Do you like visting your relatives, traveling to the beach, or even taking a trip to see new places and things? Most of us enjoy taking vacations. Whether we ride in a car or fly in an airplane, traveling is fun and easy. This was not always the case. Two hundred years ago when America was a young country, traveling even a short distance was a long and difficult process.In eighteenth-century Maryland, people rarely traveled for pleasure. Most people only traveled for business reasons. Rather than driving or flying to their destina- ation, they walked or rode on horseback. Eighteenth-century roads were little more than dirt trails, and travelers averaged only eight miles a day.
At night travelers stayed in inns or taverns. Taverns, by necessity, were located where people would be passing by. The most common locations lay along stagecoach routes, heavily traveled roads, or in the center of town near the market or courthouse. In addition to offering a place to sleep, taverns were a stopping place for food and drink. Many European travelers found the conditions less than ideal. The Marquis of Chastellux, traveling in Virginia and Maryland in the 1780's, described his experiences in a journal:
“Throughout America in private houses, as well as in the inns, several people are crowded together in the same room; and in the latter it very commonly happens, that after you have been some time in bed, a stranger of any condition (for there is little distinction), comes into the room, pulls off his clothes, and places himself without ceremony, between your sheets.”
Today the Marquis' reaction to having a stranger in his bed seems quite normal. For an American man of period, however, such accommodations would not have caused loss of sleep or modesty. Unless an inn or tavern was exceptional, the traveler could expect this as well as other inconveniences. Common discomforts associated with traveling included hard, lumpy beds, overcrowded rooms, dirty sheets, and straw mattresses infested with bed bugs. Philip Fithian, a traveler from New Jersey, wrote the following statement after spending a night in an eighteenth-century tavern, “For company all the night in my room I had bugs in every part of my bed...”
Under these conditions, it is not surprising that women and children would rarely be among the partrons of an eighteenth- century tavern. Those families who did travel preferred to stay in the homes of relatives or friends. Fortunately for us, improved roads and modern forms of transportation have made traveling an enjoyable way for families to spend time together.
To learn more about eighteenth- century taverns and transporta- tion, come to the MHS and meet Josef Engelbrecht, a Western Maryland miller. Step back in time to 1797 and let Josef tell you about his three-day journey from Westminster to Baltimore, as well as his experience at the Farmers and Planters Tavern, a well-known Baltimore inn.
Design Your Own Tavern Sign In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, many taverns had interesting names like the White Horse Inn, the Indian Queen, or the Sailor and the Mermaid. Not only did the taverns have unusal names, they also had colorful signs that illustrated their names. Have some fun, take a sheet of paper and design your own sign.