Williamsburg Update #9
Josh Rachita, Historical Interpreter
*Josh is interning for the summer at Colonial Williamsburg.*
July 18, 2021
Hello
All,
This week was a very special week
for me! My family got to visit and see me working in the shop. This week I
started some new projects. I kept working on the fireplace shovels, and I also
am working on a flesh or meat fork for cooking. I also took a trip to Wilson,
North Carolina with my host this summer. In Wilson there is a collection of
large pinwheels/weathervanes, called whirligigs, made by a local farmer. When
he died, they were brought to a park downtown.
The first Rachitas came to
Williamsburg in 1957. My grandfather, who was thirteen, was here with his
parents on a family trip. This was also the first year that Queen Elizabeth
came to visit. When my dad was four, my grandfather decided to start a family
tradition by coming back every summer. With the exception of last year, there
has been a Rachita in Williamsburg every year since 1971. I think that is quite
an accomplishment and has certainly impacted my path in life. I first attended
the family trip in 2005. My sister and I dressed up as colonial people and did
all the sight-seeing. I also came back in 2017 and met with the master
blacksmith, Ken Schwarz. We discussed career paths, blacksmithing technique,
and he suggested that I apply for the summer internship someday. I know for a
fact that meeting helped me to narrow my focus on the type of blacksmithing and
my career.
Vollis Simpson was the farmer that
made the whirligigs. He lived in the 20th and early 21st
century. As he aged, his huge collection of towering sculptures fell into
disrepair. In 2010, the city moved many of them downtown and made a park so
people could enjoy them. Because many had broken down from years of exposure,
they had to reproduce some of them that could not be restored. I thought that
this was very interesting as it is essentially what we do in the blacksmith
shop every day! A reproduction of an 18th century object has the
same principles as 21st century reproductions. They also are in the
process of creating a formal museum near the park. It was very cool to see the
establishment of a new museum and see new history being written. It’s a great
reminder that the events happening in our present day will one day be
remembered by those of the future.
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The photos this week are me in the magazine in 2005 while wearing a costume my grandmother made for me, my grandfather in the stocks at CW in 1957, and then whirligigs at Vollis Simpson Park in Wilson, North Carolina.
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