Old Fort Niagara

Welcome back to #workshopweek, our sewing season is almost over! Our staff is hard at work completing all their projects, including a 1750s French jacket, to be ready for the summer season! #18thcenturysewing #18thcenturyfashion #historicsewing #18thcenturyjacket #historicinterpretation #workshopweek

Don't forget, Soldiers through the Ages is this weekend! This military timeline event will have special displays set up throughout the site to present military equipment, uniforms, rations, vehicles and more! Admission is $15.00 for adult, $10 for children ages 6-12, ages 5 and under are free! For the program schedule please visit https://www.oldfortniagara.org///soldiers-through-the-ages

After several fittings and the creation of a mockup, the pattern for the 1750s French jacket is ready to be put to paper! Once the pattern is complete, construction can begin! #workshopweek #18thcenturysewing #18thcenturyfashion #historicsewing #patterning #historicinterpretation "

In the 1750s large cuffs were in fashion for both men’s and women’s clothing. In order to make Hana’s French jacket fashionable for the 1750s, we took a commercially available pattern (top) and carefully enlarged it. Next, we made a mock up (middle), and finalized the custom pattern piece (bottom). #workshopweek #18thcenturysewing #18thcenturyfashion #historicsewing #patterning #historicinterpretation "

This weekend is Soldiers through the Ages at Old Fort Niagara. This time-line event presents 400 years of military history. Here is an inspection taking place south of the fort in 1917. Admission is $15.00 for adults, $10.00 for children ages 6-12, 5 and under are free. Tickets may be purchased upon arrival. For more information please visit https://www.oldfortniagara.org///soldiers-through-the-ages

Old Fort Niagara’s feu de joie at Castle by Candlelight.

I’m not sure what it is, but I hope it’s ours.

Heard any good ghost stories lately?

Today is Pearl Harbor Day and we display a photo of the U.S.S. Niagara. Niagara was laid down on 14 November 1928 as the steel-hulled civilian yacht Hi-Esmaro by the Bath Iron Works, Maine, launched on 7 June 1929, and delivered on 20 August. She was purchased by the Navy on 16 October 1940. Converted to a coastal minelayer at the New York Navy Yard, and designated CMc-2 on 31 October 1940, the ship was renamed Niagara, on 12 November 1940, and reclassified as an auxiliary gu...nboat, PG-52 on 15 November 1940. She was commissioned at New York on 20 January 1941. In August 1941 she left New York for the Pacific, arriving at Pearl Harbor on October 9. On. Nov. 29, she departed Pearl Harbor for Fiji, where the crew learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Niagara then returned to Pearl Harbor and was witness to the devastation caused by the Sunday morning attack. See more

Happy Halloween! Photo by Keith Hughes, taken during the Lantern and Lore Tour last night.

Les Fifres et Tambours de St. Tropez France march into the Fort through the South Redoubt. Photo from 2015.

Here’s the French Castle under a threatening sky.

Rangers heading east along an icy Lake Ontario.

Another photo from a Snowshoe Patrol in a year past. Reminder: the upcoming event will be January 16! Photo by Geoff Harding.

Here is another shot of The Belle of Fort Niagara, Christine Wattam-Boules with Chief Elton Greene of the Tuscarora Nation.

The Belle of Fort Niagara, Christine Wattam-Boules and Captain David Betts in a vintage photo from the 1950s.

Here is an aerial shot of the fort from the 1930s.

Here is the former fort mascot, Leo, keeping a watchful eye on the drawbridge from the Dauphin Battery. Long-time fort visitors will remember Leo, who ruled with an iron paw.

Here is a soldier holding a polearm known as a partisan. An original head from such a partisan was unearthed in Lewiston during home construction in the 1950s. Today it is part of Old Fort Niagara’s collection.

Here is a nocturnal feu de Joie at Castle by Candlelight. Photo by Wayne Peters.

The French Castle at sunset.

Here is a photo of an OFN interpreter clad as a French Canadian firing a matchlock musket. This mechanism was developed about the year 1400 and involved a lighted slow match igniting the weapon’s priming powder. Samuel de Champlain brought matchlock muskets with him to North America in 1608. About this time, the more advanced flintlock mechanism was being developed and by the time the French constructed Fort Niagara, the flintlock had long since replaced the matchlock as the common firearm in New France.

Today is the anniversary of Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown in 1781.