June 2024

June may not be a big travel month for us, but we are definitely staying busy. For our family, June is where we tie up loose ends from the spring and can really start on summer projects. At the shop we are expanding our receiving area to more efficiently process incoming goods and packages. The storefront is busier than ever since opening on April 8th and it has been wonderful to see so many people in person and offer store pickup on orders, saving our customers money.  

Everything tastes better over a campfire and when that isn’t an option, the grill is the next best thing. We have personally been experimenting with our historic cast irons and iron cookware on a modern grill and recommend giving it a try. We challenge you this month to pick a historic or historically inspired recipe and show us how it turns out! Like Jonathan Swift (and several others before him) wrote, “It was a brave man who first ate an oyster,” so try something new.  

---

Celebrating Father’s Day 

While we normally talk about Founding Fathers. However, on June 16th we are celebrating a man we simply call Dad. When we talk with customers one thing we hear a lot is “I started reenacting with my dad.” We would like to propose a toast to love, leadership, the men who raised us, and the wisdom they granted us. Happy Father’s Day. 

---

National Pollinators Week 

It is indisputable that the landscape we see today is very different than what our ancestors experienced. You may be surprised at how many trends and traditions in your garden originated with the styles of the founders. The book Founding Gardeners is available at our storefront and website, shares anecdotes and records from the founders on their passions for the natural world. Trends like environmentalism were popularized by James Madison. We suggest putting up a birdhouse like our traditional bird bottle, and settling in with Founding Gardeners to observe the worlds that exist in your own back yard.  

--- 

New Month, New Arrival 

At the behest of many customers, we have finally added a new color of wool breeches to our collection. We love hearing your wants and opinions and are always excited to pull a project off the drawing board and onto the shelves! Let us know what else you need and you just might see an announcement in a future Red Lion News-Letter.  

 ---

Happy Birthday Clayton! 

Clayton has been with Samson Historical since 2021. If you’re calling or writing with a comment, question, or concern, he is the first person you reach! You can count on Clay to find you the answer and we can count on him to lend a hand to anyone and bring the best dishes to the group pitch-ins. Happy Birthday Clay! We would make you a cake but you’re the best chef of any of us.  

 ---

This Month in History 

 June 4th, 1783 The Montgolfier brothers launched the first public display of their new flying machine in Annonay, France. This “globe aerostatique” was comprised of a lightweight wooden box covered in silk taffeta and a balloon crafted from cloth lined with paper, and coated with alum as fireproofing. All of this was held together with nearly 2,000 buttons. The balloon rose to about 3,000 feet and stayed aloft for nearly 10 minutes before returning to earth over a mile and a half from where it had been released. 

 Shortly after this successful demonstration, the Montgolfiers gave a duck, rooster, and sheep the ride of a lifetime, launched off of the lawn of Versailles in front of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. The barnyard trio landed safely, 2 miles away, 8 minutes later.  News of this grand display of ingenuity spread far and wide, inspiring the scientific world. 

About two years later, on June 5th 1785, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier took this inventing even further and, in doing so, became the first victim of human flight. Rozier had a plan to add hydrogen into the balloon to increase the duration and distance of the flight, therefore allowing him to cross the English channel. He filled his aircraft with a combination of hot air and hydrogen. Tragedy struck when Rozier's balloon exploded in mid-air a mere thirty minutes after the voyage began. The calamity did not stymie progress, instead it catalyzed the world of aeronautics to the next discoveries.  

The invention reached the young country of America on January 9th via Jean-Pierre Blanchard. Blanchard had flown with one of America’s first weather observers Dr. John Jeffries, in France several years prior. Now masses congregated at the Walnut Street Jail's prison yard in the U.S. capital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Cannons were fired hourly, counting down to the takeoff. President  Washington was in attendance along with fellow politicians and future presidents; Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, and James Monroe.  

 Was Blanchard’s voyage a success? Keep an eye out for the next blog “Sic Itur Ad Astra : So We Go to the Stars” To find out.  

 --- 

Upcoming Events 

Old Fort Niagara, July 27th & 28th 

Old Fort Niagara is one of those special places where the veil dividing past and present is so thin you can almost touch the other side. We are preparing to travel to this wonderful harbor of history and hope to see many of you there. Though it has been several years since we have traveled to upstate New York, the sight of the castle by candlelight is a memory that never fades and experience we cannot wait to relive.  

Saturday & Sunday 

July 27th & 28th, 2024 

10:00 am – 5:00 pm EST 

102 Morrow Plaza, Fort Niagara State Park Youngstown, NY 14174 

Admission: $21 adults, $13 children