Banneker Museum Colonial Market Fair 2018

This past weekend was the 9th annual Colonial Market Fair at the Benjamin Banneker Museum in Ellicott City, MD. It's a small but increasing local event that seems to annually bring in a lot of spectators from all over the Howard/Baltimore/Arundel County areas.

Of the four years that I have participated (2014-2018), I have watched the CMF grow in size. From performances, to vendors, to demonstrations, and sutlers.

Saturday

Each year that I participate I always set up my display of 18th century women's fashion; I show everything from fancy ball gowns, jackets, hats, etc. to simple clothing like work jackets cotton petticoats and even underpinnings. This year due to the crappy weather that threatened us again this weekend, I decided to forego the fancy gowns and display rural 18th century women's clothing of the area. Basically your basic jacket and petticoat, underpinnings, and accessories. 

The only new things I added to the table were a couple of booklets that showed 1790's fashion prints and fabrics, and a linen Tignon which was a head wrap worn by African, Black, & Creole women (mostly in Louisiana and the Caribbean colonies). For those who have been reading my blog for some time, I did a write up on the construction and history back during my Internship in Colonial Williamsburg last year. So with that being said, I wanted to include more of both cultures when it came to 18th century fashion, and it worked out pretty well to my surprise. There were a lot of questions asked from visitors which suddenly opened up into deep conversations that we were all pretty enthused to talk about.   

due to the wet weather, I did not bring either of my mannequins or regency style gowns. 

On my friend Stephanie's side of the tent she performed her awesome demonstration of making beef stew, cabbages, and biscuits all 18th century style. She talked about the differences between open hearth cooking vs. campfire cooking, and even compared these methods to modern day cooking (how long things would take and how to gauge the temperature, etc). By the way, the food smelled so good but sadly due to regulations of the market fair we couldn't really eat the finished products (risk of food-borne illnesses and such). 

Later during the day while I had some downtime, I walked around and mingled with other demonstrators and sutlers and with some friends who were visiting the market fair. And on a similar note, I was even reunited with my 2 of my cousins who were doing their Piscataway Natives display a tent down from ours. I hadn't seen them since I was in high school so there was a lot of catching up to do in the 4 hours we had left of the market fair. 

Around 3:30PM, the participants and visitors were notified that there was a impending thunderstorm  and flood watch in our area and it was time to pack up and head indoors. The Heavens decided at the last minute to change its mind, and redirected the storm north to Baltimore City. We were spared.... for now....

Sunday

Today, I was to debut the museum's newest character for the market fair: Jemima Banneker. While it took a week to do the research and development to prepare for the program/event, I really had to think hard about some things pertaining to Jemima's personality that weren't really noted in any of my research other than her personality. What would she have worn, how did she speak, how she carried herself, etc. As a result, I decided to just have fun with the character. This was a festival after all and as Jemima, who is constantly having visitors come to your brother's cabin, wouldn't you want to be the best hostess you could be?

For those who aren't familiar with who Jemima Banneker was, here's what little background of Jemima I could get, thanks to some online research as well as a friend of mine who is actually her direct descendant!

Jemima Banneker was born free in 1737 to Mary Banneker and Robert Banneker (no relation). While the youngest daughter, she was one of 3 siblings to the infamous Benjamin Banneker. While Benjamin grew up going to a 1 room Quaker schoolhouse in Ellicott Mills, MD, it's safe to assume that his sisters were also attendees of the school as well and were taught to write and read the Bible by their grandmother Molly Welsh. As Benjamin and his sisters grew up, they were pretty close - since he never took a wife or had children of his own, Jemima and her 2 sisters took care of the house and looked after their eldest brother well into his elderly years. In 1757, Jemima married Samuel Delaney Lett at the age of 20 and bore 8 children. They eventually moved to Frederick Maryland and started their own homestead. By 1790 as her children grew older and moved westward she moved to Loudon County Virginia where she lived out the rest of her elderly years. She died sometime in the early 1800's. To this day her descendants still interact and network with the Benjamin Banneker Foundation and the museum. 

I will admit being nervous, but as visitors crowded into the cabin to hear the story of Jemima and Benjamin's upbringing, I felt a little more confident and was able to engage with them a little better. There was a perfect moment of zen when my mother came to visit and since I could not break character, I pulled her into the interpretation and exclaimed that she was Minta Bannaker whom I had sent out to run errands for Benjamin and came back wearing funny clothing. Needless to say, she loved it and even played along (all improv btw.).

Then, all of a sudden, it was as if the Heavens opened up and dumped a bucket worth of water on the cabin, and the rest of the museum area, just like the one from Six Flag's Hurricane Harbor! 

There was no mercy on the little fair that day.....

Well that's it for this year's colonial market fair. It also saddens me to say that this will also be my final year participating as well. There are plenty of new opportunities and experiences that await in the following year and I think it's high time that the space I have taken up for four years at the museum should be reserved for the new-comer who does bookbinding demos (just throwing that idea out there) or a new sutler with wares they want to sell to the public. So with that, it's time to pack up my sewing kit and move on to the next event.  

See you next time.