The Ethan Allen Homestead Living History Project

Nice writeup of my volunteer work...

Volunteer Spotlight: Heather Kenyon-Haff

Heather has been volunteering with the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum for more than five years. Heather is often found in 18th-century kit volunteering with reenactment events (she's also a member of Warner's Regiment reenactment group!), leading students on field trips, and staffing our front desk as a greeter.

Her favorite thing about volunteering at the Homestead Museum: "The Homestead is just so emblematic of Vermont: small, authentic, and a lot of heart. It's also so much fun being able to really "play" in the museum as a historian rather than have to stay away from the displays."

Heather grew up in Connecticut (just like Ethan Allen!), and while not at the Homestead she spends her time working as an educator in a public school. Heather loves yoga, hates mean people, and has even been on a televised game show!

Thank you Heather for your donated time and passion to the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum! Without volunteers like you, our museum wouldn't exist.



Image description:
Heather dressed in 18th-century kit while volunteering as an extra during a documentary shoot at the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum in July 2022.

Greetings once again! Our reenactment group spent a weekend bringing the Ethan Allen Homestead to life. This time a lot of (distraction? focus?) was with the children that were with us on Homestead. Nicholas ended up spending quite a bit of time shepherding some of them, and discovered how much work it is to look after "siblings"!

It's been a while! But recently my 10 year old son and I spent an overnight at the Ethan Allen Homestead, actually sleeping in the house! One of the things that we take for granted in modern life is indoor electric lighting - we can literally keep the interior as bright as noontime if we want to. A colonial house is dark and dimly lit at best. The Homestead has candle sconces, but in reality candles were expensive and a good housewife would be thrifty with them. Things like rush lamps and the like would be more common, but give off far less light even than a candle. It was quite unnerving to my son to be in such a dark environment, although it did lead to an early bedtime too. Today, we live practically 24 hour sunlit lives compared to the more natural pace of our forebearers.

Greetings! I have not been a very active living historian this summer for a number of boring reasons. But I do have some reflections to share if you would indulge me.

Nicholas had nits last week. After a crew-cut haircut, laundering of bedding, spraying of soft surfaces, shampoo and days of combing, and quarantine of stuffed animals, we are now in the clear. Thank goodness--there was something terribly unsettling about parasites trying to take up residence with my family.

My counterpart in the 18th century would have been all too familiar with this problem, and have some of the same tactics. The comb I use at events is fine-toothed enough to be pretty effective (I didn't use it for actual nit-combing because of modern hygiene concerns) and certainly was commonplace. Combs like these have been used since ancient times. Cutting or shaving hair was another well-known tactic. People who could purposely shaved or close-cut hair and wore wigs in part for fashion, partly because a wig could be boiled free of lice. 18th century people knew boiling fabrics could free one of lice, but did not have insecticides that could eliminate them on mattresses, wool clothing (which typically cannot be boiled), and the like.

I am not sure how my 18th century "self" would regard my reaction to nits. I'm still trying to sort that out. Would she be amused at my disgust, when that might have been just a matter-of-fact part of life for her? Would she be happy for me for laundry machines, bleach, sprays and shampoos? Would she be sympathetic, understanding what extra work, worry, and concern that would mean for a home? I still don't know; maybe all.

In any case, I have gotten a little better sense of how itchy, uncomfortable, and persistent these little hitchhikers were. This was a particularly good article on the issue of annoying insect life for 18th century people by Colonial Williamsburg:

https://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Autumn07/bugs.cfm

Just a nice article which discusses it's not quite enough to be fully dressed without a smile...

My Clothes are Hand Stitched, But No One Will Talk to Me - Fort Ticonderoga Blog For re-enactors and living historians, a lot of work goes into the details of bringing history to life for visitors you hope to inspire or educate.

Nicholas explores marble games through Cub Scouts, so I take the opportunity to learn a little bit about it too!

(Nicholas is supposed to study a famous American figure for Cub Scouts. Robert suggests learning about Seth Warner and Ethan Allen.)
Momma: That's a good idea. Ethan Allen is an American hero, but maybe not a role model, though.
Nicholas: Why?
Momma: Well, he drank, he swore a lot, was totally reckless...
Nicholas: (pause) So...?

Sometimes I'm not sure what lessons exactly he's learning from reenacting!

(I'm working with my 8 year old son on his Cub Scout requirement: coming up with a list of supplies a group of campers might need.)
Me: Oh, I have an idea: something to make a campfire with.
Nicholas: Oh, a burning lens?
Me: Well, yes, although I was thinking of something else.
Nicholas: Flint and steel?
Me: Um, yeah, more like what normal people would use.
Nicholas: (puzzled)
Me: OK, OTHER people....
Nicholas: Oh...matches!

This weekend was the Brown's Raid Reenactment at Fort Ticonderoga. The American forces were camped in the wooded area near the old French Lines.

During the event a fellow American reenactor complained on one of the shuttle buses that the British forces were stationed in or near the fort, or near the cornfields and the splendid King's Gardens. Granted, the woods are not flat and tree-root-free as the fields or as fun as the Fort itself. Still, good Vermont folk know how to deal with such a situation.

"But I LIKE the woods!" I said. "It's cool there and you can sleep until mid-morning!"

And it is true. It strikes me how depending where you are from (or perhaps choose to be from) attracts one do different things. My unit is flexible with a heaping dollop of common sense. Warner's Regiment will happily camp in wall tents in a wide open field, but I like how we will almost prefer to put up a tarp and a couple of blankets and call it good. The only reason many people did not was simply the impending rain.

Our family only day-tripped, to be fair. We live fairly close by. It was supposed to rain heavily that night, and while my son has camped under a tarp, it is not his favorite thing to do. And it is one thing to sleep on a nice early fall evening under a canvas tarp, quite another to huddle with two other people under a tarp, with the best spot given to the musket!!!

I have a nice image of Nicholas enjoying the pottery demo. He spends much of his day demonstrating the pottery wheel and inviting participants to decorate or build pieces. Since he isn't firing, these pieces usually get recycled. I really appreciate how this gentle offers a hands-on demo on a very important craft in colonial America. (Anyone remember the name of the potter? I'd like to send him this image if I could).