A Living Museum In Virginia Where Visitors Can Grind Corn Or Shape A Dugout Canoe With Oyster Shells While Revisiting The Past
Visitors can grind corn or shape a dugout canoe with oyster shells, try on 17th century-style armor or play a game of ninepins in James Fort located between State Route 31 and the Colonial Parkway just six miles from Williamsburg, Virg. every day of the year (excluding Christmas and New Year’s) at this living museum operated by a joint partnership of the National Parks and the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.
Upon leaving the Jamestown indoor exhibits, visitors enter the Paspahegh Indian village re-created from records by English colonists and artifacts found in the archaeological excavations unearthed at the site once inhabited by this faction of the Powhatan tribal group closest to Jamestown. Based on these findings, the scene includes several Indian homes made from bent saplings covered with reed mats and furnished in the style of the culture and time period. A cultivated garden, ceremonial circle of carved wooden posts, tanning frames and basket weaving complete the picture. Visitors experience this outdoor museum while costumed historical interpreters demonstrate and discuss their way of life in present tense.
Like many museums, historic Jamestown enlists volunteer guides and docents to help direct and educate patrons throughout the 46 acre park. But since 1957 James Fort living-museum has benefitted from professional artisans and historical interpreters in colonial-era dress who carry history forward, like Vincent Petty. Vincent was born and raised in the vicinity and trained for two years to become the blacksmith of James Fort. Vincent loves his job and has been doing it for 17 years. When asked why he loves being a smithy in a living museum he replies, “I’m a history fanatic. Here I’m not reenacting history as a blacksmith, I am a blacksmith.”
Vincent invites patrons to take a swing of the hammer on the iron-piece he’s currently shaping. “You’re not afraid to work, are ya? You’re not afraid of getting burned?” he teases a teen volunteer. “Scars are tattoos with better stories,” Vincent quips as she lifts and pounds the metal again and again.
His audience-of-all-ages is wide-eyed as they watch him pump the bellows. “Don’t you want to wear gloves?” a patron asks. “Never,” instructs Vincent as he goes on to explain how gloves might incline him to handle materials that would result in burns while naked hands instinctively steer clear of such heat, never carelessly getting caught on hot tools or trapping burning coals in gloved folds.
After the crowd has dispersed in a moment of private quiet, Vincent confides how he feels about giving people a glimpse back in history, “I think it’s hard for folks to appreciate what it was like in colonial times. In our American history we talk about the Pilgrims and then there’s BOOM! the United States. We don’t understand necessarily our place in the world.”
When asked where he starts in educating his young visitors, Vincent says, “It all depends on their grade level. With the young kids it can be something like ‘simple machines’ or whatever aspect of science we’re looking at. It can be just ‘What is a blacksmith?’ When you get to the older kids there’re more difficult concepts that they can understand and you can push them further down that current of learning—giving them the different senses of history. It’s one thing to teach or lecture, but when they get to see the science in play or when they think of the economics in play or just the daily life of someone, it makes it a whole lot easier to appreciate where we are.”
“Today, for example,” Vincent continues, “I don’t think folks really truly appreciate how affluently every American lives—from our poorest to our wealthiest. In 17th Century England, one lives on pennies—now pennies had a lot of value back then but your labor is cheap and your property is expensive. We now live in a time in which we are affluently paid and our property is cheap. We don’t always appreciate that today. Even the poorest American today lives more affluently than the kings of Europe did back then.”
The remarkable lifestyle of these early colonists is underscored for visitors as they take the short walk from James Fort to Jamestown harbor where they can board and explore the three reproduction ships that brought colonists to America. Seeing the ship’s size, cramped quarters and realizing the lengthy voyage necessary to cross the Atlantic ocean with what awaited them on land is startling.
Historic Jamestown is an acute expression in the contrast between colonial America and modern America and the luxurious modern lifestyle so often taken for granted. Visiting Jamestown compels one to “count their blessings” and is a poignant reminder of the people and plenty for which we are indeed thankful.
Nanette Hilton
Nanette Hilton is an avid cyclist and nature-lover with artwork and writing published worldwide. She holds a degree in Writing from Brigham Young University and currently lives in the splendorous Mojave Desert.
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