Artifacts

Hey fellows this will help you understand the artifacts in Smith's Castle! :) enjoy!

This is what they used as money back then. If they don't have enough they cut it into eighths so they will have enough. They are coins. To be specific it is called Spanish coins and wampums

This is the sheep sheer back then. It looks different from the one we have now.

This is a beaver pelt. It is important because Europeans used them to make waterproof hats. The natives traded the pelts for metal goods.

credit to https://rifootprints.com/2014/08/09/the-narragansett-at-cocumscussoc/ by Robert A. Geake

This is the recipe for the Good Rhode Island Cheese. The people who came from Europe brought cows with them and the salt water washed over the grass so the salt absorbed into the grass so the cows ate it. Then the people milked the cow and made cheese that's why the cheese is salty.

This is the waterproof beaver hat. You had to be a very rich colonist to own something made with beaver fur.

This is a quill and a piece of paper for writing letters or just writing.

This is a sickle, or bagging hook. It is a hand-held agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting, or reaping, grain crops or get rid of crops and plants.

Here is Morgan again laying on an old bed the Smith and Updike family owned a long time ago.

This is how the expression "sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite" came from because of the rope that's under the mattress.

A loom is a machine that weaves strings together to make cloth.

The artifact is a hook that is called a S hook. The S hook is for cooling food if it is too hot you do it by taking one s hook off and leave the other one on. If it is too cold you add one s hook to the other s hook.

This the kitchen and it looks different than the one we have now. The thing that looks like a broom is the butter churn.


This is a spinning wheel. It is used for spinning wool into thread.

The artifact you see here are hand-dipped candles. The colonists would dip the wick into the wax. To me, they kind of look like sausages.

This is a old bread board. This is used to cut the bread.

This girl's name is Morgan and she is carrying a thing that holds water. They get water from the well. The thing she is carrying is called a yoke, not an egg yolk.

This is what colonists used as medicine or herbs to heal their families and other people. The herbs were basil, mint, parsley,chamomile, and burdock. You see the bowls and the thick stick to smash the herbs for medicine.

This is the directions for making dyed wool. That is what they used back then ( without the cardboard that you see in the picture).

These are all tools for making Good Rhode Island Cheese. There's the cheese cloth, the cheese mold, and other tools.

This is a Dutch oven or pot with 4 little stubby legs.

This is how you make butter back then: step 1 milk cow(s) step 2 leave the milk to cool in a cool place ( you put the milk in a dish called shallow dish so the cream could rise up) step 3 after a half day or so, the cream was skimmed off and ready to put in the churn. also if it is summer then you don't want to wait that long.

This is a example of the trading post Richard Smith would have had. It 's not the original, just an exhibit.