AUGUSTA — Old Fort Western plans to celebrate the life of Martha Ballard with the program Martha Ballard’s World: Wife, Mother, Healer, Horticulturist.
The event is set for 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, at the 16 Cony St. fort.
The following rotating stations center on activities about which Ballard wrote in her diary.
• At the kitchen hearth, people can learn about the types of domestic activities Ballard and her daughters engaged in during August.
• Textiles played an essential role in their lives. People can work different types of looms, learn about fibers, and card and spin wool. There is a Fort Western sign garden with 18th-century dye plants honoring Ballard and her daughters.
• Attendees can explore her place in the community where she lived and with whom she had daily interactions.
• In the garden, people can learn about herbs and the plants available for the 18th-century housewife for consumption and healing.
At 3 p.m., there will be an 18th-century tea in the south parlor of the Garrison, where Ballard often partook the beverage with Susanna Cony Howard (Judge James Howard’s second wife).
The cost for this program is $25. To register, oldfortwestern.org. Check out Fort Western’s Facebook page for daily quotations from Ballard’s diary.
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