Johnson Hall State Historic Site

09/07/2026

It has been a whirlwind few weeks at The Great New York State Fair. For those who joined us opening Day, you may have seen site manager Wade Wells with the coffin, interpreting funerary practices and mourning in colonial NY. While this might seem like a morbid way to open the fair, the rituals surrounding loss and commemoration were a person’s last public act in a time period in which the performance of social roles was an incredibly important part of life, and an opportunity for those who remained to process their grief in the arms of their community.

Mourning in the colonial era was meant for the mourners more than the deceased; a ritual which allowed the mourners to feel their grief and accept their loss with their community. The period surrounding the Revolution brought reasons aplenty for mourning in colonial New York, and the Johnson family and their circle were no exception. From Sir William’s grand funeral in July of 1774, to his daughter, Polly’s death a year to the day later during her escape to the windswept shores of Oswego, the family observed proper mourning ritual to whatever extent they could under the circumstances. In other cases, such as the death of Lady Johnson’s mother, news would not reach the family until long after the fact, preventing participation in the rituals of grief.

Funerary traditions in the Early Modern Period were robust and increasingly reliant on material expressions of “proper” mourning. Black clothing had long been part of the display of grief, but the booming textile trade meant that even poorer families could hope to es**rt their loved one to the grave in the somberest shade. In the case of the Johnsons, this was a cross-cultural expression. Black mourning gowns and suits of a European style were worn alongside matchcoats of black stroud-cloth for Mohawk mourners. White gloves and black hats wrapped in white scarves completed the ensemble. The use of black textiles throughout the house also increased in this span, with swashes and door frames of black crepe, portrait and mirror covers, and more.

This process was made easier when the deceased had time to observe the religious traditions of their culture, for instance the last sacrament of the Christian faith. Funerals were also expected to be attended even by rivals as a show of respect for the dead, the mourners, and the funerary tradition as a whole. There was also an aspect of remembrance in the mourning process and mourning rings would often be made with the name of the deceased engraved on the band. Many people left detailed instructions for their funeral in their will, but the ex*****on of the formalities fell largely on the primary mourner.

The primary mourner would usually be the next of kin of the deceased; in Sir William Johnson’s case this was his son Sir John. Other close family and friends would es**rt the coffin, in which the body of the deceased had been placed after washing, anointing with flowers and oils, and being dressed in a shroud and/or winding sheet. Even the coffin could be covered in black cloth if means allowed. A cloth pall would be carried over the coffin, with assistant carriers, torch bearers, and additional mourners filling out the display. Eventually, this level of display, once reserved for the wealthiest, most prominent in society, became the expectation; an expectation that conveyed the survivors’ depth of appreciation and respect for the deceased. For those who could not afford to purchase this amount of textile and paraphernalia, renting was a backup that still allowed them to perform the ritual in a socially acceptable manner without adding financial ruin to the stress the death of a loved one already brought.

To modern eyes, the 18th century’s whole-hearted embrace of the rituals surrounding death and mourning seems at times almost macabre, but as with any era, the public acknowledgement of loss was shaped equally by the personal and social beliefs and needs of the time, and there is a bittersweet joy and life in the directness with which our forebearers faced their final social act.

As we look forward to October, Johnson Hall is excitedly preparing for our annual celebration of spooky colonial stories! Memento Mori will return with new thrills, old chills, and our maestro of the macabre, storyteller Campbell Higle! Details and registration coming soon!

09/06/2026

𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡?

𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝, 𝐝𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫, 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐩-𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬:

• Sat., 09/12 - Drop-in tours will begin at Noon (12pm)
• Sat., 09/19 - Drop-in tours will begin at Noon (12pm)
• Wed., 09/23 - Last drop-in tour will begin at 2pm
• Wed., 09/30 - Last drop-in tour will begin at 2pm

We thank you in advance for your understanding. Calling ahead for tours is not required but always recommended, as pre-scheduled groups can impact drop-in availability.

Tours are typically offered at the top of the hour from Wednesday to Saturday (10am-4pm) and on Sundays (1pm-4pm). The last tour each day begins promptly at 3pm.

Tickets for Hall Admission:

Regular - $7.00
Senior Citizens and Group Rate- $6.00
Children 12 & Under - FREE
For parties of six or more, please call 518-762-8712 to book a pre-scheduled group tour.

09/05/2026

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬!

Join us this Labor Day weekend at The Great New York State Fair to see an interpretive reproduction of the trade house that once stood at Johnson Hall, along with recreations of many of the items that would have been sold there!

Archeological excavations have pinpointed the likely location of the original trade house as being close to the creek that runs through the property, which was accompanied by a portage trail for people bringing trade goods to and from Albany. This trade house, and the ones at his other properties, brought Sir William Johnson much of his early wealth through the mid eighteenth-century fur trade. The artifacts found at the trade house and elsewhere on the property provide abundant insight into not only what was sold there, but they also help us understand the material aspects of the daily lives and needs of the inhabitants of the Mohawk Valley.

Items such as clasp knives, to***co pipes, tin cups, canteens, shoe buckles, locks, and iron bars feature heavily in the archaeological record. Tools and other household items such as these were likely some of the most widely sold objects at the trade house, necessary for meeting the requirements of frontier life. Other items, like musket balls, gunflints, hunting traps, and various types of knives demonstrate the things Indigenous people would have been purchasing to pursue their own culture’s methods of subsistence through farming and the hunting of wild game. Brass rings have been found in excavations which show that people of the Mohawk Valley concerned themselves with ornamentation and having fine things, even when social status and poverty excluded them from silver and gold jewelry. Hand mirrors sold at the trade house reinforce this fact and show us that the people of the Mohawk Valley in the 18th century were not unkempt, dirty frontiersmen but were highly concerned with their appearance.

Though we have many artifacts that attest to the material makeup of the Mohawk Valley fur trade, there are also some items that we know would have been sold out of the trade house that are missing from the excavations done at Johnson Hall. Objects like textiles would have been popular items for their utility and desirability. Yet, while wool blankets and stroud cloth are referenced frequently in account books of the trade house, they are not often uncovered through archeology due to deterioration and decomposition from natural elements.

Both those objects present in the archaeological record and those that are missing demonstrate not only the material culture of the Mohawk Valley at the time, but also the need for the trade house and the function it served within the community.

If you’re heading out to the New York State Fair this weekend, be sure to swing by and say hello to our interpreters and check out the trade house for yourself. Following the conclusion of the 2026 NY State Fair, our recreation of the trade house will return to Johnson Hall and remain as an interpretive element on the property which we’re excited to share with all of our visitors!

09/04/2026

Johnson Hall is on the road at the The Great New York State Fair again this weekend with some of our most popular outreach programs.

Records of the enslaved in colonial North America can require more effort to identify, whether due to lack of preservation, less detailed attention being paid to their lives by those who wrote the sources, or because they simply have not yet been identified for what they are by modern researchers. Here at Johnson Hall, we are fortunate to have a large amount of information available for interpretation, whether from archaeology, receipts and other management papers, runaway ads, and more. Of these, the reciepts from the accounts of Hall bookkeeper Robert Adems and the trade house trade houses run by Sir William may seem the least personal, but when carefully examined, provide a good deal of information about the work and personal lives of the enslaved at the site.

Receipts for a pewter teapot, blackjack mugs, and a rum punch bowl purchased by Mr. Frank, the enslaved butler, indicate that he formed a community hub for the enslaved. Whether bought using money he made through the sale of corn to the trade house (grown in his limited free time), or through permitted charges to the Hall account, all of these would be used to serve multiple people in a communal setting. According to the receipts, the enslaved at Johnson Hall also acquired things like playing cards and combs, documenting their own material needs and desires in those instances that they could.

Mr. Frank and Quashey (who is currently thought to have functioned in a similar supervisory position for the fieldhands as Frank did in the Hall) also made frequently are referenced acquiring sugar, to***co, tea, and rum in large quantities. One particular purchase record from the end of May includes numerous large purchases of rum and sugar within a four-day period aligning with the holiday of Pinkster. Pinkster had begun as a Dutch tradition, but by this time was embraced by enslaved Africans across New York and may have been celebrated at Johnson Hall.

The purchases that Mr. Frank and other enslaved individuals made provided the only means of escape, if only for an hour of the day, that the enslaved community of Johnson Hall had. An evening spent over cards, passing the punch bowl around was a way of reclaiming the time, community, and agency taken by their enslavement. No one ever wrote about this explicitly in the documents at the Hall, but by reading between the lines of these seemingly impersonal documents, we can recognize the shared human need for togetherness and support.

Would you like to learn more? Find us at the fair near the reflecting pool, or stop by Johnson Hall to talk with site staff about all this and more! Friday through Saturday, we will have a selection of recreated objects available a the fair for hands on exploration, while on Saturday, the remains of the 1770's punch bowl found at the site will be available for viewing at the Hall!

09/03/2026

𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐭!

Over the century that Johnson Hall has operated as a State Historic Site, archeological studies of the grounds have shed light on the experiences of the people who lived and worked at the site, including the Johnson family, European and native American guests, free and enslaved laborers, and more. Excavations have also revealed a good deal of information about the built environment, including the buildings and grounds themselves at the time the Johnson family inhabited the home.

Sometimes these findings reveal the timeline of the site. For example, a consistent layer of charcoal demonstrates that prior to 1763, the land on and around Johnson Hall was burned to clear brush and tree stumps for construction. In other cases, the evidence illuminates aspects of daily life that, when paired with documentary evidence, tells us about the personal choices and preferences of the inhabitants. Animal bones at the site reveal that the Johnson family was eating mostly domesticated cattle, despite the abundance of game animals in the Mohawk Valley at the time. This fits with Sir William’s frequent requests for beef to be sent up from New York. Johnson’s wealth is also displayed in the artifacts found during excavation. The numerous pieces of porcelain in various up-to-date styles would have been an expensive import in the day. Many pieces of jewelry have been found at Johnson Hall, including silver brooches and gold rings that may have been worn by Molly Brant or other members of the family.

Archaeology has also helped to fill in gaps in the stories of those less thoroughly documented in the Hall’s records and letters. This is especially true of the people of African and Native descent enslaved at the Hall. While their work and work-tools are often mentioned in the Johnson Papers, the discovery of a broken ceramic game tile helps us better envision the community they forged in the face of their bo***ge, while a broken 1770 punch bowl recovered from the latrine pit behind the enslaved living quarters might well be the same one referenced in a receipt just a few years later that the butler used to share rum punch with his fellow bondsmen.

Have you ever wondered how archaeologists conduct their work? What are the most useful tools in the field? How do they determine where to dig? Now is your chance to ask an archaeologist!

Stop by the Hall Saturday any time between 𝟏𝟎:𝟎𝟎𝐚𝐦-𝟑:𝟎𝟎𝐩𝐦 for “𝑰 𝑫𝒊𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒉𝒂𝒘𝒌 𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒚”. Loretta Tucker from Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site will be sharing information on all this and more! See artifacts from excavations at the Hall, try your hand at plotting a dig with a hands-on game, and learn about how archaeology and documentary evidence come together to illuminate the stories of the past!

Check out our event page or call us at 518-762-8712 for more information!

09/03/2026

09/02/2026

More photos from our interpretation at the The Great New York State Fair! Stop by this Labor Day weekend to learn more about colonial trade, diplomacy, and community, plus all the ongoing research at Johnson Hall, as we explore the history of this crossroads of cultures on the borderlands between empires!

09/02/2026

We've had a great time at the NYS Fair this past week. While the fair is closed due to heavy rains today, we are looking forward to being there again Labor Day weekend, Friday to Monday! Be sure to stop by the Trade House for some hands-on, full immersion history!

Can't make it to the fair? Stop by Johnson Hall this Saturday for a drop-in opportunity to learn more about how archaeology helps us understand the history of the Mohawk Valley. Loretta Tucker from Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site will be joining us to share "I Dig the Mohawk Valley", a hands-on game and learning opportunity. See our event page for more details!

08/27/2026

Johnson Hall had an amazing time at opening day of the The Great New York State Fair! Thank you to Commissioner Kathy Moser and everyone else who stopped by and got the chance to explore what NY State Parks & Historic Sites has to offer.

Staff from Johnson Hall will be at the State Fair again this Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a special program highlighting the importance of beverages like tea and rum punch in forming and building social bonds in the 18th century. You'll also have a unique opportunity to explore a recreation of a Mohawk Valley Trade House!

We'll see you out there!