November 18, 2009
by Mount Vernon Education Department
Three hundred years before enslaved cooks, Lucy and Nathan, prepared meals for hundreds of visitors a year at Mount Vernon, the kitchens at Hampton Court were the main stay of royal entertaining. Last week, Marc Meltonville, a “food archaeologist” in the Historic Kitchens of Hampton Court Palace, England gave Mount Vernon staff a fascinating “behind-the-scenes” tour of these Tudor kitchens, which have been the focus of in-depth research examining their usage through time since 1991. The kitchens, some may say like the King, were enormous! Fifty-five rooms once made up the complex, each with a purpose in sourcing, storing, preparing, cooking and serving food for a household of over 600. Today, Marc’s team views the resources of the historic kitchens as a laboratory, and their investigations embrace any and every aspect of social history in that space, which they then interpret through demonstrations to the Palace’s visitors and lucky colleagues in America!
Delving into history should engage all of our senses. There is a ton of great information on the project’s website that will draw your students into learning about history through their senses and their stomachs!
Category: Research/Lectures
November 12, 2009
by Mount Vernon Education Department
Our very first 3-D animated Mount Vernon website is now live! Ta Da! WashingtonsWorld.org is a website that allows children of all ages to explore Mount Vernon and meet some of the people, such as Dr. Craik and Billy Lee, that lived in Washington’s world. The game Washington’s Treasures is a treasure hunt through the estate that has you looking for clues to find famous objects such as Washington’s spy glass or fan chair. In Harpsichord Hero, you are a colonial rock star playing the harpsichord so the Washingtons and their guests can dance. General Washington gives the orders in Bombarding Yorktown as you aim the cannons at the British forts and frigates during the siege of Yorktown. A Mount Vernon archaeology game and virtual jigsaw puzzles are also available when you beat that final level of Harpsichord Hero (though we’re not quite sure that’s possible- it’s hard!). So leave a comment and let us know what you think about our two new websites!
Category: George Washington, Popular Culture/Media Literacy
November 11, 2009
by Mount Vernon Education Department
We are so pleased to announce the launch of two brand spankin’ new, “gonna blow your mind,”” just can’t control the excitement” websites! We will feature the first today, and check back tomorrow for the second (it’s called building the suspense). As you know, we have something of a love affair with Martha Washington- she was courageous, intelligent, loving, and beautiful. She sat right there through that winter at Valley Forge with the rest of the soldiers when she could have easily been sitting in her own living room drinking hot chocolate. She helped her stoic husband provide a more human side to his adoring fans. George Washington would not have had the rich, loving life that he had without his wife of forty years. *Sigh… we heart you, Martha.
In order to provide more resources on Martha Washington’s fascinating life and material culture, we have launched a brand new website, Martha Washington: A Life. The site provides biographical information, three fabulous teaching modules that correlate to national standards, a searchable archive of all objects and documents that relate to Martha Washington, and research resources. So go check it out and let us know what you think! After playing around on the website for thirty minutes, we guarantee you will appreciate Martha Washington as much as we do.
Category: Martha Washington
October 20, 2009
by Mount Vernon Education Department
Through dedication and determination, George Washington accomplished the impossible by leading the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War. On Thursday, October 29th at 1:00 p.m., our panel of historians, including Caroline Cox, William Fowler, Ed Lengel, and Andrew O’Shaughnessy, will explore how Washington’s leadership was instrumental in securing American independence via the distance learning broadcast First in War: George Washington and the American Revolution. Discussion topics on the broadcast will include Washington’s relationship with his generals as well as the common soldier, the British perspective of the war, the turning point at Valley Forge, and the quelling of a rebellion at Newburgh. This program will be broadcast across the nation and available for free by DVD. Check out the Fairfax Network webpage for information about registering or requesting a DVD copy.
Category: Distance Learning, Educational Video/DVD, George Washington
October 20, 2009
by Mount Vernon Education Department
The full title of this book sums up its history pretty well: “Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery and Booke of Sweetmeats being a Family Manuscript curiously copied by an unknown Hand sometime in the seventeenth century, which was in her Keeping from 1749, the time of her Marriage to Daniel Custis, to 1799, at which time she gave it to Eleanor Parke Custis, her granddaughter, on the occasion of her Marriage to Lawrence Lewis.” Learning about the foodways of a particular time and place, such as 18th century Virginia perhaps, is a surprisingly revealing way of learning history. Recipes such as “candied marrygolds in the Spanish fashion,” “sheep’s tongue pie,” or “pickled lettis (lettuce) stalks” are sure to either pique the interest or gross out a child- perfect history lesson material. While many of the recipes in the book, such as a recipe that begins with deboning an entire turkey, may be a little too difficult to make in the classroom or home, some recipes such as apple puffs or almond cakes could be easily made today. Each recipe is annotated by author Karen Hess with interesting information about the ingredients, process, cost at the time, historical tidbits, etc. If you can’t make it to Mount Vernon to see our Foodways interpreters flipping up some hoe-cakes in person, this may just be the next best thing. Yum!
Category: Martha Washington
