April 22, 2010
Underwater Archaeology at Mount Vernon
Beginning on April 24th, Mount Vernon’s Archaeology Dept. will begin an underwater archaeology project in the Potomac River next to Mount Vernon. We asked our Archaeology Director, Esther White, to give us the scoop for our GWW readers.
GWW: What are the boats doing?
EW: Mount Vernon is partnering with the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP), the Institute of Maritime History (IMH), the Maryland Historical Trust (Trust) and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) to conduct an archaeological survey of the Potomac River. The boats are using side scan sonar and a magnetometer to map the bottom of the river along Mount Vernon from Little Hunting Creek to the north, to Dogue Creek to the south.
GWW: What is side scan sonar? How about a magnetometer?
EW: The first is a sonar system used to map river or sea floors. The sonar detects objects protruding above the bottom. When stitched together these images provide a map of the river bed. By analyzing these maps nautical archaeologists can detect ship wrecks, wharves and other features under the water. A magnetometer measures magnetic fields to detect iron below the water.
GWW: What do they hope to find?
EW: The underwater survey is being done to see what’s there. IMH works to document and map stretches of the river and has chosen to partner with Mount Vernon to learn more about the waters around George Washington’s plantation. Shipwrecks are one thing the survey expects to document.
GWW: Any particular ship?
EW: The Federalist is one ship the crew would love to find. This boat was a gift from the merchants of Baltimore, MD in appreciation of Washington’s work with the Constitutional Convention. It was a fully rigged miniature ship, 15′ long, and was sailed to Mount Vernon by Joshua Barney, a Revolutionary War naval hero, in June 1788. George Washington recorded a hurricane in his diary on July 24, 1788. This severe storm succeeded in “driving the Miniature Ship Federalist from her Moorings, and sinking her.”
GWW: Will the underwater archaeologists scuba dive?
EW: If the archaeologists find anything of interest they might scuba dive to get a better look. This wouldn’t happen until later in the week.
GWW: What will happen to wrecks they find?
EW: Nothing immediately. The archaeologists will record the locations of the wrecks and other things they find. These archaeological sites will be registered with the Trust (Maryland controls the Potomac River) and the DHR (Virginia controls the mouths of the two creeks). In this way the archaeological sites will be preserved for the future.
Category: Popular Culture/Media Literacy, Research/Lectures

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!
Many visitors and GWW readers do not know that Mount Vernon is owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. Fifty years after Washington’s death, a group of women banded together to raise money and purchase Mount Vernon in order to preserve it for future generations (as you can see from the picture on the left, it was in pretty sorry shape- there was even an old ship mast holding up one end of the piazza). One of these brave women was Sarah Cornelia Tracy, a secretary to the regent, Ann Pamela Cunningham of South Carolina.
As the Civil War was descending on the nation, Sarah Tracy (and her sister as chaperone) moved into Mount Vernon to protect the estate and ensure absolute neutrality. She was left with little money, a crumbling house, and rumors swirling that Washington’s body had been removed from the tomb to the mountains of Virginia. At one point, she braved barricades, destroyed roads, and a night in a commandeered house, for promises of neutrality and supplies from General McClellan. For eight years, she served as doctor and manager at Mount Vernon while selling flowers, produce, and jewelry she made out of coffee beans in order to raise money. The Ladies Association also appointed a Superintendent to care for the estate, Upton Herbert, who was trapped at Mount Vernon through the war- as a Southerner he could not go to Alexandria, which was being held by Federal forces, and he could not go into Virginia without being conscripted into the Confederate forces. After Miss Tracy finally resigned in 1868, she married Mr. Herbert and they finally passed on the care of George Washington’s home to make their own home together in Burke, Va. More information about the preservation and archaeology of Mount Vernon can be found on our
Last weekend, three piglets were born to our proud Ossabaw Island hog parents. These rare breed hogs date back to the Spanish explorers of the 17th century. George Washington’s hogs ran wild in the woods until they were caught, fattened on corn and potatoes, and slaughtered for food each fall. Pork, bacon, sausage, scrapple, chitterlings, and lard were enjoyed by the whole Mount Vernon community, and Martha Washington often presented hams as gifts to relatives and friends. Today these heritage breed hogs are bred at Mount Vernon once a year, much to the delight of the children (and adults) who crowd their pen for a glimpse of the piglets. Fortunately for the hogs, the current Mount Vernon community does not enjoy them in the same way as our 18th-century forebears.