On Saturday morning, I gave a presentation at the BAR School of Instruction on Interpretation. The slides are above, and the presentation (with my notes) is here.
The handouts and bibliography I used in thinking about Bridget Connor an be found on the Interpretation 101 page.
I could not figure out where the hits were coming from, but looky here: Research for Reenactors links to some previous posts here (in the days before Frivolous Friday).
If you are a beginning reenactor, or someone who wants to refresh your presentation, I think this librarian’s guide is a good one. There’s excellent logic in the tabs and good suggestions. Thank you, Laura, for including me, and for such a wonderful resource.
This weekend, we’ll be at the Brigade of the American Revolution’s School of Instruction, taking anxiety to the Hudson Highlands as I give a presentation on interpretation. Sure, it’s part of my day job to interpret objects and documents and even, sometimes, to do costumed interpretation, but experience has never prevented me from worrying. It has allowed me to focus my worries more productively and specifically. One of the things we’ll be trying, or attempting to try, are vignettes based on the shirt-stealing and selling ring of 1782.
Events from Captain Abbot’s Orderly Book for interpretive vignettes
Soldiers Steal a Shirt and dispose of same (~July 13-14, 1782)*
Cast: Two soldiers, officer who catches them
Props: shirts
Court-Martial July 15, 1782: Paul Poindexter and Titus Tuttle, for theft of a shirt
Cast: Two soldiers, accusing officer, three officers of the court
Props: Shirt; table and seats, orderly book (optional)
Discovered buying a shirt (~July 21-22, 1782)*
Cast: Bridget, soldier selling shirt, officer who catches them
Props: Shirt(s), money
Court-Martial July 23, 1782: Bridget tried for buying a ‘publick shirt’
Cast: Bridget, accusing officer, three officers of the court
Props: Shirt & money; table and seats, orderly book (optional)
Insolence to Officers of the 10th Mass (~July 23-24, 1782)*
Cast: Bridget, officers (two preferable, one adequate)
Props: None required, large stick probably handy
Court-Martial July 25, 1782: Bridget tried for insolence
Cast: Bridget, accusing officer, three officers of the court
Props: Table and seats, orderly book (optional)
Expelled from camp, July 25, 1782*
Cast: Bridget, drummer, officer(s), jeering onlookers; Francis skulking at the edge
Props: Drum, Bridget’s chattel
* Events are extrapolated from the Orderly Book as things that must have happened to cause the events that followed.
We’ll see…in the meantime, I’m finishing up a shirt for the Young Mr, so that his small clothes will no longer be too-small clothes, and so we have extra shirts for this black market ring.
At left, Pockets 1.0 or perhaps beta. The far left pocket, when worn alone, was definitely beta. Then came the striped pocket, and then sewing them both to the tape. That helped– and I use the small pocket for things like wallet, phone, car keys and Band-aids, and the larger pocket for interpretive things. I try to follow the Under the Redcoat kind of model: one pocket is modern, one is historical; that way I don’t pull the car keys out along with the knitting, or am at least less likely to.
Here’s the stuff I carry in my purse today, actually a backpack-purse, downsized from a messenger bag. That’s a lot of stuff. But if you compare the list to the list of what might have been in an 18th century pocket, you’ll find a lot of similarities.
There’s a pen and a pencil, wallet and checkbook, granola bar, chewing gum, change purse, keys, more keys, and phone. All of those are just modern analogues for paper money, coins, orange or apple, candy, book and notebook, since the phone can fill in for so many things– notebook, money, keys, pen, book…
The historical assortment is much more attractive, in part because I don’t use these things every day, and they don’t get tangled up and worn in a bag. Mitts, kerchief, hankie, my husband’s pay, knife, thimble, spoon, and knitting (I may never get a pair of stockings knit): these are all accurate to carry, though the knitting needles will have to change before that’s taken out in public.
All that, or some combination of like things, will go into one pocket, and the modern mess into the other. I fear these new pockets are, for now, too nice for Bridget. I may just stick with my old, mis-matched ones for now.
Kirsten Hammerstrom 
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