On Saturday June 1, 2013 I had a blast in Fredericksburg.
Having spent part of last summer there I was initially afraid that I did all there is to do in FXBG. I was delightfully wrong.
After walking through a two foot wide door
on Caroline Street their first sight is a huge built-in shelving unit littered with odd shaped and sized bottles of various colors, filled with who-knows-what. A docent is on hand to explain the uses of
each of the bottle contents and the innovative tools that Dr. Mercer “has”. In the next room another docent waits to carefully explain the types of procedures Mercer would perform for the people of FXBG --tooth extraction, blood letting, and amputation among the list.
Afterwards guests are allowed to explore the two other rooms in the home, which
are less eventful but the excitement of the previous experiences carry-over magically making a power-room enthralling.
The Hugh
Mercer Apothecary Shop (which is a museum)will be the best $5 (cash only) you will
spend at any museum. It was so great I’m
going to just list its qualities:
- · They encourage you smell everything in the jars –spices, roots, teas, concoctions the whole deal. I said in the last post that people like to eat the past, this museum allows them to smell it.
- · The costumed docents pretend they are in the 18thc without embarrassing themselves and the guests. For example: We are had conversation with the interpreter about our being from Florida, he asked if (at his time) we lived in English or Spanish land (English at the time, but the land went back and fourth a few times). Another especially fun conversation was about the relative kindness of one man for drugging his wife and chaining her in the family cellar instead of sending her to an infirmary. How romantic right? If you love sarcasms, as I do, you will be pleased. I do not like most costumed docents, I think its corny and too showy, but HMAS did a great job. They did not force the idea that they were 18thc people on guests by teasing them about cameras or commenting on "How odd" their clothing look. I was impressed.
- · It’s gruesome. They have live leeches. Hugh Mercer was a doctor so naturally the museum talks about 18th c medical practices- leeches, bloodletting, amputation and the like. The exhibit room is complete with teeth fragments, animal bones, and intimidating medical tools- and a leech named Hugh, of course.
- · The museum is the perfect size to do while walking down FXBG’s row of antique shops.
Now what I think they could do more of (but they don’t have too. You are beautiful the way you are Hugh Mercer Museum!) is talk about gender. Discussing medicine lends itself to larger discussions of sex and gender, our innards -their similarities and difference, who and how they can be soothed, abused, ticked and sucked. Hugh Mercer was doctor with remedies for many things, as the museum professes, but who delivered babies? If they wanted to get more in depth about the medical practices of the day they could talk about Mercer’s female counterparts, midwives and the like.
This museum offers guests two
things they love-- interaction and gore without causing undue disgust. How do
they make a vivid description of a tooth extraction or a amputation appear
normal and informative without sounding like a medical textbook? There must be
something in the herbs.
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