Folkways of the 17th-Century Tour at Historic St. Mary’s City
Aaron Meisinger
Join us for a brief tour of Historic St. Mary’s City. This tour focuses on a variety of Colonial folkways practiced in Maryland’s first capital. This tour will take visitors to the Waterfront where the Maryland Dove is on display. This ship is a representation of a late 17th-century cargo ship named in honor of the original Dove, one of two ships that made the original voyage to Maryland from England arriving in 1634. During the tour of the ship and other interpretive areas, staff will give demonstrations on how sailors navigated using tools of the trade and sewed using needle and thread to create items ranging from sails to ditty bags.
Next this tour will traverse to the Town Center living history site. At the Town Center one can learn more about how daily life in colonial Maryland included both business and pleasure. See how a movable type printing press is operated and how documents were printed at the time using period correct methods and tools. One can also learn how the people’s love of games for fun and relaxation hasn’t changed much over the centuries as we conclude the tour by playing some common games of the time. You might even recognize a game or two.
Aaron Meisinger, the Interpretive Programs Manager at Historic St. Mary’s City, began working at HSMC in 1986 as a living history interpreter while completing his Bachelor of Science/Communication Arts degree from James Madison University. He had no idea how his degree would parlay into a career until he started working at Maryland’s 1st Colonial Capital (and he has been here ever since).
HSMC Experience includes 35 years portraying various 17th-century people for the public, scriptwriting, directing, training, and developing traditional as well as out-of-the-box living history programming.