success
Yesterday, six intrepid explorers ventured out of the western sallyport of Fort Mifflin on a survey mission to map a path to the High Batteries. It was a rough day weather-wise but our surveyors persevered to not only find these ruins but to do so with a high degree of accuracy. Between 1866 and 1876, …
Beer Recipe: Victory at Yorktown
October 17, 1778, General Charles Cornwallis raised a flag of truce over the fortifications at Yorktown after having suffered not only the combined French and American attack but also disease, lack of supplies, inclement weather, and a failed evacuation. With the French navy in the York River and siege lines advancing on his position, defeat …
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 