1. The reminiscences of this anonymous author, who visited Alexandria after a thirty-year absence, were serialized in the Alexandria newspaper The Local News in 1861–1862 under the title “Reminiscences of an Old Bachelor” and are reproduced in T. Michael Miller, Manuscripts of an Old Bachelor: Reminiscences of Alexandria (Alexandria, Va., 1987), p. 30.
2. The Great Seal of the United States (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Government Printing Office, July 1980), p. 6.
3. James D. Munson, Col. John Carlyle, Gent., 1720–1780: A True and Just Account of the Man and His House ([Alexandria, Va.]: Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, 1986), pp. 62–71.
4. Ibid., p. 67.
5. Ibid., pp. 71–73.
6. In his Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969), pp. 115– 17, Ivor Noël Hume points out that a similar plate was advertised in the Boston Gazette on November 13, 1758.
7. Rear Admiral Charles Holmes to unknown addressee, September 18, 1759, Special Collections Department, University of Waterloo Library, Ontario, Canada. For a reproduction of this letter, see www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/discipline/SpecColl/archives/holmes/holmes.html, accessed February 18, 2005.
8. Ellouise Baker Larsen, American Historical Views on Staffordshire China, 3rd ed. (New York: Dover Publications, 1975), p. 201, fig. 505.
9. The Death of Wolfe has been called “probably the most famous of all historical paintings”; C. P. Stacey, “Benjamin West and ‘The Death of Wolfe,’” National Gallery of Canada Bulletin 7, vol. iv, no. 1 (1966), available at http://collections.ic.gc.ca/bulletin/num7/stacey1.html, accessed April 4, 2005.
10. Ivor Noël Hume, All the Best Rubbish (New York: Harper and Row, 1974), p. 153; idem, If These Pots Could Talk: Collecting 2,000 Years of British Household Pottery (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 2001), p. 264. Noël Hume first identified this Alexandria sherd as depicting Lord Rodney and notes that sherds commemorating the British hero were also found, incongruously, at the French Fortress Louisburg in Nova Scotia. According to John May and Jennifer May, Commemorative Pottery, 1780–1900: A Guide for Collectors (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1972), p. 81, Rodney souvenirs may have been produced as early as 1768, when he contested the seat from Northampton. While Rodney’s involvement in the French and Indian War would provide a better pretext for the presence of these wares in the American colonies, this is too early a date for the Alexandria sherd.
11. Alexandria Gazette, September 16, 1784.
12. Alexandria Gazette, February 7, 1857, cited in T. Michael Miller, Pen Portraits of Alexandria, Virginia, 1739–1900 (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1987), p. 41.
13. Miller, Manuscripts of an Old Bachelor, pp. 30–32. In the nineteenth century the museum was located in the town hall and operated by Alexandria Lodge 22. The building was destroyed by fire in 1871, but this letter—and other items that survived from the museum’s collection—are now in the collection of the George Washington National Masonic Memorial, Alexandria.
14. Virginia Herald (Fredericksburg), December 31, 1799, Papers of George Washington, Alderman Library, University of Virginia.
15. Harold Vedeler, “A History of the Old Presbyterian Meeting House,” April 1996, www.opmh.org/history.htm, accessed March 8, 2005.
16. Alexandria Times and District of Columbia Advertiser, December 20, 1799, from Gay Montague Moore, Seaport in Virginia—George Washington’s Alexandria (Richmond, Va.: Garrett and Massie, 1949).
17. A similar pitcher, from the collection of the Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Connecticut, is illustrated in Alan Smith, Illustrated Guide to Liverpool Herculaneum Pottery, 1796–1840 (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970), fig. 50. These transfer prints were combined with other illustrations on a larger pitcher from the same factory, now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art; see Smith, Illustrated Guide to Liverpool Herculaneum Pottery, fig. 49.
18. Wedgwood had made earlier busts of Washington, all based on a sculpture by Houdon taken from a life cast. British ceramics expert Terrence Lockett dated this piece for the Historic Alexandria museums. The bust is marked inside the base with the letters xcd. According to Godden, the third letter refers to the year of manufacture, with d denoting 1875. Geoffrey A. Godden, Encyclopaedia of British Pottery and Porcelain Marks (New York: Bonanza Books, 1964), pp. 658–59.
19. For more on the use of designs inspired by the Treaty of Amiens, see Noël Hume, If These Pots Could Talk, pp. 237–39.
20. Terence A. Lockett, “Pearlware: Origins and Types (Part 2),” www.thepotteries.org/ features/pearlware2.htm, accessed February 18, 2005.
21. Diana Edwards Roussel, The Castleford Pottery, 1790–1821 (Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Eng.: Wakefield Historical Publications, 1982), pp. 33, 42–43, and pls. 90–93. The “S & Co.” impressed marks seen on similar vessels are attributed to Sowter and Company, Mexborough, Yorkshire. Sowter and Co., which made feldspathic stoneware and pearlware, operated the pottery from 1800 to 1811.
22. Ibid., p. 85.
23. Illustrated in David Arman and Linda Arman, Anglo-American Ceramics, vol. 1, Transfer Printed Creamware and Pearlware for the American Market 1760–1860 (Portsmouth, R.I.: Oakland Press, 1998), p. 168.
24. Smith, Herculaneum Pottery, fig. 56, shows the Emblem of America engraving paired with The Coopers Arms, now in the collection of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
25. Miller, Pen Portraits, p. 32, citing Marquis de Chastellux, Travels in North America in the Years 1780, 1781 and 1782, translated by Howard C. Rice Jr., 2 vols. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1963), 2: 583 (July 19, 1782).
26. “The QuasiWar with France: First Foreign Fight,” VFW Magazine (June/July 1998): 40; Michael J. Crawford and Christine F. Hughes, “Historical Overview of the Federalist Navy, 1787–1801,” in Reestablishment of the Navy, 1787–1801: Historical Overview and Select Bibliography, Naval History Bibliographies, No. 4 (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Navy, Navy Historical Center, 1997), available at www.history.navy.mil.biblio/biblio4/biblio4.htm, accessed April 4, 2005.
27. Donald G. Shomette, Maritime Alexandria: An Evaluation of Submerged Cultural Resource Potentials at Alexandria, Virginia, report prepared for Alexandria Archeology, 1985, pp. 104–6, citing Naval Documents Related to the Quasi-War between the United States and France, 7 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1935–1938), 1: 77–78, 2: 364.
28. T. Michael Miller, Pamela J. Cressey, and Timothy J. Dennee, “Discovering the Decades: Alexandria Archaeology Looks Back at 250 Years of Alexandria History; The 1790s,” Alexandria Archaeology Volunteer News 16, no. 10 (October 1998): 7. Invoices for cargo seized from the Alexandria-registered ships are in the collections of the National Archives.
29. Arman and Arman, Anglo-American Ceramics, pp. 5–7. When trade resumed, in 1815, the potteries exported more than 22 million pieces to America. Neil Ewins, “‘Supplying the Present Wants of Our Yankee Cousins . . .’: Staffordshire Ceramics and the American Market, 1775–1880,” Journal of Ceramic History 15 (1997): 6.
30. George Robert Gleig, “A British Account of the Burning of Washington” (Washington, D.C.: National Center for Public Policy Research, 2004), available at www.nationalcenter.org/ BritishBurnWashington1814.html, accessed March 2, 2005. Originally published in G.R. Gleig, A Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and New Orleans, under Generals Ross, Pakenham, and Lambert, in the Years 1814 and 1815: With Some Account of the Countries Visited (London: J. Murray, 1821).0
31. Joseph F. Skivora, “The Surrender of Alexandria in the War of 1812 and the Power of the Press,” Northern Virginia Heritage (June 1988): 9–14.
32. Ibid., p. 10, citing Mayor Charles Simms in a letter to his wife, Nancy, dated September 3, 1814.
33. William Stabler, A Memoir of the Life of Edward Stabler, Late of Alexandria in the District of Columbia, with a Collection of His Letters (Philadelphia: John Richards, 1846), p. 56, citing a letter to “My Dear Friends” (other Alexandria Quakers) dated September 21, 1814.
34. The cartoon was drawn and etched by William Charles, a British caricaturist who lived and worked in America from 1805 until his death in 1820. The satire, which Charles also published and sold, was either a companion piece or a sequel to John Bull and the Baltimoreans; both were registered for copyright on October 21, 1814. (I would like to thank James Mackay, director of The Lyceum: Alexandria’s History Museum, for this information).
35. John S. Williams, History of the Invasion and Capture of Washington, and of the Events which Preceded and Followed (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1857), pp. 282–97. Alexandria had become part of the District of Columbia in 1801; it remained so until 1847, when it was retroceded to Virginia.
36. Arman and Arman, Anglo-American Ceramics, p. 6.
37. Robert Hunter and George L. Miller, “English Shell-Edged Earthenwares,” Antiques 165, no. 3 (March 1994): 432–33.
38. Arman and Arman, Anglo-American Ceramics, pp. 72–73.
39. On Roman coins Felicitas, the Roman goddess of good fortune, is depicted holding a cornucopia to represent prosperity and a caduceus to represent peace. “Ancient Coins at the Museum of Antiquities: Trajan (ad 98 to 117)” (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada: Museum of Antiquities, University of Saskatchewan), www.usask.ca/antiquities/coins/trajan.html, accessed February 19, 2005.
40. The capped bust is found on quarter eagle ($2.50), half eagle ($5.00), and eagle ($10.00) gold pieces. On the reverse of the coins are various depictions of the American eagle. R. S. Yeoman, A Guide Book of United States Coins, 51st ed. (Racine, Wis.: Golden Books Publishing Co., 1998), pp. 191–211.
41. Arman and Arman, Anglo-American Ceramics, p. 239.
42. May, Commemorative Pottery, pp. 110–11.
43. Larsen, American Historical Views, pp. 230, 269–70, and 275.
44. James L. Mooney, ed., Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, 9 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Navy Department, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval History Division, 1859–1991), 3: 484–85.
45. “Pike, Zebulon Montgomery,” Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, accessed October 15, 2005, from Encyclopaedia Britannica Premium Service, www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9375263.
46. T. Michael Miller, “General Lafayette and His Many Visits to Alexandria, Virginia,” memorandum, July 15, 1987, Alexandria Library Lloyd House. Lafayette lodged at Gadsby’s Tavern in 1777 (Dorothy Kabler, A Story of Gadsby’s Tavern [Alexandria, Va.: D. Kabler, 1952], p. 13); wrote a letter to Jefferson from Alexandria in 1781 (Writings of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Albert Ellery Bergh, 20 vols. [Washington, D.C.: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1905], 5: 523); and attended a reception in his honor at Lomax’s Tavern in 1784 (Alexandria Gazette, August 2, 1784, p. 2). When he visited America in 1824, Lafayette spent almost a month in Alexandria, beginning in October (Lafayette, Guest of the Nation: A Contemporary Account of the Triumphal Tour of General Lafayette through the United States in 1824–1825 as Reported by the Local Newspapers, edited by Edgar Ewing Brandon, 3 vols. [Oxford Historical Press, 1951–1957], 3: 33–36). In December he dined there with Mrs. Henry Lee (Alexandria Gazette, December 24, 1824, p. 3).
47. Miller, Manuscripts of an Old Bachelor, p. 32.
48. Moore, Seaport in Virginia, pp. 240–41. In gratitude, the Alexandria City Council presented Mrs. Thomas Lawrason with a silver cup.
49. Benjamin Hallowell, Autobiography of Benjamin Hallowell, Written . . . in the Seventy-sixth Year of His Age, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: Friends’ Book Association, 1884), pp. 99–101.
50. Moore, Seaport in Virginia, pp. 240–41.
51. Miller, Manuscripts of an Old Bachelor, pp. 52–53.
52. T. Michael Miller, Portrait of a Town: Alexandria, District of Columbia (Virginia), 1820–1830 (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1995), p. 211.
53. Alexandria Gazette, September 14, 1825.
54. Alexandria Gazette, March 4, 1826, p. 3:
Early Spring Supply
Robert H. Miller has just received from Liverpool, per ship Shenandoah,
Sixty-two Crates & Hogsheads
of Earthenware and China
being part of his spring supply—among which are
            Ironstone China table services
            Blue printed (Liverpool) do
            China pitchers and tea-sets, richly gilt
            Do tea-sets gold edge and view of Mount Vernon
            Do Do    plain, with   do and common patterns
Which, with the usual articles in his line, such as edged
plates and dishes, enamelled and printed bowls, &c &c.
a further supply of Lafayette Ware, makes his assortment very handsome.
            He has also lately received a superior assortment of
Rich Cut Glass, viz: . . .
55. Warwick Price Miller, Reminiscences of Warwick P. Miller of Alexandria, Virginia, 1896 ([Alexandria, Va.]: Lloyd House, Alexandria Library, 1981), p. 3. Robert Miller had opened a shop at 317 King Street, on the Market Square, in 1822, after traveling to England to select the first stock of china and earthenware. His brother was sent to St. Louis in 1835 to establish a branch store, N. E. Janney and Brothers. An ironstone wash basin found at a mid-nineteenth-century residential site at 809 Duke Street bears the impressed mark “pearl ware j. heath” and the printed mark “manufactured for r-h miller & co st. louis m / ironstone china / j. heath.” The Heath mark dates to 1845–1853, according to Godden, Encyclopaedia, p. 318. Robert retired in 1865, but his son Elijah Janney Miller entered the business in 1856, and the company continued into the early twentieth century.
56. Philip Terrie, “A Social History of the 500 Block, King Street in Alexandria, VA” (1979), unpublished manuscript in the collection of the Alexandria Archaeology Museum.
57. Larsen, American Historical Views, p. 263. An oval pearlware teapot with the Lafayette and Cornwallis prints is reproduced in Arman and Arman, Anglo-American Ceramics, p. 12, fig. 2.4.
58. May, Commemorative Pottery, p. 82.
59. Hallowell, Autobiography, pp. 99–101.
60. Arman and Arman, Anglo-American Ceramics, pp. 51, 112; Larsen, American Historical Views, p. 229.
61. Alexandria Gazette, May 7, 1833, and December 29, 1854, cited in T. Michael Miller, Murder and Mayhem: Criminal Conduct in Old Alexandria, Virginia, 1749–1900 (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1988), pp. 184–87. The incident is also described in Dorothy H. Kabler, The Story of Gadsby’s Tavern (Alexandria, Va.: Printed by Newell-Cole Co., 1952), p. 49.
62. “The Whitehouse: Presidents’ Hall, William Henry Harrison,” reprinted from Frank Burt Freidel, The Presidents of the United States of America, 14th ed. (Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association with the cooperation of the National Geographic Society, 1995), available at www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/wh9.html, accessed March 6, 2005.
63. Robert H. McCauley, “American Importers of Staffordshire,” Antiques (June 1944): 295. McCauley illustrates a similar pitcher with the Robert H. Miller mark, printed in mulberry. Larsen (American Historical Views, p. 266) also describes a Harrison pitcher marked “Manufactured for Robert H. Miller, Alexandria, D.C.”
64. Alexandria was part of the District of Columbia from 1801 until 1847. Residents of the District of Columbia did not have votes in the electoral college until 1961, when the twenty-third constitutional amendment was ratified.
65. Miller, Reminiscences of Warwick P. Miller, pp. 17–18.
66. The Armans (Anglo-American Ceramics, p. 103) illustrate a green-printed pitcher with the Harrison and Reform print but without the eagle beneath the spout.
67. “Rally: Conservative Men, Whigs, Union Men!” Alexandria Gazette, November 6, 1860, p. 2.
68. William B. Hurd, Alexandria, Virginia, 1861–1865 (Alexandria, Va.: Fort Ward Museum, 1970), pp. 3–4.
69. “Raising of Confederate States Flag,” Alexandria Gazette, April 18, 1861, p. 3.
70. Hurd, Alexandria, Virginia, 1861–1865, pp. 3–7.
71. James Barber, Alexandria in the Civil War (Lynchburg, Va.: H. E. Howard, 1988), p. 17.
72. David J. Goldbert, “Charles Coxon: Nineteenth-Century Potter, Modeler-Designer, and Manufacturer,” American Ceramic Circle Journal 9 (1984): 44–49.
73. Hurd, Alexandria, Virginia, 1861–1865, p. 6.
74. Laurence W. Williams, Collector’s Guide to Souvenir China: Keepsakes of a Golden Era (Paducah, Ky.: Collector Books, 1998). Knight’s store is illustrated in Alexander J. Wedderburn, Souvenir Virginia Tercentennial, 1707–1907, of Historic Alexandria, Virginia (Alexandria, Va.: A. J. Wedderburn, 1907), p. 56.