Living History Day at the Presidio Museum - The Trades, Skills, Arts, and Crafts of the Southwest

Date and Time for this Past Event

• Saturday, Mar 11, 2023  10am - 2pm

Location

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Details

$10/adult, $5/person ages 6-13
Pima County residents, seniors, and military members receive $3 off with ID

The Presidio Museum comes alive allowing visitors to get a feel for life in the Presidio during the late 18th-century New Spain Period and the 19th-century Territorial Period.

The theme this month focuses on the trades, skills, arts, and crafts that came from life on the frontier.

Men commonly earned a living by joining the military, working in the church, blacksmithing, or providing the necessary services the Presidio would have needed. Living History Day demonstrations related to men’s responsibilities, include:

**Blacksmithing
**Conducting soldier drills and the firing of the cannon
**Displaying uniforms and weapons of the US Cavalry
**Cooking by a garrison camp cook

Women tended to the home and cared for their families. Living History Day demonstrations related to women’s responsibilities include:

**Tastings of hand-made tortillas and Mexican hot chocolate
**Displays on the crops of the Columbian Exchange (what fusions occurred in foods when the Spanish and Native Americans shared their use of ingredients and recipes)
**Colcha embroidery, a style of densely-embroidered wool threads on cotton or linen fabric that emerged from the southwest during the Spanish Colonial period
**Weaving and spinning

March’s Living History Day will also include an “Escape Historic Tucson” scavenger hunt. Visitors will find themselves “trapped” in 18th and 19th century Tucson and will need to find the clues to unlocking the past to figure out a passcode for returning to 2023. Answers to the clues will be found in demonstrations, on signs, and throughout the Presidio Museum. Those who successfully find the passcode will have “escaped Historic Tucson” to return to the present and will receive a family pass good for two adults and two children to visit the museum at a future date.