Gentleman Soldiers and Richard Mutton, Two New Exhibits in Jamestown's Archaearium Museum

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Opening the Vault: What Collections Can Say About Jamestown’s Global Trade Network", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Jamestown Rediscovery recently expanded “Gentleman Soldiers,” an original installation in the Voorhees Archaearium archaeology museum. Since the museum’s opening in 2006, the team has recovered scores of personal arms, armor, and accoutrements that belonged to Jamestown’s upper class. These leaders, influenced by their previous military experience and worldly travels, brought with them advanced, high quality, custom made pieces that exceeded the standard issue Virginia Company supply. Additional, mementos and tokens that reflect their class and status augment the gallery to tell a more complete story of these important individuals in Jamestown’s founding. Conversely, “The Short, Sad life of Richard Mutton” in the People of Jamestown gallery tells the dramatic story of a lower class boy killed a few weeks after arrival. This new exhibit uses science, history, and archaeology to relate the remains of JR1225B to a named young man among James Fort’s original 104 men and boys.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023   •
• Opening the Vault: What Collections Can Say About Jamestown’s Global Trade Network

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow