454 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1953 



hammers, the punches, the drills, enlighten us as to the blacksmith's 

 tools used in the Deane Shop and Forge. In like manner an assort- 

 ment of tools — routers, compass saws, gouges, chisels, ogees — ^reveal 

 some of the "mysteries" of the cabinetmaker's trade. 



Although colonial Williamsburg is especially concerned with the 

 eighteenth century, the discoveries of the archeologists cover the long 

 period from the first settlement of Middle Plantation to comparatively 

 recent times. Thus they have made it possible to follow the changes 

 and developments in a restricted area through three centuries, changes 

 in architecture, in fashions, in farming, in cooking, in sanitation, in 

 heating, in transportation, in manufacture. In short, the objects taken 

 out of the ground, when arranged in chronological order, present a 

 panorama of life as fascinating as any which comes from the written 

 word. 



At the beginning of the archeological work, as its value became more 

 and more apparent, the greatest care was taken to see that nothing was 

 overlooked. All fragments of stone, marble, china, glass, earthenware, 

 together with locks, nails, keys, tools, everything save brickbats, were 

 placed in boxes and removed for examination. Then the remaining 

 debris was taken out in wheelbarrows and later screened. After the 

 artifacts, large and small, had been cleaned, they were classified, cata- 

 loged, and stored where they would be accessible to the restoration staff 

 and the general historian. If certain objects were especially interest- 

 ing, they might be selected for the museum to give visitors a view of a 

 cross section of the entire collection and through it a better under- 

 standing of the methods used in securing the fidelity upon which Mr. 

 Rockefeller insisted. 



There can be no doubt that colonial Williamsburg has emphasized 

 a field of research which offers great opportunities for American his- 

 torians. Hitherto they have depended too much upon manuscript 

 evidences. It would be rash to say that in historical investigation 

 the pickax and the trowel are as mighty as the pen, yet it has been 

 demonstrated at Williamsburg that the one can be a most helpful ally 

 of the other. Perhaps the day is not distant when the social historian, 

 whether he is writing about the New England Puritans, or the Penn- 

 sylvania Germans, or the rice planters of Southern Carolina, will look 

 underground, as well as in the archives, for his evidence. 



