Published Articles

Docent Dispatch - December 2018

Since the first organized Christmas celebrationdrew visitors to Colonial Williamsburg in 1936, nothing quite matches the excitement, sights, smells, sounds, and grandeur of the Christmas Season in Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area. But how did the celebration evolve?

At the opening of the French and Indian War in 1755, John Carlyle’s grand stone manor in Alexandria, Virginia played host to an unprecedented event. General Edward Braddock, commanding a massive army intended to snuff out the French Fort Duquesne, called together the governors of Virginia, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. They would be joined by Braddock’s own military aides and the eminent Superintendent of Indian Affairs William Johnson. Today this meeting is known as “the Grandest Congress.” The phrase originates with John Carlyle himself. In writing to his brother later that year, Carlyle wrote “…their was the Grandest Congress held at My home ever known on this Continent.” In that same sentence, Carlyle listed the various political and military luminaries in attendance, including five colonial governors, Braddock himself, and “Comadore Kepple.” (1)

Docent Dispatch - November 2018

Hello, Carlyle House! Some of you have been seeing a lot more of me recently, and I thought I’d take the opportunity to give you an update on the exciting project I am working on with our curator, Kerry Mitchell. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Lee Rodrigues. I’ve been a supervisor at Carlyle House for four years this month, and have been engaged in Alexandria history and archaeology for much longer. If you volunteer with us on weekends, you’ve probably run into me.

In 1796, William Herbert, son-in-law of the late Alexandria merchant John Carlyle, insured his mansion house and several detached structures on his North Fairfax Street property. Of the structures noted on the Virginia Mutual Assurance Society policy, three faced Fairfax Street at the southeast corner of Fairfax and Cameron Streets. These one-story structures of frame construction were identified as “Three Dwelling Houses.” Prior to 1796, however, they had served far different purposes as an “Office/accounting Room,” a “Dry Goods Store,” and a “Dry Goods Warehouse,” respectively.

If you’ve ever mentioned that John Carlyle owned portion of a bloomery on your tour, you may have received some puzzled looks. In the eighteenth century, a bloomery was a small furnace for making iron blooms. A bloom, derived from the old Germanic word for flower, was a pasty lump of raw, unhammered iron.

Introduction. An article in the Docent Dispatch of January 2015, entitled John Carlyle and the Scots in Colonial
America, noted the Scottish heritage of John Carlyle and described the commercial activities and business influence
of the Scots in Colonial America. This article focuses on the educational activities and intellectual influence of the Scots during that time.

Professor: Gen. Braddock should be known for more than losing important battle:
WINCHESTER — As a collegian at what is now University of Mary Washington and then as a graduate student at the College of William & Mary, David L. Preston frequently passed through Winchester en route to and from his hometown of Pittsburgh.

“Perhaps the most ambitious and finest city house for its date in Virginia outside Williamsburg, this [house] would not be out of place in Salisbury Close in England.” So begins my favorite description of Carlyle House, found in Buildings of Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont. [1] Of course we all know that Carlyle House is THE finest city house, but I appreciate the fact that experts in the field of architectural history agree. But who actually designed and constructed this ambitious and fine city house? Although Carlyle briefly mentions the construction of his house in letters to his brother George, he never mentions any craftsmen by name. Who oversaw this ambitious venture?

The introduction of online elements to museumsand cultural sites has opened up new ways for visitors to engage with the past, with nature, with culture, and all othertreasures of the museum. By adopting new technologies and internet-based platforms, museums and cultural sites areable to expand their capacity to educate visitors. Unfortunately, the same attention has not yet been paid to the possibilities of incorporating internet-based technologies into the education of museum docents.
Because docents or interpreters remain a primary point of contact for visitors to many of our sites, museum educators stand to benefit greatly from incorporating online elements into training routines. With interest in the online presence of museums growing, it is high time that docent educators begin to access the benefits of these technologies in their training regimes.

It’s that time of year again where Braddock has come for a visit! This year, we will only be interpreting the first floor for Braddock’s visit.

Guiding visitors through the Carlyle House, sharing broad outlines of the great events and people associated with the residence, a more pedestrian question often comes to mind. What did they do for fun? Jane Carson’s book Colonial Virginians at Play, in the Carlyle House library, provides some context for learning more about pursuits that John and his contemporaries
would have enjoyed.

A continuation of the previous issue’s fascinating history: John Carlyle’s Landscape and Slave Quarters

Docent Dispatch - February 2018

The city of Alexandria, Virginia traces its roots to the establishment of a tobacco inspection warehouse at the foot of current day Oronoco Street in Old Town Alexandria. The purpose of the inspection warehouse was to provide quality control over tobacco exported from the colonies to England. Instrumental to the early mapping of Alexandria was none other than George Washington, who was an accomplished surveyor and cartographer. In 1748, at the age of just 16, the future president helped map the outline of the new city to be created around the tobacco inspection warehouse.