More Carnivals

I found a couple of additions to my recent post about blog carnivals.

The Adult Online Dating Carnival -- hard to believe there is such a thing, isn't it? -- has just three entries in its June 12 edition, including my piece on eHarmony.com. The others are these:

pointlessbanter presents Avoiding the MySpace Mistake: A Reply to A Business Week Article posted at Buzz Networker, saying, “How to use MySpace to successfully market yourself or your business.”

pointlessbanter presents The Bachelorette: Prison Style at pointlessbanter.net posted at Seventee Magazine Questions Answered, saying, “Kevin tries to use a prison online dating site to land a girl.”

Principled Discovery once again hosts the Carnival of Principled Government (number 7 in the series). To my surprise -- since I had submitted nothing to this edition of the carnival -- my post on the visit Tim Hulsey and I made to Jamestown last week was listed first as an "editor's choice." followed by two other entries with history themes:

The following submissions were submitted by the blog owners except the two marked (EC) for editor's choice. These actually were emailed to me, however, although not specifically for inclusion in the carnival. . . .

Established in 1607, Jamestown was America's first permanent English colony. Thus, we are celebrating our quadricentennial this year as, in a way, America celebrates her 400th birthday. Rick Sincere had the opportunity to visit Jamestown recently, and shares his thoughts and an interview (EC). If only we had learned our lesson about communal property back then...

Rethink takes a close look at the Gettysburg Address. We all know at least its opening lines. If only we all took the time to really reflect on what it means...

Also taking a look into the past, Why Homeschooling reflects on some of our founders during a trip to Virginia. If only we had the same vision for our country as they had (minus the dirty politics!)...

More carnivals next week. Stay tuned.

Images of Jamestown

In addition to the video footage I took at Jamestown on Monday, I also snapped some still photographs. Especially on a sunny day with fluffy clouds bouncing across the sky, Jamestown Island is extremely photogenic.

This statue of Pocahontas betrays a certain late 19th-century parochialism. She looks more like a Plains Indian in this portrayal. Had I not been at Jamestown, I would have thought this was meant to be Sacagawea, not Rebecca Rolfe.

This obelisk was erected in 1907 to commemorate Jamestown's 300th anniversary.

One hundred years later, the Inns of Court in England provided their own commemorative plaque.

This rock-hewn cross marks the grave that might have been the resting place of Bartholomew Gosnold, one of the leaders of the Jamestown expedition; what are thought to be Gosnold's remains are now on display in the Archaearium.

Were it not plugged up, this cannon might provide an effective defense against invasion via the James River.

(Though it may not be helpful in the case of invasion by air.)

The continuing presence of this church tower was a key clue to the mystery of the location of the original, triangular Jamestown fort ...

... discovered in 1994 by archaeologist Dr. William M. Kelso (right, in hat and glasses). Dr. Kelso chronicles his search for the evidence in Jamestown, the Buried Truth, published late last year by the University of Virginia Press.

A grandfatherly Captain John Smith -- who was actually only in his mid-twenties when he helped lead the settlement at Jamestown -- gazes out over the water.

Perhaps he's longing for a trip back home via this ship.

Discovering Jamestown

At the urging of fellow blogger Tim Hulsey, I traveled this past Monday to Jamestown, the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America. As the official slogan goes, "Every American should stand here once."

It was my first visit and it was memorable, because it included a chance meeting with Dr. William M. Kelso, the archaeologist who, through detective work and thorough historical research, discovered the site of the original Jamestown fort, which had long been thought lost to the waves and currents of the James River.

Fortunately, I had my video camera with me, so I asked Dr. Kelso to say a few words about his discovery. (On the clip below, Dr. Kelso's remarks begin at about 03:05 minutes.)

In the gift shop of Jamestown's Archaearium, I found an autographed copy of Dr. Kelso's recent book, Jamestown, the Buried Truth, which I eagerly purchased (along with a baseball cap and a t-shirt -- sometimes one just wants to be a tourist). The book tells the story of his team's discovery in greater detail than the brief interview he granted to us on Monday afternoon.

Our trip was also occasioned by an exhibit at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia (CACV) in Virginia Beach, which features one of the four original manuscript copies of Magna Carta, along with such historical documents as the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the official proceedings of the Virginia General Assembly from the days during which George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights was debated and adopted.

The copy of Magna Carta is on loan from Lincoln Cathedral, where it was found after some half a millenium. It is in amazingly good shape, though only a trained expert would be able to read it -- the penmanship is crabbed and faded and, of course, the language is medieval Latin. Despite being unable to make out the words, it was a thrill to be in the same room with such an important historical document and a palpable link to our Anglo-Norman past. A new goal based on what I learned from the exhibit: to find out more about Gerard d'Athée, who must have been quite villainous to be named (along with his kinsmen) in the charter.

If you want to see the exhibition, you'll have to hurry, because "Magna Carta & Four Foundations of Freedom" closes on June 18, three days after the anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta by King John in 1215 (and six days after the anniversary of the Virginia Declaration of Rights).

The documents are accompanied by a collection of artworks called "By Our Heirs Forever: New Waves 2007" described as "a thematic, juried exhibition of contemporary Virginia artists working in all visual arts media." Some of the works are quite clever; others are subversive; some others are simply inscrutable.

Update: I have added still photographs that I took at Jamestown in a new post, "Images of Jamestown."