Befriend Mrs. Calvert on the Book of Countenance
Interested in Mrs. Calvert’s company?
Since 1995, I have focused on interpreting Rosalie Stier Calvert, a Belgian émigré who moved to the United States in 1794, fleeing the Terror on the Continent. She married George Calvert of the powerful Maryland family. When her parents and siblings returned to Belgium, she wrote them letters, which were discovered in Belgium around 30 years ago, translated, and published by Johns Hopkins University: Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert.
Undestined for publication, her letters reveal many things: life in the fledgling United States, raising a family, politics (she disapproved of presidents Jefferson and Madison), fashions, war, and the economy (she acted as her father’s business agent). Few letters provide such an unrestricted picture of life from a foreign and female viewpoint.
Riversdale events
- Balls and dances
- Battle of Bladensburg Reenactments: By the Rockets’ Red Glare
- Calverts’ Housewarming
- Caroline Calvert’s Debut into Washington Society
- Courtship and Marriage Customs of the Period
- Election reenactment: James Madison v. DeWitt Clinton
- Funeral reenactments: Early 19th-Century Mourning/Funeral Customs
- Horticulture: The Inheritance of Improvement
- Period dinner
- Regency masquerade
- Teas and wine tastings
- Twelfth Night celebrations
See more about Riversdale’s upcoming events