Enjoy highlights from Court Day!

 

David Gardner plays 18th-century tunes on the fiddle.

 

A puppet show depicts General Washington’s great triumph over Lord Cornwallis at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781.

 

Historical interpreter T.J. Savage sings at Court Day.

 

  

Music, magic, juggling and puppet shows, period games and trade activities highlighted “Court Day,” September 17, at the Yorktown Victory Center, a museum of the American Revolution. 

Court Day offered a glimpse of recreation, entertainment and trade activities that took place when court was in session during the 18th century. Demonstrations ranged from artillery to spinning wool and included period games such as whirligigs, trap ball, hoops, ninepins, Graces and cricket.

American cricket player and historian Tom Melville showed visitors how to play the centuries-old game throughout the day in the orchard of the museum’s re-created 1780s farm. 

Eighteenth-century entertainment – music, juggling and magic, and a puppet show depicting General Washington’s 1781 victory over Lord Cornwallis during the Siege of Yorktown –entertained a crowd inside the museum. Fiddler David Gardner performed a range popular music of the time to a toe-tapping audience.

Visitors were able to see sheep and enjoy ongoing spinning and cloth-dyeing demonstrations, and learn how to use a drop spindle.  Fiber-arts vendors also were on hand to display and sell their wares. During the American Revolution, a scarcity of fabric from abroad led to the demand for women to spin and weave to supply material for clothing on the homefront and to support the war effort.

Visitors also could examine the trade of a tailor in the 18th century throughout the day in the farmhouse. In preparation for big occasions, tailors in the period often would work together to measure, cut and assemble a suit for someone all in one day.

In the re-created Continental Army encampment, visitors learned about discipline for soldiers accused of committing a crime during a special program “Pillage, Plunder and Consequences,” and could join an artillery gun crew to learn the steps in firing a “six-pounder” cannon.

Yorktown Victory Center visitors can start their experience along an outdoor timeline to gain insight to the events that led to the conflict between the American colonies and Britain. Indoors, visitors can see a rare broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence dating to July 1776 and hear firsthand accounts of the war’s impact on everyday people of the 18th century, including Africans, American Indians and women – for whom the concepts of liberty and equality did not apply. Visitors also can learn about the movements of British, American and French troops that converged on Yorktown in 1781 and take in “A Time of Revolution,” a film shown every 30 minutes in the museum theater. Exhibits also examine the development of the Constitution and Bill of Rights and how people from many different cultures shaped a new society.