(Hayley, rolling out the hardtack)Last night Chris invited us all up for a cookout. Hayley and I went into Hardin to the grocery store after we finished in the Museum to pick up some burgers, chips, and buns. To say the least, Andrew, Hayley, and I were all really excited to switch out our Subway sandwich for some burgers! We all enjoy Subway, but Andrew and I still have over two months to try every combination (just turkey if you’re Hayley!). After our cookout Chris decided it would be a good time to begin making hardtack for visitors to try as they entered the Museum. Hardtack is a snack, if I can even call it that, that soldiers use to take into battle with them because it virtually never went bad. It is made of flour, salt, baking soda, and water. Sounds good, right? While in army camps across the United States, men would eat hardtack as their meals. If the hardtack was too hard the men would just dip it in their coffee in order to soften it up, or to remove the worms that might be infesting it. As you can see why would we not want to try this? After all we are learning about every other part of the battle, why not the food they had to eat. Hayley, Andrew, and I took turns trying to roll out the hardtack so that we could cut it into small squares in order to bake. Chris even got his hands dirty, literally, trying to mix all the ingredients together. Now any recipe that calls for three ingredients and afterwards needs to sit out in the open air because cling rap or plastic bags would cause it to become moldy sounds pretty fool-proof, but we are pretty sure we might have overcooked it. I guess we will just have to see what our fearless visitors think tomorrow!
While waiting for our hardtack to cook, Chris decided to show us some of his collections of autographed documents and pictures he has up around his house. I would have been happy with just seeing the picture of John F. Kennedy at the beach, mobbed by a few dozen old ladies, and the signed document that went with it, but then Chris showed us documents and pictures he had signed of Nixon’s resignation, Ford’s pardon of him, and even an autograph letter of Albert Einstein! Thomas Edison’s letter about the first film camera had the best handwriting out of any influential historical figure I have ever seen. It was elegant and very pretty, although he may not have liked to hear that. After seeing a ship’s document signed by James Madison and then Secretary of State James Monroe, Chris showed us the real entertainment of the night….Elizabeth Custer’s manuscript collection! We got to look through some pieces of her collection that did not fit in with the rest of her letters. It was amazing to hold a piece of paper that she had actually written on and touched herself! Although some of her handwriting will take more than a few minutes to decipher, all that we could read immediately told as little pieces of her life that most people in this world do not know about. It was all so surreal.
Hayley here. I would just like to comment a bit further on the Libbie Custer documents that we got a chance to handle and read through last night. We saw some of Libbie’s most private documents, not because they were journal entries, but because they are the writings of her daily happenings, the witty quotes or poems or to-do lists that she had the inkling to scribble down. I believe that it is not always the heartfelt letters or journal entries that reveal Mrs. Custer, but instead the importance of small, quick notes and scribbles. And there are a lot of them. Libbie saved almost every piece of paper upon which she ever doodled. Some would like to call it hoarding, but I like to think of it as a woman with historical awareness. Researches desperately need people like Libbie Custer to record their lives for future prosperity. For her hoarding tendencies, I would like to say, from a historian-in-training: thank you Libbie Custer.
While waiting for our hardtack to cook, Chris decided to show us some of his collections of autographed documents and pictures he has up around his house. I would have been happy with just seeing the picture of John F. Kennedy at the beach, mobbed by a few dozen old ladies, and the signed document that went with it, but then Chris showed us documents and pictures he had signed of Nixon’s resignation, Ford’s pardon of him, and even an autograph letter of Albert Einstein! Thomas Edison’s letter about the first film camera had the best handwriting out of any influential historical figure I have ever seen. It was elegant and very pretty, although he may not have liked to hear that. After seeing a ship’s document signed by James Madison and then Secretary of State James Monroe, Chris showed us the real entertainment of the night….Elizabeth Custer’s manuscript collection! We got to look through some pieces of her collection that did not fit in with the rest of her letters. It was amazing to hold a piece of paper that she had actually written on and touched herself! Although some of her handwriting will take more than a few minutes to decipher, all that we could read immediately told as little pieces of her life that most people in this world do not know about. It was all so surreal.
Hayley here. I would just like to comment a bit further on the Libbie Custer documents that we got a chance to handle and read through last night. We saw some of Libbie’s most private documents, not because they were journal entries, but because they are the writings of her daily happenings, the witty quotes or poems or to-do lists that she had the inkling to scribble down. I believe that it is not always the heartfelt letters or journal entries that reveal Mrs. Custer, but instead the importance of small, quick notes and scribbles. And there are a lot of them. Libbie saved almost every piece of paper upon which she ever doodled. Some would like to call it hoarding, but I like to think of it as a woman with historical awareness. Researches desperately need people like Libbie Custer to record their lives for future prosperity. For her hoarding tendencies, I would like to say, from a historian-in-training: thank you Libbie Custer.
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