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Visit to Sully
(OMG, people. I have about 100 emails from just Dreamwidth since Friday night! I'll try to get through them this evening sometime ... Also, I decided to indiscriminately give everyone access at this journal. I don't forsee making locked posts, but you never know, and it's easier to keep track. .. bear with me please. I am still kind of getting a headache from managing access/subscription lists for two journals.)
Anyway, here are some pictures from yesterday at Sully.
The house, built in 1794 by Richard Bland Lee, one of the first Representatives from Virginia.
A representative slave quarter, build on the footprint of an excavated dwelling. There were also two more right next to it.
Me, as seen in this original mirror in the parlor.
Hand-etched graffiti in a bedroom window. (This is a reproduction; the original is downstairs in the museum.) I get chills just looking at that, imaging Addie imagining Cordelia! The third etching is unprovenanced.
They have textiles classes for children upstairs; this is an undyed linen shirt similar to slave clothing.
Burial ground. Richard, his wife, and several children were moved here relatively recently.
His tombstone reads:
Here reposes the remains of
RICHARD BLAND LEE
A native of Virginia
As a Patriot Father Husband & Friend
he was beloved and admired
As Philanthropist & man he was
unsurpassed for the benevolence
& affection of his heart
If he had an enemy on earth
that enemy knew him not
He died at Washington
on the 12 March 1827
in the 67th year of his Age
Past the slave quarters is a path to the river, that turns into an unadvertised series of marked hiking trails. I followed them for just a few minutes, and of the paths ends here:
It's hard to make out with all the leaves, but there's a wide circular depression lined with stones, with a flag right in the middle. To me it looks like the ruins of a springhouse, maybe. Though I don't see evidence that a spring exists there (at least, not anymore). It was closing time by that point, so I didn't have anyone to ask.
More pictures here.
And the paper's done! Interpretation at the site is pretty standard, but pretty well done, I thought. There is a lot of emphasis on the individual slaves who worked at the plantation and in the house - they have lots of records, including names for many of them.
Not counting staff, there was only me, one guy, and one family there. On a gorgeous Saturday afternoon in spring, across from the busiest place in the region (Dulles airport). Sigh!
After Sully, I went over to my friend's place, and I ended up drinking too much to drive and spending the night. (I'm constantly torn, right now, between wanting to get into school mode as much and as quickly as possible, and wanting to make the most of the time I have left with people around here before I leave. Because the latter involves other people and I'm highly suggestible, it tends to win out!) But at least, today I got the paper done, pictures posted, projectiles sorted, one bag of ceramics investigated, and some website things updated - I think I'll have dinner and relax a bit before I tackle everything I've been missing on DW!
Anyway, here are some pictures from yesterday at Sully.
The house, built in 1794 by Richard Bland Lee, one of the first Representatives from Virginia.
A representative slave quarter, build on the footprint of an excavated dwelling. There were also two more right next to it.
Me, as seen in this original mirror in the parlor.
Hand-etched graffiti in a bedroom window. (This is a reproduction; the original is downstairs in the museum.) I get chills just looking at that, imaging Addie imagining Cordelia! The third etching is unprovenanced.
They have textiles classes for children upstairs; this is an undyed linen shirt similar to slave clothing.
Burial ground. Richard, his wife, and several children were moved here relatively recently.
His tombstone reads:
RICHARD BLAND LEE
A native of Virginia
As a Patriot Father Husband & Friend
he was beloved and admired
As Philanthropist & man he was
unsurpassed for the benevolence
& affection of his heart
If he had an enemy on earth
that enemy knew him not
He died at Washington
on the 12 March 1827
in the 67th year of his Age
Past the slave quarters is a path to the river, that turns into an unadvertised series of marked hiking trails. I followed them for just a few minutes, and of the paths ends here:
It's hard to make out with all the leaves, but there's a wide circular depression lined with stones, with a flag right in the middle. To me it looks like the ruins of a springhouse, maybe. Though I don't see evidence that a spring exists there (at least, not anymore). It was closing time by that point, so I didn't have anyone to ask.
More pictures here.
And the paper's done! Interpretation at the site is pretty standard, but pretty well done, I thought. There is a lot of emphasis on the individual slaves who worked at the plantation and in the house - they have lots of records, including names for many of them.
Not counting staff, there was only me, one guy, and one family there. On a gorgeous Saturday afternoon in spring, across from the busiest place in the region (Dulles airport). Sigh!
After Sully, I went over to my friend's place, and I ended up drinking too much to drive and spending the night. (I'm constantly torn, right now, between wanting to get into school mode as much and as quickly as possible, and wanting to make the most of the time I have left with people around here before I leave. Because the latter involves other people and I'm highly suggestible, it tends to win out!) But at least, today I got the paper done, pictures posted, projectiles sorted, one bag of ceramics investigated, and some website things updated - I think I'll have dinner and relax a bit before I tackle everything I've been missing on DW!