Chipmunks in the Garden
By Dr. Leonard Perry, Horticulturalist in Residence If you’re like me, or the gardener’s in the King’s Garden, you’ve experienced a banner year for chipmunks in the garden. I’ve been lucky—they’ve merely uprooted new plants and seedlings. In the King’s Garden they’ve not only done this, but climbed flower stalks to end buds of lilies […]
All that Glitters is not Gold
By Matthew Keagle, Curator Quite often it is bronze. Bronze, an alloy of roughly 90% copper and 10% tin (although exact alloys in the 18th century varied), was one of the two primary materials used to cast artillery in the early modern period. The task took considerable technical skill. Gun founders had to be able […]
FORT TICONDEROGA’S VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR ANNOUNCED
Fort Ticonderoga recently announced that Mary Ellen Ellithorpe (Em) of Putnam, NY, has received the 2016 Fort Ticonderoga Volunteer of the Year award in recognition of her dedicated service to Fort Ticonderoga. Em gave tirelessly of her time and energy this past summer implementing a survey with guests. Collecting hundreds of surveys, Em logged in […]
THE FORT TICONDEROGA MUSEUM LAUNCHES PUBLICATION OF ACADEMIC JOURNAL
After a 15-year hiatus, The Bulletin of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum returns in print with an issue focused on “1777: The American Revolution on the Northern Frontier.” The Bulletin, published for over seventy years, helped the Fort Ticonderoga Museum achieve an international reputation for original scholarship and research. Today, the rebirth of the Bulletin complements […]
Fort Ticonderoga Receives Prestigious National Grant
Fort Ticonderoga has been awarded a prestigious national grant of $147,006 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services: Museums for America for a fifteen-month project to inventory, catalog, assess conservation needs, and re-house thousands of internationally significant collection items. These objects will be moved from the unsuitable environment to a modern, climate-controlled, storage facility. […]
Inquiry at Fort Ticonderoga: Helping Students Develop Historical Thinking Skills
Across the United States, Social Studies educators are picking up a new tool for use in their classroom. A new set of standards published in 2013 is the C3 Framework for Social Studies. This Framework creation was coordinated by the National Council for Social Studies and over 3,000 teachers and educators provided input. The main goal […]
Fall Rose Care
By Dr. Leonard Perry, Horticulturalist in Residence Do you have some roses that you would like to have survive the upcoming winter, if at all possible, and particularly if new plantings? Or, are you one of those who had roses going into last winter, only to have many die while those of your neighbor lived? […]
Museum Education, going beyond Common Core
For the last five years since their introduction, the discussion surrounding the Common Core State Standards has dominated the field of education. Much of the discussion about the Common Core in the news and around our dinner tables neglects the fact that the Common Core State Standards primarily cover English Language Arts and Math. While […]
The Lifecycle of an Exhibit, Part I: De-Installation
There is a certain magic about walking into a new exhibit. A sense of mystery, surprise, and discovery greet you as you turn each corner. Thousands of visitors come to the Fort Ticonderoga’s museum exhibits each year, and many are impressed when they see a space completely redesigned and reinterpreted in the short months between […]
British and Brunswick Fatigue Work at Ticonderoga in 1777
At the onset of the 1777 campaign, General John Burgoyne put a heavy reliance on the artillery and engineers of the army. These two factions employed parties of men to expedite the works such as, building and repairing fortifications and roads. During a formal siege fatigue work is most important, as it facilitates the artillery’s […]