Resources can vary: they can be the built environment which includes historic sites, buildings, structures, objects, districts, and landscapes. They can be written and spoken words, photos, prints, maps and the material culture remnants that we find in museums or in the case of this web page, inventories and wills.
These documents give us a look into households at a specific period in time. We can use those ‘pictures’ when we begin research to furnish an historic site or house from that period. When we began furnishing the Venoge cottage, we looked to David Golay’s inventory and found that he used tin ware, pewter plates, crockery and had a copper kettle. We have everything but the copper kettle. We have researched the shapes of kettles from the early 1800s and know what to look for…now we just have to find it. Information from primary documents is a necessary part of any historic site.