Renaming the Anderson blacksmith shop site has raised interest in our use terminology and our rationale for renaming the site. We thought it would be useful to look more carefully at the new name, “Anderson’s Blacksmith Shop and Public Armoury,” what that renaming tells us, and why we chose to rename the site.
For twenty five years now, the site has been known as the James Anderson Blacksmith Shop. This designation is appropriate, for as noted in the previous blog entries, the site was owned by blacksmith James Anderson. For most of the time that Anderson lived and worked on the site, he ran an independent business as a blacksmith.
In the last several years, Colonial Williamsburg’s interpretive programming has focused more closely on the events leading up to and including the Revolutionary War. This slight shift in the period of focus to include the war, offered the opportunity to explore James Anderson’s wartime activities. As you may have seen in the Armoury video “Arsenal of the Revolution” on this web site, the Anderson site allows us to tell the story of technology’s role in building a nation that is based on the political and social ideals that were defined and debated just down the street in the Capitol building. It has been my contention for many years that iron and steel played as important a role in our independence as did the principles established by the founding fathers. Solid principles sometimes need to be reinforced at the point of a bayonet.
The Powder Magazine on Market Square.
Blacksmith James Anderson was appointed to serve the Colony of Virginia as an armourer, caring for the military arms stored at the Magazine, the octagonal building located on Market Square. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a magazine as “A building, room or compartment (of a ship, etc), for the storage of arms, ammunition, or other military provisions.”, and that indeed was the function of Williamsburg’s Powder Magazine. It was a warehouse of arms, ammunition, and military equipment for the defense of the colony.
Within the Magazine building on Market Square was a small armourer’s shop, intended as a workspace for maintaining the stored weapons. This work consisted primarily of disassembling and cleaning the weapons, and probably did not contain a forge or anvil; it was likely furnished with work benches and vises suitable for such maintenance. Since the appointed armourer was normally a blacksmith or gunsmith, any forge work necessary could be carried out in their private workshop which was located nearby. In peacetime, demands on the armourer were not great. The work mostly consisted of shackling and unshackling prisoners at the Gaol, periodically cleaning the weapons, and doing small maintenance jobs on ironwork in and around the public buildings. There are account entries for work such as making duplicate keys for the locks of the Capitol building, for instance.
With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, circumstances changed. Virginia’s leadership anticipated a large increase in the need for weapons manufacture and maintenance, and dedicated funds to establish this wartime infrastructure. James Anderson assumed the role of Public Armourer for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and a new armoury was built on his property to handle the increased work load (see previous blog entries). The Oxford English Dictionary defines an Armoury as “The workshop of an armourer; a place where arms are manufactured.” In our case, few weapons were manufactured at this armoury, the work was primarily repair and maintenance.
Later in the war, correspondence refers to a building at Point of Fork, west of Richmond as an arsenal. Oxford English Dictionary defines an arsenal as: A public establishment for the manufacture and storage, or for the storage alone, of weapons and ammunition of all kinds, for the military and naval forces of the country.” This definition implies a function that differs slightly from the one on Anderson’s property, which was really a workshop rather than a storage facility.
Examining these terms then, it is clear that there is significant overlap in their definitions. Magazine and Arsenal could really be used interchangeably. An arsenal and a magazine may have areas devoted to armourer’s work. An arsenal may also be an armoury.
Our choice of name for the new Anderson shop is based on documentary references to the facility during the Revolutionary War period. Correspondence from the time refers to the building as the Public Armoury, or occasionally as the public blacksmith shop, or simply the public smith’s shop. In order to try to assign a name that captures all of these subtleties from the time period, we settled on the name Anderson’s blacksmith shop and public armoury. The property belonged to James Anderson, the buildings on that property were funded by the Commonwealth and operated by Anderson as a wartime armoury, and following the war, Anderson returned to the site and operated a blacksmithing business as an independent businessman.
Contributed by Kenneth Schwarz, Blacksmith, Master of the Shop
As usual, there has been much thought which has gone into what is done at Williamsburg.
The care and attention to detail has not gone un noticed.
The views of the building show very neat and skilled workmanship. At times I watched the masons “buttering” the bricks as if they were diapering a newborn.
I am quite anxious to see the new building in person!
Thank you again for providing the cameras.
Dave, Thanks for your comment and your interest in our project. I hope the blog will expose some of the “unseen” work that goes into our programming here at Colonial Williamsburg. Our goal as tradesmen is to understand the thought process of our predecessors, and to recreate the activites and products found in a typical workshop from the period. It does take a tremendous amount of study and attention to the detail. We want our buildings to have the same “character” as buildings from the period, and so techniques of applying mortar, processing timber, fabricating nails and hinges have to reflect what was done in pre-industrial times. It is exciting work. The cameras give a good view of the place, but when you visit, you receive the full sensory experience- the sights, smells, sounds and texture of an earlier time. We look forward to seeing you!
Ken
Renaming the site makes alot of sense. I agree it defintely took more than policies to get our great nation under way, iron and steel were obviously a big part as well. How do they say, action speaks louder than words. Thanks for the continued explanations. I guess the camera showing the fireplace will need moved soon. It appears the chimney is almost complete except for the cap. Will we be able to view it from inside the kitchen?
Thanks for your continued interest Ron. The new name is a small hint of the many changes to come. Adding the Armoury period to interpretation of the Anderson site opens up so many possibilities for programming in the coming years. It will be exciting to see how the whole project develops from documentary research to construction and ultimately to bringing the site to life!
As you have probably see, the camera has been relocated to the kitchen interior.