2022 Annual General Meeting
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2022 4:55 am
The Honourable Cordwainers' Company
is pleased to announce the
37th Annual General Meeting
in cooperation with
Fort Ligonier
Ligonier, PA
October 21-23, 2022
We are looking forward to a great program at the Thirty-seventh Annual General Meeting of the Honourable Cordwainers' Company, in cooperation with Fort Ligonier in Ligonier, Pennsylvania.
Fort Ligonier, built in 1758-9, decommissioned in 1766, disappearing without a trace by 1800, is located 40 miles east of Pittsburgh and just north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The fort is operated by the Fort Ligonier Memorial Foundation. Outside the south bastion of the fort lay an unhealthy flood-prone morass. Filled by the fort’s occupants with “all the best rubbish”, it might be the most remarkable collection of French and Indian War artifacts in North America. This refuse pit, covered in 1759 and sealed for the next 200 years, contained hundreds of men’s and perhaps two dozen women’s shoes, plus thousands more fragments! This is the largest single find of mid-18th-century footwear in the world.
Archaeologically excavated by Jacob L. Grimm, during the reconstruction of the current fort, the shoe collection was conserved and housed at the Fort Ligonier Museum, and since the 1960s, has been the focus of exhaustive study by successive generations of researchers, yielding the bulk of what is known about footwear in British North America.
French victories over George Washington in 1754–55 wrested control from Britain of the strategic forks of the Ohio River (modern Pittsburgh). By 1758, General John Forbes was assigned the daunting task of seizing Fort Duquesne, the French citadel at the forks. He ordered construction of a road across Pennsylvania, guarded by a chain of fortifications, the final link being the "Post at Loyalhanna". Heavily outnumbered, the French abandoned and Forbes occupied Fort Duquesne. He designated the site Pittsburgh in honor of Secretary of State William Pitt. Forbes also named Fort Ligonier after Sir John Ligonier, commander-in-chief. During the fort’s existence as a garrison, it was never taken by an enemy though attacked twice, and besieged by the Native Americans prior to a decisive victory at the battle of Bushy Run in 1763.
Today, Fort Ligonier is home to a rare collection of George Washington artifacts, including hand-written memoirs, and saddle pistols in the Fort’s museum. Also on exhibition, 14 contemporary paintings in the French and Indian War Art Gallery, and The World Ablaze: An Introduction to the Seven Years' War, with more than 200 eighteenth-century objects from around the world. Outside, are rebuilt artillery batteries, cannons, wagons and buildings on the Fort’s original site.
The town of Ligonier is brimming with rural Pennsylvania small town charm: https://www.altoonamirror.com/life/2017 ... d-history/
Our meeting will include a guided tour of the shoes in the Fort Ligonier collections with curatorial specialists.
Call For Papers—Those who wish to present an in-person or virtual illustrated talk (Power Point), pre-recorded video presentation, live presentation workshop, or remote hands-on demonstration are asked to contact Al Saguto dasaguto@widowmaker.com We look forward to your creative input and to seeing you in October!
is pleased to announce the
37th Annual General Meeting
in cooperation with
Fort Ligonier
Ligonier, PA
October 21-23, 2022
We are looking forward to a great program at the Thirty-seventh Annual General Meeting of the Honourable Cordwainers' Company, in cooperation with Fort Ligonier in Ligonier, Pennsylvania.
Fort Ligonier, built in 1758-9, decommissioned in 1766, disappearing without a trace by 1800, is located 40 miles east of Pittsburgh and just north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The fort is operated by the Fort Ligonier Memorial Foundation. Outside the south bastion of the fort lay an unhealthy flood-prone morass. Filled by the fort’s occupants with “all the best rubbish”, it might be the most remarkable collection of French and Indian War artifacts in North America. This refuse pit, covered in 1759 and sealed for the next 200 years, contained hundreds of men’s and perhaps two dozen women’s shoes, plus thousands more fragments! This is the largest single find of mid-18th-century footwear in the world.
Archaeologically excavated by Jacob L. Grimm, during the reconstruction of the current fort, the shoe collection was conserved and housed at the Fort Ligonier Museum, and since the 1960s, has been the focus of exhaustive study by successive generations of researchers, yielding the bulk of what is known about footwear in British North America.
French victories over George Washington in 1754–55 wrested control from Britain of the strategic forks of the Ohio River (modern Pittsburgh). By 1758, General John Forbes was assigned the daunting task of seizing Fort Duquesne, the French citadel at the forks. He ordered construction of a road across Pennsylvania, guarded by a chain of fortifications, the final link being the "Post at Loyalhanna". Heavily outnumbered, the French abandoned and Forbes occupied Fort Duquesne. He designated the site Pittsburgh in honor of Secretary of State William Pitt. Forbes also named Fort Ligonier after Sir John Ligonier, commander-in-chief. During the fort’s existence as a garrison, it was never taken by an enemy though attacked twice, and besieged by the Native Americans prior to a decisive victory at the battle of Bushy Run in 1763.
Today, Fort Ligonier is home to a rare collection of George Washington artifacts, including hand-written memoirs, and saddle pistols in the Fort’s museum. Also on exhibition, 14 contemporary paintings in the French and Indian War Art Gallery, and The World Ablaze: An Introduction to the Seven Years' War, with more than 200 eighteenth-century objects from around the world. Outside, are rebuilt artillery batteries, cannons, wagons and buildings on the Fort’s original site.
The town of Ligonier is brimming with rural Pennsylvania small town charm: https://www.altoonamirror.com/life/2017 ... d-history/
Our meeting will include a guided tour of the shoes in the Fort Ligonier collections with curatorial specialists.
Call For Papers—Those who wish to present an in-person or virtual illustrated talk (Power Point), pre-recorded video presentation, live presentation workshop, or remote hands-on demonstration are asked to contact Al Saguto dasaguto@widowmaker.com We look forward to your creative input and to seeing you in October!