Saturday, October 5, 2013

Williamsburg, VA area, Part 2

26 August 2013

While Whistling Son was at work, Great Husband and I spent our Monday at Colonial Williamsburg. We never tire of it. I’ve probably written that before. As a side benefit of donating to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, we get to attend special events in the St. George Tucker house. (St. George is Mr. Tucker’s rather unusual first name.) These events are small-group meetings with famous people who were in Williamsburg during the Revolutionary period. 

St. George Tucker House in Colonial Williamsburg

Monday’s famous person was the Marquis de Lafayette, as portrayed by Mark Schneider, and what a dynamo he is! Mark is an American whose mother is French, so he is fluent in the language and to us his English with a French accent certainly sounds authentic. Great Husband has also noticed that Mark uses excellent French mannerisms. For part of each program at the St. George Tucker house, the actor speaks in the historic time period only. After that, he or she exits the character and speaks as him or herself, answering any questions that the small audience wishes to ask. We always find that the audience is very knowledgeable and asks excellent questions, and the actors are amazing in their expertise on every particular about their characters. The actress who portrays Martha Washington could even tell us where Martha purchased the bourbon for her Christmas cake!

The dynamic Marquis, as portrayed by the dynamic Mark Schneider
As annual pass holders, we also qualify for various tours behind the scenes. Several times we have taken the special tour that starts at the former Bruton Heights School and moves on to the  conservation center where preservation and restoration of all sorts of artifacts are done. Once again we toured the paper conservation studio and then we got to see the workshop where the antique furniture is cared for. It is important that whatever is done to the furniture be reversible, so this group has developed very specialized techniques, including a method to reupholster furniture without adding any additional nail holes. The man who heads this department started as a maintenance man at Colonial Williamsburg some 45 years ago, and when he saw historic furniture and bolts of upholstery fabric being thoughtlessly discarded, he got this group started to preserve such things. He is old enough that he would like to retire but there is no one with his expertise to replace him, so he has written a book to pass along his knowledge.


Historic furniture being conserved in the upholstery shop

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