The First Rule of the Skate Club

Old Sturbridge Village is hosting an exhibit of antique ice skates drawn from its own collection and those of Karen Cameron, co-founder of the Antique Ice Skate Club, and interpreter Rob Lyon.

These artifacts will be on display from 3 December to 28 February. Here’s a museum article on the history of skating.

In addition, when the weather permits, there will also be skating for all on the village’s outdoor rink, laid out on the museum village’s common. The Antique Ice Skate Club will meet there on 5 February.

And now an extract from the memoir of Gen. Sir Martin Hunter about his life as a seventeen-year-old junior officer in the British army during the winter of 1774-75:

We used frequently to make skating parties to Jamaica Pond, about six miles from Boston. Major [Thomas] Musgrave of the 64th was by much the best skater at Boston, but before the winter was over I made great progress. At Cambridge and all the towns the Yankees were constantly exercising [i.e., training for war], and became more and more insolent, so much so that the officers did not think it safe to go into the country near Boston.

Notably, Maj. Musgrave helped lead an attack across the Boston harbor ice in February 1776.