Published Articles
Carlyle Connection - Winter 2012
We often associate John Carlyle with conflict. Involved in both the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War, Carlyle played an active part in the two biggest conflicts the American Continent would see during the 18th century.
Carlyle Connection - Spring 2012
What did John Carlyle’s garden look like? Due to a lack of archaeological and documentary evidence, it is impossible to precisely replicate the garden. Instead, the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority designed a small park containing plants popular in the
eighteenth century. However, by exploring the details of contemporary gardens, we may begin to solve the mystery of Carlyle’s own.
Carlyle Connection - Summer 2012
John Carlyle wanted to build an imposing home, and he wanted to build it of stone, like the great stone houses of England and Scotland. But comparable stone was not available in the Atlantic coastal plain of Virginia. For Carlyle, the only convenient local source of stone hard enough for building was the sandstone (or freestone as it was known in colonial times) from the area around Aquia Creek in Stafford County, Virginia, about 35 miles south of Alexandria. The name Aquia is believed to be a corruption of the original Algonquin
word “Quiyough,” meaning gulls.
Carlyle Connection - Fall 2012
For over 30 years, the staff and Friends of Carlyle House have worked to locate and obtain the wonderful collection items you see when you enter the museum. Using John Carlyle's 1780 probate inventory, as well as our Furnishings Plan and Scope of Collections as our tools, we have made huge strides towards the goal of having the museum furnished much as it was in John Carlyle's lifetime. Your support has allowed us to purchase the Bentside Spinet, numerous maps and prints, a pair of matching mahogany dining tables, a new paint scheme for the museum, mannequins, the restoration of John Carlyle’s Bible and much more!
“4 Ounces of Chocolate:” Conceptions of Chocolate in Colonial America - December 2012
During John Carlyle’s life time, chocolate was a relatively new innovation to Europe and the British colonies. Although it was brought to Spain early in the seventeenth century, chocolate did not reach the English-speaking world until the second half of the century. One of the first mentions of chocolate in Great Britain appears in a 1657 advertisement placed by a Frenchman running a coffeehouse in London. The gentleman solicited customers to enjoy “an excellent West India drink called chocolate to be sold, where you may have it ready at any time, and also unmade at reasonable rates.” By the end of the century and into the eighteenth, chocolate had become a staple in households across the socio-economic spectrum. Consumers found the cocoa nib or bean—chocolate in its unprocessed form—and the finished product had many applications, whether used as a medicine, a foodstuff, a learning tool and a bargaining chip during wartime.
John Carlyle and the Alexandria Jockey Club - November 2012
According to a recent article in the Alexandria Journal, John Carlyle was a member of the Alexandria Jockey Club. In fact, he was probably a founding member since the same article credits him with introducing “blooded horses to Alexandria as early as 1762.”
The Hesselius Portraits of John Carlyle and His Contemporaries - October 2012
In choosing John Hesselius to paint his portrait John Carlyle was choosing the principal portrait painter in Virginia at that time. By 1765, when he painted John Carlyle, Hesselius was known as a painter of the Virginia gentry and had been so from as early as 1751. Carlyle was acquainted with or probably knew of other Virginia gentlemen who had posed for Hesselius. Among those whom Hesselius painted were Henry Fitzhugh, George Mason, and William Byrd III. The portraits of all these gentlemen and that of John Carlyle were painted in the hand-in-vest pose characteristic of Hesselius’s work. These portraits are the subject of this article.
Modest and Demure, or Bold and Disguised: Colonial Women and their Masks - September 2012
In September of 1759, the newly married Colonel George Washington placed an order for “various sundries” from London. For his new stepdaughter, Patsy Custis, he requested a variety of toys, fans, gloves, and ribbons. Among the more unusual items desired for the four-year old Patsy were two masks. What was Patsy doing with a mask? Archival sources confirm that she was not the only child or adult wearing a mask in eighteenth-century Virginia, let alone in the other colonies. Unlike those associated with contemporary religious traditions such as the Venetian carnivale or ones worn at European masquerades—which did not take place in America until 1801— Patsy’s masks were the kind worn by women and some children for cosmetic reasons, permitting them to cover their faces when traveling, riding, or simply when out being out of doors to shield themselves from the sun, wind, and other elements.
Aquia Sandstone in Carlyle House and in Nearby Colonial Virginia - August 2012
John Carlyle wanted to build an imposing home, and he wanted to build it of stone, like the great stone houses of England and Scotland. But comparable stone was not available in the Atlantic coastal plain of Virginia. For Carlyle the only convenient local source of stone hard enough for building was the sandstone (or freestone as it was known in colonial times) from the area around Aquia Creek in Stafford County, Virginia, about 35 miles south of Alexandria. The name Aquia is believed to be a corruption of the original Algonquin word “Quiyough,” meaning gulls.
Committees of Self Governance - July 2012
Although the port of Alexandria did not experience battle during the Revolutionary War, it was a strategic destination for much needed supplies to the colony. John Carlyle’s stature as a successful merchant, experienced commissary, and civic leader allowed revolutionary leaders, such as George Washington and George Mason, to capitalize on his talents to help further the Revolution. Though we know Carlyle was not a young man, Edmund Randolph wrote, “The old who had seen service in the Indian War of 1755, roused the young to resist the ministry.”
A Time of Change 1940s Alexandria - June 2012
From 1942 through 1944 Alexandria was overtaken by World War II. In 1939, Alexandria was the eighth largest Virginia city, with four banks, ten public schools (including two high schools – one for whites and one for colored), one newspaper, seven railroads, and 43 churches including 12 denominations. From 1942 to 1944 the city’s population doubled, increasing from 33,000 to 67,000 in two years.
From China to the Carlyle House: A 237 Year Journey - May 2012
On December 18, 1751, the Dutch cargo ship, Geldermalsen, sailed from Canton, China with 112 people on board. The ship was only two years old and was bound for the Netherlands with a cargo of 239,000 pieces of porcelain in 203 crates, 686,997 pounds of tea and 5,240 bolts of silk fabric. She also carried a chest filled with 147 bars and “shoes” of 20-22 karat gold. A bar was not that large, about one-third of an inch long by one inch wide by one-and-three-quarters inch deep, but a shoe was even smaller, only one-half inch long by eight-tenths of an inch wide by eight-tenths of an inch deep. A shoe was of more or less oval shape. It had an indentation made by stamping a seal in the middle. The indentation made it look like a shoe. The gold cargo was valued at more than twice that of the porcelain.
“Burn Her!”:Witchcraft in Early Modern England - April 2012
“And before we head upstairs, let‟s have a look at our resident ghost, the only living thing buried in the house.” Many of our docents begin their tours with a tidbit such as this about the mummified cat buried in the wall at the back of the Servant‟s Hall. The practice of burying a cat in a wall of a house under construction dates from about 1500 to 1800 in northern Europe and England, or what we call early modern times.
True Parentage: Myths of Racial Purity and the Meaning of Miscegenation in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World - February 2012
In 1802, Sally Cary Fairfax1, wife of George William Fairfax2, formerly of Belvoir Plantation and living in England, wrote to her American nephew, Henry, relating a family conflict that had occurred nearly fifty years earlier. In 1757, George William Fairfax, had undertaken a voyage to England to assist in the settlement of his deceased grandmother’s estate. His grandmother, the late Anne Harrison Fairfax’s3 worldly goods and properties were to be conferred upon her eldest son, also named Henry4.
Alexandria During World War II: Life in the Wagar Apartments - March 2012
In the 1942 Alexandria City Directory, twenty-eight apartments are listed with householders under Wagar Apartments at 129 North Fairfax Street. Wagar Apartments, a four-story plain, white-painted brick building with ornamental cornice and decorative balcony, had been built as a hotel in 1855 by James Greene, a successful, local furniture maker.
The Men Who Made Ether - January 2012
Throughout history doctors have tried many different ways to dull the pain of surgery, from freezing parts of the body to numb the pain, when ice was available; to pressing sponges to patients’ noses that had been soaked in such sedatives as mandragora, henbane and opium. There were few analgesics (painkillers) and no functional anesthetics to speak of until the 1840s. This was the specter of surgery before October 16, 1846, a day that revolutionized the medical field.
