An Event in Which "Dame Fortune Had Been Kind..." (...or a First Person Immersion Event- Introduction)

If you've been following my updates on facebook, you know that I posted some last minute projects for "something cool coming up." Well, that something happened and now you get to hear all about it! Last weekend, I had the pleasure of participating in a first person immersion event at a local site which kindly hosts a number of living history events in my area. While the site itself is primarily an early 1840s site, our group was actually portraying a portion of the memoirs of Joseph Plump Martin (which is somewhat fitting, as his memoirs were first published in 1830- somewhat full circle, eh?)

Martin was a soldier in the American War for Independence and his recollections are considered a pretty cool find in regards to contemporary accounts of the average soldier during the war. They were thought lost for some time until a first edition copy popped up in a museum donation and Voila! lots of happy historians.

Anyhow, our goal was to recreate some of the people and interactions from the winter of 77/78 based on Mr. Martin's writings. Oh- and to stay in first person for the duration of the event, which went live at 9 p.m. Friday evening and officially ended at 10 a.m. Sunday morning.

That's right. All first person. All the time. Potential for disaster- definitely present. But, happily, things turned out pretty well, and I think everyone had a really good experience. I'll be penning a few posts in regards to a variety of aspects relating to this event (preparing for full immersion, the experience itself, reflections afterwards, etc.) as I think it would be far too much for one post alone.

I will say that my experience was a positive one and that I would certainly undertake an event of this nature again. I leave you, dearest readers, with a small glimpse of my chest of drawers on Friday evening and the promise of more to come.

Powder, cap, puff, brushes, housewife, stockings, shaker,
bum, neck handkerchief, and shift are just a few of the
items populating the chest awaiting their use
the next morning.