Drayton Hall

06/02/2026

This week, we honor enslaved mothers and grandmothers at Drayton Hall. These women raised families, maintained traditions, and cultivated community, but their lives are some of the least-documented.

It can be difficult to trace multi-generational family lines with only the surviving records. Sometimes, exact familial relationships aren’t identified. But there are notable exceptions.

On New Year’s Day 1804, Moll became a grandmother when her daughter Iaira, also called Betty, gave birth to a daughter of her own. There’s no record of how this event may have been celebrated within the enslaved community, but it’s likely that Moll was at Iaira’s side when she delivered. Births generally took place at home, with assistance from family and friends, and often with the aid of a midwife.

This short entry from the Drayton diaries is one of two that clearly includes names of a parent and grandparent. Iaira’s name stands out as unique in the existing records, and the fact that she was also called Betty adds to the mystery. Might Iaira be the name her family called her, and Betty the name her enslaver called her? Did the name Iaira have some significance for her family? It’s impossible to know for certain, but enslavers often referred to people with African names by Anglicized names, and the records tell us enslaved mothers at Drayton Hall used names and name traditions associated with West Africa across generations.

You may view digitized archives from Drayton Hall at the Lowcountry Digital Library any time: https://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/content/drayton-papers-1701-2004/

06/01/2026

Enslaved individuals, including Beck and Will, were responsible for most of the laundry and sewing needs at an estate such as Drayton Hall. The artifacts shown here serve as tangible evidence of this type of work, all of which were recovered archaeologically from the South Flanker. Sewing implements such as the scissors, straight pins, needle, thimble, buttons, and spangles represent finer, detailed work.

05/29/2026

Friend of Drayton Hall, Rob Hunter, has launched Digging Into Ceramics with Rob Hunter, a new monthly YouTube series debuting in 2026. An archaeologist, ceramics historian, and editor emeritus of the Chipstone Foundation’s annual journal Ceramics in America, Hunter hosts each 20–30 minute episode exploring the rich and complex stories behind historic ceramics made and used in America.

In his latest episode, A Barberini Vase at Drayton Hall, Hunter examines ceramics uncovered archaeologically at Drayton Hall and explores the significance of the famed Barberini, or Portland, Vase referenced by Charles Drayton I (1799 - 1805) in his plantation diary. The episode highlights how these surviving ceramic fragments offer insight into transatlantic taste, material culture, the intellectual world of the Drayton family, and how the labor of enslaved people made the Draytons’ fortune, and all it afforded, possible.

To watch the entire episode, visit: https://go.draytonhall.org/3PwDLVr

05/28/2026

Though today parasols are often associated with women, historically they were carried by both men and women alike. Their construction in specialty shops combined many different materials. The stretchers were typically made of wood, while oiled silk or cotton fabric was stretched over bone during the drying process in manufacturing. These more fragile materials rarely survived the passage of time, but the brass ribs often endured. The examples pictured here were discovered during the South Flanker Excavation at Drayton Hall.

📷1, 2, 3 Drayton Hall Preservation Trust
📷4 Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest

05/28/2026

This week, Madison has been using nondestructive demolition techniques as we carefully remove sections of flat plaster, allowing us to preserve as much historic material and evidence as possible throughout the process. A section has been gifted to the here in Charleston, and another section will be given to the for preservation and study.

05/27/2026

Buttons frequently help archaeologists date a site. Because most buttons used in America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were imported from England, many of the buttons recovered at Drayton Hall were likely imported as well. Many were made from bone, metal, ceramic, brass, glass or silk wrapped around a wire or bone blank. In America, the domestic button industry did not begin to develop until the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. By this time, Connecticut had become an important center for buttons. Buttons known as Prosser buttons, first produced after about 1840, can be identified by several distinctive characteristics: a smooth front surface, an “orange peel” textured back, and a visible seam around the edge. Resembling glass, Prosser buttons are actually ceramic. They were made using a process in which finely prepared clay was mixed with quartz or ground ceramic fragments, combined with a small amount of moisture, and pressed into cast-iron molds. They were then removed from the molds and fired at high temperatures to achieve a hardness similar to porcelain. Following the initial firing, they could also be glazed in a variety of colors, including metallic lusters, and then fired a second time.
📷1 Bone Button
📷2,3 Metal Button
📷4 Blue Glass Button
📷5,6 Red Glass Button and under microscope
Drayton Hall Preservation Trust

05/27/2026

Meet Clemson University student Madison Pinion! Madison is a second-year student in the university’s master’s program Meet Clemson University student Madison Pinion! Madison is a second-year student in the university’s master’s program in historic preservation and is interning with us and our preservation contractor, Richard Marks Restoration, as we embark on our newest preservation project.

Richard Marks Restoration has also partnered with us on several major preservation efforts over the years, including the portico project and the stair hall project.

Last week, Madison assisted with the careful disassembly of the deadwood anchoring the central ceiling medallion, providing hands-on experience in the complex and meticulous work of architectural preservation.in historic preservation and is interning with us and our general preservation contractor, Richard Marks Restoration, as we embark on our newest preservation project.

Richard Marks Restoration has also partnered with us on several major preservation efforts over the years, including the portico project and the stair hall project.

Last week, Madison assisted with the careful disassembly of the deadwood that anchored the central ceiling medallion.

05/26/2026

05/25/2026

Historic clay pipe stems are dated primarily by measuring their bore (inner hole) diameter in 64ths of an inch, with smaller holes indicating later dates. As pipes evolved from the 17th to 19th centuries, bores narrowed and stems became longer and thinner. Bowl shapes and maker marks offer higher precision, with smaller, thicker, spurred bowls indicating earlier 17th-century dates. Archaeologists use a very low-tech way of measuring bore holes - standard drill bits. Early stems from the 17th century are generally thicker and shorter, while later stems from the 18th-19th centuries are thinner and longer.

05/23/2026

Dianthus Silver Star makes a stunning display in this flower bed at Drayton Hall. With amazing double flowers that are pure white with contrasting deep crimson center that cover mounds of fine blue-green foliage they will re-bloom all season with deadheading. It is a good choice for attracting bees and butterflies to your yard, as seen here.