There is a story behind each artifact. Here are just a few...

• Prehistoric Stone Tools
• "He in Glory America in Tears"
• From a 19th Century Doctor’s Office
• Porcelain Tea Service
• "Opium Smokers"

Prehistoric Stone Tools
Stonegate Site, Braddock Road 44AX166

These artifacts were discovered at a site where stone tools were manufactured by Native Americans in the Late Archaic period, around 2,500 BC. These tools broke during manufacture, and were discarded on the site. Finished tools like these were used by hunter-gatherers to hunt small animals, and to process plant material.

The prehistoric levels at the Stonegate Site in Alexandria’s West End, where these artifacts were found in 1993, remained undisturbed through the millennia until they were excavated prior to construction of townhouses. A portion of the site was set aside as an archaeological preserve.

"He in Glory America in Tears"
Holiday Inn Site, 400 King Street 44AX91-Well 4KSW-13

This creamware pitcher was made in England to commemorate the death of George Washington. With Mount Vernon just eight miles away, and a town house on Cameron Street near the center of Alexandria, Washington was a frequent figure in town, worshiping at Christ Church and attending balls at Gadsby’s Tavern. The design is from a print published in 1800. This pitcher may have once belonged to the family of a tanner, Robert William Kirk, who owned a wooden store and dwelling on this property, at 416-418 King Street, until 1804.

Above George Washington’s portrait are the words "He in Glory/America in Tears." Around the urn are the words "George Washington Born Feb. 11, 1732/Gen’l of the American Armies 1775/Resigned 1785/President of the United States 1789/Resigned 1796/General of the American Armies 1798/Died Universally Regretted 14th December 1799." A cartouche beneath the spout bears the legend "A Man Without Example/A Patriot Without Reproach."

From a 19th Century Doctor’s Office
Market Square, 44AX94 Well MB-E

These artifacts were found in a well on the site of a doctor’s home and office from around 1840. Along with the medical implements were found medicine bottles and ointment pots, and even a skull used as an anatomy model. From left to right in the photograph are a bone handle of a lancet, a bone tongue depressor, two pewter syringes and a glass syringe. The bone and bristle tooth brushes, eyeglasses, and clay pipe were probably used by the doctor and his family.

Porcelain Tea Service
Alexandria Courthouse Site 44AX1 Well D

Fragments of 22 pieces of this beautiful Chinese Export Porcelain tea and coffee service were found discarded in a privy behind a three story brick house at 522-524 King Street. This elaborate set includes traditional Chinese tea bowls and forms designed specifically for European and American markets, including narrow coffee cups with handles and the tea pot with entwined handles which is modeled after an English creamware form. The urn motif and elaborate border are enameled in sepia, red and gold. Most porcelain tea wares found at archaeological sites in Alexandria have much simpler floral designs and borders.

The tea set would have been used by the family of one of the renters who occupied the site in the early part of the 19th century. The house was built in 1812 for Catherine Coryton, the daughter of silversmith Adam Lynn. Some of the renters who occupied the residential portion of the property in the early 19th century, and who may have owned, and broken, this tea service include retail merchants Isaac Cannell, Lewis McKenzie and Bartholomew Cranston and physician Orlando Fairfax. Tenants of the first floor shop included a shoemaker, bookbinder and tailor.

"Opium Smokers"
Alexandria Courthouse Site, 44AX1 Well B

This blue transfer printed pearlware pitcher was produced by G.M. & C.J. Mason & Co. of the Fenton Works, Lane Delph, Staffordshire, between 1813 and 1826. The print, entitled "Opium Smokers," shows a romanticized English version of an Oriental scene. The pitcher was probably used with a wash basin in a bed chamber at 104 S. St. Asaph Street. Ann Buckland, a "gentlewoman" and wife of a cabinetmaker owned the two-story brick house, and lived their with family and tenants between 1805 and 1834.

Every fragment of this pitcher was found in a well on the Alexandria Courthouse site during archaeological excavations in 1977, and carefully pieced together in the laboratory. This photograph shows pieces of the pitcher being discovered as wet soil from the well is sifted through screens at the site.