Strange and Farre: High-Fidelity Living History 1580-1610

20/10/2022

Last weekend members of Strange and Farre: High-Fidelity Living History 1580-1610 had a great time at the Dutch and Native marketplace event at Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island, NY along with Rick Vanden Heuvel, Drew Shuptar Rayvis, CT Iannuzzo, and others. We talked about trade, Adrien Van Der Donck, and Keefes war between the Dutch and Indigenous tribes in the 1640s. This period is a bit later than our usual time but was a great chance to interpret and interesting story and a wonderful and welcoming historic site.

06/05/2021

Just before the pandemic lockdown started, S&F member Luke Knowlton built and delivered a snaphaunce musket to the Alden House Historic Site (www.alden.org) in Duxbury, MA. It is displayed in the museum's exhibition "In Small Things Remembered," a display of objects found in archeological digs on the site. The items are paired with reproductions, so visitors can see what a shard of pottery or bit of metal might have looked like when pilgrim John Alden owned it in first half of the 17th century. Parts from a snaphaunce lock were found in 1960 in excavations of the Alden first house site and the completed musket joins the display to compliment the excavated parts.

08/06/2020

Although a bit out of our time frame, here is a nice article on Gustavus Adolphus' ship the Vasa. We really need to get to Stockholm and see it one of these days! https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-quest-to-find-and-save-the-world-s-most-famous-shipwreck/

In 1628, the ‘Vasa’ sank on its maiden voyage. For the next 300 years, it sat in a watery grave—until one man sparked a monumental effort to salvage it.

01/05/2019

We have been quiet on the internet lately but Strange and Farre: High-Fidelity Living History 1580-1610 has been very busy nevertheless. We are excited to announce that we have been invited to participate in a reenactment in Padules, Spain https://www.facebook.com/Recreaci%C3%B3n-Hist%C3%B3rica-Paz-De-La-Alpujarra-Padules-1654421308173256/
commemorating the peace treaty between the Moriscos and Spanish in 1570. This living history opportunity will include military exercises, camp life, and religious observations, as well as music, dance, and literary recitations in Spanish, Italian, and English. We are honored to be able to attend.

La Recreación Histórica de la Paz de la Alpujarra, primera Recreación en la provincia de Almería, recrea un hecho histórico de gran importancia de la historia de España como es la rendición en Padules de los Moriscos sublevados en la primavera de 1570.

12/09/2018

Our friends from Seven Times Salt are working on an album and have an Iniegogo campaign running right now. If you like 17th century music, please give them your support:

Music of the Plimoth Colony settlers (1590-1650) with period instruments and original pronunciation | Check out 'Pilgrims' Progress: new album by Seven Times Salt' on Indiegogo.

22/08/2018

Last weekend Strange and Farre: High-Fidelity Living History 1580-1610 attended the Schuyler Flatts Living History Timeline. We had a wonderful time discussing early New England exploration ca.1602 with our visitors, who asked a number of thoughtful questions.

As ever, the furs were a crowd favorite, for adults and children alike, and we found that having them on the small table and having that table out near the edge of the fly caused people to be more readily drawn in to ask questions. Prior to the event, I had prepared a copy of Brereton's published account of the voyage and we used the lists of plant and animal resources in it as a springboard to a discussion of the economics of exploration and the ultimate exploitation of natural resources. The display rack I had constructed for our muskets and swords helped us control their access much better as well as freeing up a table. My visit to the Mary Rose museum in England last year had pointed up to me the almost complete use of wooden eating and drinking vessels on shipboard in the period and to that end we have replaced our ceramic tankards with stave built wooden ones. They proved to be very serviceable.

I want to commend the organizers for an excellent event and thank them for the picnic they laid on for everyone on Saturday evening. It was very generous and so very much appreciated by this weary reenactor.

02/07/2018

Yesterday Strange and Farre (Daniel Rosen, Catherine Iannuzzo, and Luke Knowlton) had the pleasure of attending the American Lives timeline at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH. In spite of the heat, we had a great day talking with visitors about the earliest English exploration to the "North part of Virginia" (New England) in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold.

For the past two seasons, we have been interpreting the English voyages of exploration to New England in the first decade of the 17th century. In preparation for this first outing of the new season, we decided to re-examine the original accounts of this voyage to refresh ourselves with the events described. We realized that some inaccuracies had crept into our interpretation over the past several years. We had been increasingly emphasizing trade with the Indigenous People of the region when this wasn't necessarily the case. By carefully rereading Brereton's and Archer's accounts, as well as the excellent analysis of them by D.B. Quinn, we were prompted to revise our interpretation to greater emphasize the exploratory nature of this trip.

I mention all of this as an object lesson that even well-researched interpretations need periodic review for their accuracy and message they are conveying to the public. Interpretation creep is real. Yes, it is more work, but reflect upon what you have actually achieved if you can't speak accurately about the clothing, objects, history, and ultimately the people you are representing. You are rendering a profound disservice to that history. Is that the lesson you really want to teach?

05/04/2018

In a few weeks this amazing sounding conference will be held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England to examine aspects of the influence of Elizabeth I in the wake of the Armada. Here's hoping they will publish the conference proceedings!

Three-day conference exploring Queen Elizabeth I and the consequences of the Spanish Armada

13/03/2018

Strange and Farre member Daniel Rosen has made a frieze suit! Here we see him on a walk at Plymouth, MA harbor. His outfit also includes a waistcoat, sea cape, and knitted fulled hat. These garments are a physical representation of items that are included on lists of provisions for very early colonists.

Great job Daniel!