Virginia Dare Statue 2008

by Greg Reed

Title

Virginia Dare Statue 2008

Artist

Greg Reed

Medium

Photograph - Photo

Description

History of Virginia Dare

Perhaps one of the reasons that so many artists and writers have taken creative liberties with the image and story of Virginia Dare over the centuries is because so little is known about her.

Virginia's history begins with the marriage of her mother, Eleanor Dare, to a local bricklayer and tiler, Ananias Dare. Eleanor and Ananias were both born in London, Eleanor in 1563 and Ananias in 1560, and were married at the historic St. Bride's Church on London's Fleet Street. (A memorial to Virginia Dare was eventually built at the English church and can still be admired today.) Their story may have ended there, with no worldwide recognition, if it wasn't for the commission given to Eleanor's father, John White.

In the 1580s, England began making colonization attempts in the New World, focusing on the northern and relatively undiscovered region that is present day America. Sir Walter Raleigh led the expeditions, under the command of Queen Elizabeth I, and after several successful trips to Roanoke Island, including an initial settlement of soldiers, sailors and workingmen that was sent to the colony in 1584, Raleigh deemed it was time to send a settlement of men, women and children to the New World.

He named his friend and fellow explorer of the region, John White, as the new governor of this colony, and leader of the nearly 150 Englishmen and women who would sail across the ocean to create a permanent home on Roanoke Island. John White was a good choice, as he was the mapmaker for the very successful expedition to North Carolina led by Richard Greenville in 1585, (an expedition which led to the friendly treaties with Chiefs Manteo and Wanchese), and White was optimistic about the colony's potential success. This optimism is evident by the fact that he recruited and brought his own daughter and his son-in-law along as new Roanoke Island residents - Eleanor and Ananias Dare.

White's optimism, however, may have been a bit premature. The first 1584 settlement of soldiers sent to Roanoke Island returned home little more than a year later due to dwindling supplies, and deteriorating relations with the local Native Americans. Apparently a fight between the settlers and the one of the local Native American tribes had led to months of animosity, and the settlers were concerned about an impending attack. So despite the fact that they had built homes, various buildings, and a fort, (Fort Raleigh), they deserted the colony and hitched a ride home back to England with Sir Francis Drake, who was passing through the area.

John White and his band of settlers departed for the New World in 1587, with a pregnant Eleanor Dare included in the voyage, and landed on Roanoke Island on July 22, 1587. After unloading the ship, it soon became clear that establishing a permanent settlement was not going to be an easy endeavor. There were no soldiers or sailors from the original colony left behind to help the new arrivals adjust, and within days White realized just how bad the local Native American relations had become.

While the colonists and White worried about their next move, and struggled to build better local relationships as well as a home in the foreign land, a glimmer of hope came into the colony. Eleanor Dare gave birth to a baby girl, Virginia Dare, on August 18th, 1587 - the first English citizen born in the New World. Virginia was baptized in the colony the following Sunday, and was noted to be strong and healthy, despite the desolate conditions of the new settlement.

White was obviously delighted, but just a couple months after Virginia's birth, he realized that the colonists needed help in the form of fresh supplies and additional men to protect them from the hostile locals. He set sail back to England in late 1587, grudgingly leaving his new granddaughter behind, but planning to return within a year.

Approximately 115 men, women and children were left to wait at the Roanoke Colony, including the infant Virginia. White, unfortunately, was stalled in England and unable to return promptly because of the ongoing Spanish War, and he wasn't able to set sail again until nearly three years later, arriving on Roanoke Island on Virginia's third birthday.

White was heartbroken to discover, however, that his granddaughter and the entire colony was gone, with the majority of the settlement left perfectly intact and empty. One of the colonists had carved "CROATAN" and "CRO" into village trees, but other than this cryptic clue, there was no sign of where they had gone, or what had happened to them. White searched the coastline from Roanoke to Hatteras Island, but there was no sighting of the 115 men, women, children, and the Lost Colonists were never seen or heard from again.

Virginia Dare, who had originally made news around the world as the first English child born in America, was now famous just three years later for her shocking and mysterious disappearance. In the centuries that followed, thousands of historians, artists and writers tried to unravel the mystery of Virginia's fate, but clearly, there were no answers in sight.

This all changed, however, in 1937 - amazingly the year of Virginia's 350th birthday celebration - when hand carved stoned were found in Georgia and the Carolinas, dated and signed by Virginia's mother, Eleanor Dare. Within the next four years, a total of 48 stones were found, penned and signed by Eleanor Dare, and when put together, they chronicled a fascinating life in the wild after the colony disappeared. According to the stones, Eleanor's husband and daughter Virginia died in 1591 in a savage Indian attack, and hungry for revenge, Eleanor went on to marry a rival Native American Chief. She eventually gave birth to a second daughter named Agnes, and remained a tribe member until her death in 1599. Many historians found it quite unbelievable that these stones were uncovered, and as it turns out it was, though it took nearly a decade to prove without a doubt that the whole affair of the Dare stones was an elaborate hoax.

While this is one of the few cases about Virginia's hypothetical fate trying to be passed off as the absolute truth, the stone carvers were certainly not the only folks in history to create stories and legends about the Roanoke Island resident. A number of novels have been written over the past centuries, with Virginia as a heroine who moves to Jamestown and marries a local settler, or is turned into a deer by an Indian witch doctor, or even gets involved in a love triangle with John Smith and Pocahontas. In science fiction works, she has been kidnapped by aliens or transformed into a modern vampire slayer, and in advertising she has been the face of a range of products from Virginia Tobacco to Flavoring Extracts.

Clearly, despite her brief appearance in history, Virginia Dare is a celebrated figure in American culture. As an icon of America's earliest roots, and later a subject of its longest running mystery, this Outer Banks local continues to fascinate and inspire artists and visitors alike, even today.


Source:http://www.outerbanks.com/virginia-dare.html




History of the Elizabethan Gardens

In 1941 the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site became an official attraction for Outer Banks visitors, and just 4 years prior, the Lost Colony Outdoor drama opened within the Fort Raleigh grounds. Within years, both of these Outer Banks treasures had attracted thousands of visitors from all across the country, and in 1950, four very important Lost Colony show attendees would make their mark on Roanoke Island.

Mrs. Charles Cannon, married to a North Carolina philanthropist, Mrs. Inglis Fletcher, (also a distinguished North Carolina historian and author), and Lady and Sir Evelyn Wrench, who was the founder of the English Speaking Union, had just visited the site and had taken in an evening show. Touring the grounds beforehand, it occurred to them that a two-acre garden on the outskirts of the Fort Raleigh site could lead to additional visitors, but more importantly, could stand as a natural and cultural monument to the Lost Colonists and Sir Walter Raleigh.

They proposed the idea to the local North Carolina State Garden Club in 1951, and were met with enthusiastic agreement by its thousands of members. The initial concept was a modest one. The four original proposers as well as the Garden Club aimed to construct a simple two-acre garden that represented the typical garden of a late 1500's colonist - not a show-stopping display garden by any means, but rather a modest parcel of land that would have vegetables, grains, and other staples of a colonist's diet and lifestyle.

But the plans changed when an assisting contractor, E.W. Reinecke, told members of the Garden Club about a prestigious historical garden he was dismantling at an estate in Georgia. The statues and fountains at the location were originally to be donated to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, but Reinecke suggested that the Garden Club contact the landscape architects involved, Innocenti & Webel, to see if this arrangement could be changed.

The Garden Club followed through with the suggestion, and the members were surprised to find that the Innocenti & Webel landscapers were delighted with the idea of donating the historic statues to the site of England's first American colony. As a result, the original plan of a simple garden was revised to make way for the ancient Italian fountain and pool with balustrade, wellhead, sundial, bird baths, and stone steps and benches that the architects, as well as the original Georgia estate's owner, The Honorable John Hay Whitney, had reserved especially for the new Outer Banks garden site.

With these donations serving as an abstract guide, the Webel landscapers designed an Elizabethan Era garden, slightly revised and remodeled for present times. Ironically enough, and perhaps serving as a good omen for this new direction, construction for the gardens began on the exact date that Elizabeth II was crowned, June 2, 1953. The task was an arduous one, and it wasn't until over seven years later, on August 18th, 1960, that the gardens were officially opened to the public on Virginia Dare's 373rd birthday.

Since the gardens were first established, a number of remarkable pieces of art, statues, plant species, and even the bricks themselves have been donated to the gardens from generous benefactors around the world. As a result, the gardens are an incredible collection of the old world and the new, with ancient English blooms and local trees and shrubs, all in an incredible setting that feels miles away from modern North Carolina, despite it's quiet location tucked away on Roanoke Island.


Source: http://www.outerbanks.com/elizabethan-gardens.html

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December 26th, 2016

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