For a hundred years, historians believed that the battle of Thornfield had been fought on the flat ground west of the village. Then a farmer digging a ditch found nineteen lead balls in a field two kilometers to the east.
Metal detectors soon found hundreds more. Their pattern showed two lines of soldiers, the distance between them, and the point where one line broke and ran.
The old maps were not deliberately wrong. They were drawn by writers who had never walked the ground themselves. The lesson, one historian says, is simple: read the letters, but read the soil as well.
Ships of the Line, 1780 to 1815 — Hall 3, until November 30
Photography without flash is allowed. Bags larger than a school backpack must be left at the door. Groups of more than fifteen should book by telephone one week ahead.
Dear Professor Hale,
I am writing about the letters my great-grandfather sent home between 1943 and 1945. My family has kept thirty-one of them in a wooden box, and none has ever been read outside the family.
He was a young sailor, and most of the letters say very little about the war itself. He writes about the weather, the food, and a cat that lived on his ship. Yet the silences seem to say a great deal.
Would your department be interested in copies of them? I do not wish to sell anything. I would simply like the letters to be useful to somebody.
Yours sincerely,
Marta Oliveira
Visitor numbers at four history museums in the capital last year.
| Museum | Visitors | Most popular room |
|---|---|---|
| Naval Museum | 210,000 | Ships of the Line |
| Museum of the Empire | 178,000 | Coins and Seals |
| Revolution House | 96,000 | The Printing Room |
| Castle Armory | 54,000 | Armor and Swords |
The Castle Armory is the only one of the four that is free to enter.