Name/Title
BarrelEntry/Object ID
2025.5.001Description
Antique barrel used at Sharp's Wharf to ship oysters. The following quote is from the donor, Jamie Smith:
"My great-grandfather (James B. “Jack” Smith) and his brother (George Landon Smith) formed George L. Smith & Bros. Oyster Company at Sharps Wharf, VA (Richmond County) in 1897. They and later my Grandfather (B.G. Smith, Sr.) operated a shucking and packing house on Sharps Wharf until the destruction of the Steamboat Wharf by Hurricane Hazel in 1954. The Company then relocated to a newly built shucking house on Morattico Creek in lower Richmond County. In 1970 George L. Smith & Bros. was reorganized as B.G. Smith & Sons Oyster Company which still operates today.
The barrels were used to ship oysters via steamboat to Norfolk, Fredericksburg and Baltimore until steamboats stop running on the Rappahannock River in the late 1930’s."