Throwback Thursday: It’s time for a good old-fashioned guessing game!

Raise your hand if you like talking about old stuff! Part of the job of a museum is to preserve and protect historical artifacts, whether they are textiles, documents, ceramics, toys, silver, or anything else a historical person owned, made, and used. As a house museum, Locust Grove possesses many more objects than we can display in the house or museum gallery. So today, we’re going to play Name That Artifact! Archives intern Kaitlyn kindly chose and photographed several artifacts from our collection for your especial benefit. Today, we’re presenting two of them, and it’s up to you to guess what they are! Are you ready? Let the guessing begin!

Mystery Item #1:

Hint: This document dates to c. 1815-1818.

Mystery Item #2:

Hint: The design of this item is unique to the Croghan family.

Friday, October 3, 2014: The answers are revealed!

Thanks for playing, everyone, either through comments or social media! Now, let’s identify some mystery items!

Mystery Item #1 is…George Rogers Clark’s will! Commenters R. and Jo were correct! It is dated November 1815, and was used following his death on February 13, 1818 at Locust Grove.

Mystery Item #2 was a little trickier but it is…the Croghan family wax seal! Featuring an insignia unique to the Croghan family, it would have been used to seal and authenticate letters and other important documents.

Now, friendly readers, time for a little feedback. What did you think of this game? Would you like to see more artifacts from our collections? What else (or who else) would you like to see featured on the blog? Leave a comment or find me on Twitter (@HannahRegular) to weigh in! Thanks for all your suggestions!

With kind regards,

Hannah

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