Stephens Family Bedroom

Used as a bedroom during the encampment, this room may also have served as a parlor under ordinary circumstances. During the occupation, the Stephens family may have aided the American cause by renting their home to General Varnum and his staff. However, like many of their neighbors, they retained the right to live alongside the officers. This provided them shelter and allowed them to keep watch over their home and farm.

Photograph by Carol M. Highsmith
Valley Forge National Historical Park

Trundle Bed

American
1775 – 1800

The parlor was too small to comfortably fit two full-sized beds and still perform all the needed daily chores of running a farm. The Stephens could have used a trundle bed, a well known practice in the 18th century. Both of the beds are painted red, a common feature in Colonial wood furniture to minimize differences in wood. Woolen blankets, perhaps from the family's sheep, and linen sheets, made from their flax crop would have kept them warm during the winter season.

Wood. L 139.5, W 101.5 cm
Donated by the Stueben Society of America, Pastorius Unit #38
Valley Forge National Historical Park, VAFO 3518