Dr. Jerry A. Hedrick's HIStory

The Art of Chipping Away at a Block of Maple Until Something Useful Appears The finished bowl, ready for use. A dough bowl, also called a kneading trough, is a wooden vessel traditionally used for mixing, raising, and kneading yeast dough for making bread. It was hand carved from a single piece of wood. It could be oval, round or rectangular in shape, and vary in size and width—typically from 24" to 36" long, 10" to 18" wide, and 3" to 8" deep. It often had small handles or grips on either end. Ancient Egyptian tomb paintings often depict bakers using a similar vessel to knead dough for bread making; in literature, they are mentioned as early as 1386 in Chaucer’s The Miller's Tale. This type of dough bowl was typically used by home bakers for small batches of bread; large scale commercial bakeries or bread makers for large households used a much larger, lidded, framed container called a dough box or dough trough. A good dough bowl ...

Making and Demonstrating the Art and Craft of Natural Fiber Rope Making Rope making is one of the first and most useful skills developed by humans. It predates other ancient tools and technologies such as the wheel and the ax. Not only was rope necessary for outfitting watercraft, it was needed to secure animals (and other humans), bundle goods, control horses, for tent making, for making simple footwear, and for team-based heavy lifting and pulling. And, in a pinch, holding up your pants. Without rope, the early Egyptians and ancient Chinese would be paddling their barges and feluccas up and down rivers, limiting the distance they could reasonably travel and the weight of goods they could hall. Both strong and flexible, the uses are endless. A rope might not seem very important, but it was critical to the emergence of early cultures around the globe.   Rope making demonstration with a young apprenti ce. Demonstrating 18 th century rope making is one of my favorite acti...

The finished case ready to "port" a "manteau" Adventures in Colonial Luggage! A Portmanteau (from the French “porter” meaning “to carry” and “manteau” meaning “cloak” or “gown”) is a valise or suitcase made from heavy leather that was used to carry a cloak or other necessities and is shaped to be secured behind the saddle of a horse. The cloak or other clothing would be rolled, not folded, into the case. It was also used by post riders to transport mail or newspapers. It could be round- or flat-bottomed with buckles and straps to secure the lid, and often had a handle on the side or top , and could include a shoulder strap .  In some examples, portmanteaus (or should it be "portmanteaux"?) were covered with tarpaulin cloth, India rubber or oilcloth to increase the waterproofing and protect the contents. These were so common and so durably made that many extant examples still exist in a variety of sizes for men, women, and even ...

My Reproduction Davis Quadrant and Navigation in the 17th and 18th Centuries Detailed instructions for building an accurate Davis Quadrant (also known as a back staff) are rare and difficult to find. To create my replica back staff, I consulted several books, including “The Voyages and Works of John Davis, the Navigator” (1880) by Coote, Jane, and Wright, which Back staff in progres s . contains original diagrams and descriptions for this fascinating navigational tool.   In addition, I carefully studied a number of extant examples in museum collections such as the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, Virginia and St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum.   I was inspired by the elaborate design, the intricate measurements, and the potential for decorative touches such as bone inlays and decorative carving.    My goal was to create a period-accurate, museum-quality, working replica. Joint and inlay detail. Sight vane detail. This repl...

Soap: It's Not Just for Lords Anymore! The topic of cleanliness and hygiene comes up frequently at events. You know the questions: “Why didn’t people take baths?” “They had soap, why didn’t they use it?” and so on. There is a widespread assumption that people in history bathed only once a year—if at all-- and used excessive perfumes and oils to cover body odor. Some people did use perfumes, powders, and oils to smells, of course—just as people do today with highly perfumed laundry products, scented deodorants, mouth washes, etc. But the idea that people in the 18 th century were a mass of reeking unwashed bodies is simply not true. Figure 1 We do not have an excessive amount of documentation for the process of washing and bathing for personal hygiene because, like many mundane activities, it was not noteworthy enough to be frequently documented. How often do you write about taking a shower? But people in the 18 th century did want to be clean and smell n...