History in Bloom

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A gift that keeps on giving- – This Flamingo Plant (a.k.a Justicia carnea or Jacobinia carnea) was given to Britannia Peter in the mid to late 1800’s by an “admirer.” It still flowers and is blooming right now by the garage!

Found in the Attic – Part II: Music and Medicine

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Late 19th Century Harmonica, with Box
A large F scale harmonica with 24 holes in excellent condition! The wooden core is flanked by metal on both sides, which is attached by screws and nuts on each end. There are fingerprints on the metal which may be from any number of Peter family musicians, but are more likely from an earlier collection exploration by the foundation.

Materials: Metal, brass, wood, textiles, paper;
From: Ands Koch; Germany

19th Century Scarificator
Brass 12-blade octagonal scarificator used for bloodletting practices. The device has a large lever on top to cock the steel blades and the side knob releases the spring-loaded rotary lancets to make shallow cuts on the patient. The top knob adjusts the cutting depth of the blades. The blades are grouped into two pairs of 6 blades, which alternate from left to right and overlap in the center. The scarificator measures approximately 3.5 cm high, excluding the lever and height adjustment knob.
The leather-covered wooden box is lined with burgundy velvet. A brass hook on the main portion of the box swings to catch in an eye attached to the top lid.
The scarificator is stained with possible smudged fingerprints. The lances are caked with an unknown substance and are beginning to show signs of corrosion.

Materials: Brass, steel, wood, leather, velvet
From: Unknown manufacturer

Found in the Attic!

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While cataloguing boxes of objects stored in the attic, Collections Assistant, Joni Joseph made some interesting finds:


Buttons from 1800!
These three porcelain buttons c. 1800, are hand painted with images of a classical female profile. Our resident Jeweler y expert believes they would have originally on a man’s waistcoat, though they were found in a box of women’s objects. Further research is necessary to find out who they belonged to and how they got to Tudor Place…

 

Presidential Memorabilia!
The metamorphosis card is much like the current Scanimation craze in children’s books. We assume it is a political collectible since Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Taft ran for the presidency in 1912. Measurements: L – 12.5 cm, W – 7.6 cm; not terribly large – about the size of a postcard. The lined transparency was probably attached to a tab of some sort that extended through the half-moon cutout allowing the viewer to move it back and forth. This portion is missing. The lines really need to be in the correct spot to reveal the changing images.

 

Check back for more discoveries as the cataloguing continues…

Tudor Place Sago Produces Rare Flower!

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Native of Java (island of Indonesia), fossil records date the Sago to the early Mesozoic Era. The Sago is not related to the common palm except for in general habit of growth.

The male & female flowers grow on separate plants and are pollinated by the wind, insects or human intervention. Male flowers, or inflorescence, are usually 18-20 inches long and cylindrical in form. The female inflorescence is in the form of a semi-globose head, yielding 100-200 large bright red edible nut-like seeds which ripen around the end of December.

(Looks like we have the female…)


The Sago arrived in North America in 1775 on the famous Boston Tea Party ship. There were 3 sagos on board, the largest went to Mount Vernon, one went to Governor Morris, and the last to Pratt Nursery which is where Tudor Place’s Sago is descended from.

Here at Tudor Place in 1813 Martha and Thomas Peter (and son Washington) went to Philadelphia to visit their daughter Columbia at Madam Revardie’s school. There they bought several small plants and a sago palm at Pratt’s Garden. This began the sago palm’s existence as a traditional landscape feature on TP south lawn.

Currently the Tudor Place Sago Palm is resting by the bench outside the visitor center. You can see this rare and beautiful flower by looking up and through the leaves!