AUGUSTA — Old Fort Western celebrates Martha Ballard’s life with the program “Martha Ballard’s World: Wife, Mother, Healer, Horticulturist”. Join us on May 10 for a look into the life of a colonial woman in Hallowell. From 1-4:30 p.m., there will be rotating stations centered on activities Martha herself wrote about in her diary during April and May 1785. Immerse yourself in the extraordinary world of Martha Ballard. Through her diary, you’ll step into her daily life, engaging in the very activities she chronicled. Spend half an hour at six stations, each offering a unique glimpse into Martha’s world.
In the course of the afternoon, you will visit six stations. At the Kitchen Hearth, you will delve into 18th-century cooking practices, including what foods were available, the equipment used and the basics of cooking over a hearth fire. You will also learn about food preservation by looking through colonial receipts to see what dishes housewives prepared in an 18th-century kitchen. In the Age of Homespun room, you will discover another vital activity of Martha and her daughters: working with textiles. You will learn about the different fibers of the 18th century and how they were processed as you work with different looms and card and spin wool. In the upper bedchamber, you will learn about the 18th century clothing of gentlemen, ladies and children. You can examine how the clothes of the working class were made and how they differed from the gentry. In the north kitchen, you will learn about Martha the Healer, what herbs Martha would have been familiar with, and how she may have used them to create teas, salves, syrups, tinctures, pills and poultices. You will also have a chance to visit Dr. Samuel Coleman at the S & W Howard Store. He will share information about those herbs and medicines that could not be obtained or grown locally. Martha often visited Dr. Coleman for the medicines she could not produce herself. Finally, you will be invited into the south parlor for an 18th century tea. Here, you will have a chance to sample different black, green, and herbal teas. Martha often took tea with Susanna Cony Howards (James Howard’s second wife).
The cost for this program is $35. For more information or to register, go to www.augustamaine.gov/oldfortwestern, email [email protected] or call our administrative offices at 207-626-2385. Check out Fort Western’s Facebook page for daily quotes from Martha’s Diary.
New this year is the Martha Ballard’s Diary Collection Raffle. This raffle is valued at $500 and contains the “Diary of Martha Ballard, 1785-1812” as translated McCausland & McCausland, “A Midwife’s Tale” by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, The PBS Video of “A Midwife’s Tale” and a collection of “Martha Ballard’s World” Tea. Tickets are one for $10 or three for $25. All proceeds go toward our educational programs.
