Research & Interpretation Related Priorities

 Hampton has a unique opportunity to combine archaeological investigation, the history of decorative arts, and research into the lives of those who lived and worked at Hampton into a story of life in America from the late 18th century to the near present. It is a story that would put Hampton on the map, a place where any American would want to visit, either in person, or via the virtual reality of the Internet. In developing such an historically accurate story, attention must be paid to new major themes of interpretation with the understanding that while those themes may be altered over time, the research that goes into their definition and public presentation will remain both accessible and cumulative. By that I mean that how we see and interpret the past is very much shaped by our present cultural filters from which it is impossible to escape altogether and which are themselves necessary for communication with the public. Only a short time ago the photograph of Nancy Brown Davis probably would have been captioned with the name of the child and the woman simply identified as a nanny or servant. Today our focus, for good reasons, is on the nanny and not the child. When at some point the interpretive interest returns to the child and the better understanding of his (or her) world, the research that went into establishing who the nanny was should be linked easily to the new interpretive slant for which the photograph provides evidence.

 At present there is lacking from the overall interpretive framework for Hampton any overall sense or understanding of :
 
 

• the interrelationship between the House and the fortune that built it. Research will uncover subtleties to the argument, but it is clear that it was built in a place contrary to almost all, if not all of the great houses of Maryland. It was built in the wilderness on a high hill in close proximity to its main source of sustenance, the ironworks. No interpretation of the house can be adequately sustained without understanding the link between the principal source of income and the labor which makes Hampton so different from other 'plantation' houses situated near water and central to an agricultural enterprise. Hampton's agricultural history follows and probably is sustained by the industrial development of the nearby iron works. The House exists as a monument to the success of Maryland's Iron Industry, the element in the economy of late Colonial Maryland that not only provided capital for Marylanders' branching out in successful competition with Scottish and English merchants (e.g. Wallace Davidson & Johnson), but also provided the impetus and location for seating the town, soon to be city, of Baltimore. There is a great story here. More needs to be done on the interelationship at all levels of the Furnace to building, maintaining, and supplying of the house and grounds with labor and capital. For example, a review of the Galloway Cheston Papers at the Maryland Historical Society would uncover a list of convicts, 1775, purchased by Captain Charles Ridgely for the ironworks. What happened to these eleven men and two women? Did they survive? Did they stay in the area and contribute in any other ways to the history of Hampton? Work has already been done on some convict servants who were indented (bound labor) to the Ridgelys [Hoyt, "The White Servants at 'Northampton,' 1772-74," Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. XXXIII, No. 2 (June, 1938)], but a simple text search through the existing research files would uncover that the John Willis whose time Captain Charles Ridgely purchased in 1775 may be the same John Willis who Charles Peterson refers to as an important gardener.

 

 

• the extraordinary importance of the role of the women at Hampton House, perhaps beginning with the mistresses, but by no means ignoring the role of women generally. The story of the Ridgely women alone is a powerful one that helps us better understand the degree to which women exercised control and influenced the course of what normally is perceived of as a male-dominated world. The story that could be told through the lives of Rebecca, Priscilla, Eliza, little Eliza, Margaretta, and Helen, emphasizing how they coped with what clearly were unveven and ultimately declining resources, is one of great drama. It ranges from the Methodist influence of Priscilla who even in death wielded enough power over her husband to help shape his decision to free his slaves, to the ways in which Helen grappled with the dramatic changes wrought by the Civil War.
• the interelationship between the natural world and the world reshaped by the human presence. Such an interpretive excercise must encompass the interelationship between city and countryside, which at first meant only Baltimore and Hampton but in time included the beginnings of the edge city we know today as Towson. The Ridgelys and those who worked with and for them were not self-contained at Hampton. As Baltimore City grew, time was spent and life lived in both places. Within the context of life in the city, associations were formed of major importance to the history of Hampton, the most obvious of which infused new capital through favorable marriages with wealthy merchants of limited status but generous means. But such an interpretive framework must also extend to how Hampton and the ironworks impacted the environment and altered it significantly, first in an exploitive way, and then, following in-law Buckler's model and urgings, in a restorative way. The Gunpowder today is as healthy as it is because the watershed was converted into a source of drinking water for Baltimore City, flooding Hampton's mines and halting the ravaging of the watershed forests.

 

 

• the African American presence. Any analysis must involve their role at the iron works and on the plantation and the dramatic cycles through which their experiences at Hampton passed. For example, the astounding facts that at one point all the slaves that the law would permit were freed by a conscience stricken father- Charles Carnan Ridgely, that the slave population was then reconstituted by an uncomprehending son (John), only to be 'lost' again through civil war, and then finally possibly 'reconstituted' to a degree for a third time through tenancy, share cropping, and other forms of indenture that persisted well into the twentieth century. On this point a great deal of good work has been undertaken by volunteers and staff working with Dr. Kent Lancaster, but the only formal interepretation for the public seems to be dependent on staff tours (begun well by Winona Peterson) and a xeroxed handout entitled Other Voices. These are a good beginning but far from a fully engaging interpretative overview derived from solid research.

 

 

• Dr. Kent Lancaster's research on the African American population at Hampton

 

 

Finally, how the story of Hampton is presented to the public is of crucial importance to the success of the site (both in terms of a sustaining income and establishing it in the front ranks of educational sites in the United States). I would strongly recommend the creation of a living history program that draws heavily from Goucher, Morgan, Hopkins, and other colleges nearby for budding actresses and actors who would engage the visitor in a persuasive interpretive program similar to that at St. Mary's City in scope. Carefully staged, such productions should be incorporated over time into an inter-active video/virtual reality series of programs on the WEB and the WEB-like network, by carefully recording the best of the acting in an electronic video archives (something, sadly, that has not been done at Plymouth Plantation or St. Mary's City). But initially the goal should be to bring to Hampton a lively and engaging set of actresses and actors who would help recreate the worlds that once were Hampton's. 

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Ed Papenfuse
State Archivist
Maryland State Archives

350 Rowe Boulevard
Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Email: Archives@mdarchives.state.md.us

© Research proposal for Hampton 1995 Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse