New American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, Partially Opened -- Some Glimpses!

American Revolution Museum at Yorktown

Currently entitled the Yorktown Victory Center, there has been construction for over a year on the new American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. Above is a picture of the Welcome Center.  Below is my son by one of the new meeting rooms in this brand new Visitors' Center at the museum. This portion is partially open.

Clark Pagels by poster for new American Revolution Museum in Yorktown, Virginia

We were able to watch one of the recently produced short films about freedom and liberty while we were there. The building is large, spacious, and important-for-Virginia Air-CONDITIONED!  There are three movies that rotate, timewise, in the theater room.

Although some of the items from the original museum are being brought over, that museum is closed (which is disappointing) as the larger new museum is built. It will open in 2016 to great fanfare here in Yorktown. We're hoping some of the Colonial Quills contributors will be here to celebrate together when the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown opens!

You know we love our Tea Parties here on Colonial Quills blog and it was neat to see this pewter teapot (secured for the display) in the main hall.  Across from the teapot is the American Revolutionary War Time line.  This is mounted on the wall and visitors can walk along and read how history progressed during that time.

George Washington statue - Clark Pagels

I wonder how many tourists have had their picture taken with George Washington? This is a perfect photo opportunity if ever there was one!

Question: Have you been to the Victory Center in Yorktown?  Do you plan to come for the Grand Opening of the new American Revolution Center at Yorktown in 2016?

Colonial Chidren's Games - Guest Post by 12-Year-Old Yorktown Victory Center Volunteer

Playing Shut the Box at Yorktown Victory Center

Guest Post by 12-year-old Yorktown Victory Center Volunteer

Colonial Games

In the summer of 2013, I  began playing certain colonial games because I went through training at Yorktown Victory Center boot camp for volunteers. The training is where volunteers come in for three days and on the third day there are two shifts, one at 10:00 and one at 11:30.  Now I will describe the games that I might play as a volunteer to entertain visitors.

Fox and Geese: The game of Fox and Geese was a very popular colonial board game with marbles in which the geese would try to trap the fox and the fox tried to eat all the geese. Goal of the game, which is a two player game, is either to trap the fox (red or brown marble) or eat all the geese (white marbles.)  To trap the fox you have to corner it by penning it in with geese. Or you can surround it with the geese.  Here is a link to a Wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_games

Shut the Box (Clark now owns a nice version of this game, purchased from the museum store-see picture above): Originally “Shut the Box” was a Norman game played by sailors. We were taught this game, also, which colonial children enjoyed and it is a game for all ages.  The game has two dice which are rolled, there is a box frame with 9 wooden pieces that flip on a dowel. The point of the game is to have the least points or numbers because that means the closer you are to shutting the box.  Here is a link to a Wiki page about the game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shut_the_Box

Please note there are different versions of the game.

Mancala is another popular game.

Mancala game

Outdoor games

Rolling the hoop: You have a stick and a hoop and you try to hit the hoop as many times as you can to move the hoop. The object is to make it roll. And making it roll fast is helpful because it makes the hoop go straighter, faster, and easier to control. 

9 Pins colonial game

Nine pins: You try to knock down all the pins but the middle pin.  The ball is fairly small, made of wood, and you roll it from as far back as you think necessary.  It is possibly a co-ed sport but more likely a boy sport.

Here’s a nice link to more Colonial Children’s Games http://www.pencaderheritage.org/main/teachtool/games.pdf

Bio: Our guest is a middle school student who loves history. He just obtained his second perfect 600 score in History on this SOL exams at school!  This is his first guest post on CQ!  He lives in the historic triangle of Virginia and his mother thinks he is totally awesome. He is a youth volunteer at the Yorktown Victory Center which is under major construction to become the AMERICAN REVOLUTION MUSEUM AT YORKTOWN.

Sausage Making in Colonial Virginia by Carrie Fancett Pagels

Sausage Making at Yorktown Victory Center in Virginia

Sausage making in colonial Virginia was quite a chore.  These two men are making sausages at Yorktown Victory Center in Virginia.  First the pork had to be chopped.  The man on the left used a cleaver to chop the meat into tiny pieces. This was very labor intensive, as you can imagine.

The pork was seasoned for the sausage with thyme and other seasonings, perhaps fennel and parsley and other herbs. The pork was first chopped into tiny sections and then transferred to a trencher or a bowl and then stuffed inside the casing.

The pork mixture was pushed through a funnel, to which the casement was "attached" by the sausage stuffer holding the casing to the opening in the funnel.

The Yorktown Victory Center does wonderful demonstrations this time of year about how farmers prepared food for winter.  Hogs were normally killed in late November and then the meat put up.


The sausage casing gets slippery and is difficult to keep attached.  In the picture below, the sausage maker is using two fingers to hold the casing to the funnel.

The meat had to be pushed through the funnel with a wood spoon, in this case, and into the casing.  This required some attention on the part of the sausage maker.

This looks quite different from the way my mother made sausage.  She had a meat grinder and ran the meat and seasonings through the metal grinder which had a crank handle. It had a section where the casings attached and if I recall correctly, there was a metal clip device that kept the casing on while Mom made the sausage.







Question:  Have you ever seen sausage made?  What did you think?  Do you make sausage or have you ever?