Living History at Belair Mansion, Bowie MD
September 20, 2003
(click on the images for bigger pictures)

Despite the fact that it was the day after Hurricane Isabel, "the show must go on" and twelve AGSAS members came out to support this event. Others simply couldn't because of hurricane devastation in their area. This was a third person show and tell oriented living history, with demonstrations of various aspects of life in the mid 19th century. Bev Heath was the star of the show, churning the BEST homemade butter any of us had ever had. The local newspaper covered the event and Bev churning butter and Joanie Moses playing the fiddle made the paper. (see below). Despite it being the day after the hurricane, we had over 90 spectators show up.

For information on the history of Belair and the Ogle family who built it, visit the information page we did for the event and follow the various links, expecially the Ogle family history website, done by Ogle descendant and Civil War living historian Georgia Meadows, a leading expert on period mourning customs.

Bev churning butter		Colleen Formby, event organizer, offers a cordial welcome (literally!) with some of her delicious homemade cordial		Newpaper coverage in the Bowie Blade. Although the photo captions didn't mention AGSAS, an earlier article promoting the event covered AGSAS extensively.
The end result: best butter ever!		Colleen sings period hymns while Kathryn plays the original melodeon upstairs in "Rosalie's chamber"
Faith Hintzen brought homemade stew from a period recipe for lunch		Anita Henderson demonstrated period open fire cooking outside, making delicious cornbread. (Perfect complement to that butter!)		Joanne Owens
Joanie, Anita, Joanne, Colleen, Victoria Kent and Stacy Hampton in the center hall / games room.		Joanie Moses entertains us on the fiddle while Edwin Kent, Colleen Formby and Anita Henderson look on		Mark Hintzen in frock coat.
Stacy Hampton brought a fabulous display on period hairdressing techniques and headwear, including original hair curlers identical to the ones in the current Museum of the Confederacy exhibit		Stacy's display included many antiques including a variety of original hair combs and hairpins, as well as documented reproduction items, such as copies of decorated hair nets featured in Godey's		Stacy's exhibit included a wide variety of Cartes de Visite showing various hairstyles of the era for different age groups.

Click here to go to Page Two of the Belair Mansion Living History Photo Album