Got to meet the "Father of Historical Archaeology" yesterday

Bill D. (VA)

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Oct 7, 2008
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Yesterday afternoon my hunting partner Dan and I and our wives made the long drive out to a rural county in eastern VA to attend a special event sponsored by the local historical society there. We also met up with another of my buddies, Joeyfresh, and were thrilled to be able to listen to the renown keynote speaker - Ivor Noel Hume. He is probably America's foremost expert in the recovery and identification of colonial artifacts, particularly in Virginia. He was originally from England where he worked in the Museum of London, and came over to the US in 1956 to assist Colonial Williamsburg (CW) with a study of black glass bottles that were being recovered there, and never went back. He later became the long-time director for CW's archaeological research program. He has authored more than 20 books, and I have almost all of them. After his talk we were able to meet and chat with him briefly, and each of us brought a book for him to sign. And we couldn't leave without getting a pic of the 4 of us. In addition, we were able to go on a walking tour of a very historic 17th century property and enjoy the majestic views of the river. All-in-all a very fun day, and I feel very privileged and honored to have been able to meet the now 86 year old man who has taught me many of the things I know about colonial artifacts through his many informative and well-written books and other publications. Now Dan, Joey, and I are all fired up to get out in the fields and write some history for ourselves.
 

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That is awesome Bill....It is a day you will remember forever...You have to love colonial relics..Must have been a real treat talking to someone with so much knowledge in colonial history...now I'm fired up to go detecting as well.
 

I'm glad to see that you were able to meet one of the foremost archaeologist in colonial history for your area. It is certainly great to be able to speak to the experts and pick their brains on the stuff that really stokes your fires. I had a similar experience when I was in Miami and got to meet Robert Marx, one of the first underwater treasure hunters turned underwater archaeologist in the USA. It was a memorable conversation, I still have his signed copy of "The History of Underwater Exploration".
ZDD
 

Very cool.

I know which one you are, because your pinching his butt...lol........ I think that's why he's smiling....
 

Very cool Bill. I remember reading one of his books that I got out of our local library when I was a kid. Can't remember the the name of the book, but it had to do with finding relics on the banks of the Thames. Later on I came to realize that he examined and helped identify ceramics and glass from the excavations at Fort Ligonier, a British French & Indian War fort in my hometown (where I found my first relics in 1964 at the age of 7). For anybody interested in Colonial relics, he is a legend. I can imagine how excited you guys were. I bet you wished you could have talked his ear off :laughing7:
 

That was pretty exciting Bill. You forgot to mention how you were just strolling down the beach with your beautiful wife, bent over to tie your shoe and in Colonial Bill fashion, you popped up with an 18th century mallet bottle base in your hand, lol. It's almost like if you weren't careful, you'd trip over colonial relics :laughing7:
 

What a treat, Bill. What was the focus of his speech?

Does he have the Limey accent?

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What a treat, Bill. What was the focus of his speech?

Does he have the Limey accent?

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I envy Bill for meeting I.N. Hume in person and having his photo taken. I have all three books in your photos Surf, and most all the books INH has written except for his books on terrapins. I read All the Best Rubbish back in the 1970s when it first came out from a book at the library and I was smitten by his writing style and his love of old things, "rubbish" if you will. So started acquiring his books one by one and have them all I think. Wrote to Mr. Hume some years ago and asked him to send me his autograph which he did and he had the greatest looking autograph you have ever seen.

Think I still have two copies of All the Best Rubbish, as it is one of my all time favorites. mud larks, white clay pipes from the Thames, ticking of old clocks, York River finds, etc. What a guy he is. I would kill to meet him in person. :icon_thumleft:

BTW....I lived in Virginia almost two years while in the military and did a lot of metal detecting then (early 1972-late 73) before I was aware of INH. but we did visit Yorktown etc.
 

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I will tell you this, that many of todays "young" freshly minted archaeologists, the new crop, do not consider I.N.H. an archaeologist and sneer when you mention him, much to my disgust and disdain. I consider Mr. Hume the top of the heap.
 

All the Best Rubbish! That's the book I read from the library back in the 1970s when I was in my bottle digging days!
Ha...me too Steve. I was digging bottle back in the 70s when I was reading that book. small world eh?
 

What a treat, Bill. What was the focus of his speech?

Does he have the Limey accent?

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His talk was fairly short and was mostly a brief history about how he came to Virginia and got started into the business of colonial archaeology. Nothing specific about sites, but it was still a pleasure just to see him speak. And yes, he still has a rather strong accent in spite of spending the last 57 years in this country.
 

That was pretty exciting Bill. You forgot to mention how you were just strolling down the beach with your beautiful wife, bent over to tie your shoe and in Colonial Bill fashion, you popped up with an 18th century mallet bottle base in your hand, lol. It's almost like if you weren't careful, you'd trip over colonial relics :laughing7:

Yeah, that was pretty cool to eyeball that small sliver of black in the sand which turned into a bottle base. Too bad it wasn't a silver half crown or gold guinea. That site has to be absolutely oozing with early relics.
 

These are books in my personal library written by INH:


And two autographs, one in my copy of All the Best Rubbish and the other on one of his business cards:
 

Great story - I'll be buying some of his books.
 

Awesome! I picked up "All The Best Rubbish" at a library sale back in grade-school and read it many times over. Absolutely enchanting. Hume is the man.
 

Very cool.

I know which one you are, because your pinching his butt...lol........ I think that's why he's smiling....

Actually, I'm the old fart on the left and that's Dan on the right with Joey in the background.
 

Actually, I'm the old fart on the left and that's Dan on the right with Joey in the background.

And I was not grabbing his butt - though if I could have had access to hunt that site - things could be arranged and names could be forgotten.

Had a blast Bill and it was great to meet Joey - the most clean cut detectorist I have seen in a long while (and I thought I use to fit that mold HA)

Dan
 

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