A Visit to Sturbridge Villageby Jennifer W. '90

Were any of you wondering how research week was for the people who stayed in Connecticut? Well, the students who were unable to participate in the Boston trip went to Old Sturbridge Village instead. Even though the topic for research week focused on the Revolutionary War, this trip still gave those students a pretty good idea of how things would have been in the 1800's, about fifty years after the Revolutionary War. 
There were many sights to see at Old Sturbridge Village. One of the first was the church, and it was very interesting. It was not only used as a church. When there were no services, it was used as a gathering place as well. It was a small, plain building filled with booths of a light-colored wood and red padded seats. The red of the seats was the only color in the building. There were no stained windows, like in the churches most people attend today. It was drafty and cold. Also, there was a lack of prayer books and benches to kneel on during prayer.

At Old Sturbridge Village, there was a display of some of the clothes people wore back then. There was a fashion show, which described all the types of clothes people wore and explained how they were made. After the Revolutionary War was over, women no longer needed to make their own cloth. It could be made by a machine in a factory for them, and then the women could buy the cloth in a store. They then could make clothing from the material they bought. The materials used to make clothes were mostly silk and linen. A popular new style of the time was narrow shoes. Women got these ideas from magazines, shipped from Europe. The accessories worn by the women were flowers, feathers, and fans. The men wore silk handkerchiefs. Men and women who were in mourning wore special mourning garments. There often wore shawls and plain, black clothes. Towards the end of their mourning period, they wore half black and half gray. They also had a differ nt set of clothes for working on the field.

Another important building at Sturbridge Village was the tin shop. Normally, there was only a tin shop in one of every five towns. Old Sturbridge Village was one of those towns. The tinsmiths worked fourteen hour days for an average wage of one dollar. They usually worked six days a week, unless they hadn't made enough merchandise. They made kitchenware and candle holders out of imported tin from England. The tin came in small sheets, and and the tinsmith would have to cut it up to fit whatever size he wanted. To connect two pieces of tin, he would have to solder them together with a hot piece of metal.

One of the last sights that the students visited was the barn. Here, there were no horses. "Why aren't there any horses here? I thought they were very useful on the farm," one of the students asked. The man responded by telling the students that horses were very expensive at the time. If you did want to own a horse, you would have to own at least four acres of land to feed the horse. When the horse died, you would be able to eat it, but cattle could feed more people for a longer period of time. More people kept cattle and were able to make a living off of it more easily.

In conclusion, visiting Old Sturbridge Village helped to put colonial life into perspective. It helped the students learn interesting facts about the life style of people of the time period. It also helped to see the style of dress, the style of homes, and the types of animals that were kept on farms. It can make you realize how good life really is today. People have more rights in general. We are now able to work at whatever job we want to, male or female.