A Family Affair

Slanted Wayside Exhibit:
The Lockkeeper and his Family
357 words / Total Audio Description: 1 minute, 59 seconds

Site Information
121 words / 40 seconds

This is an audio description of an interpretive sign titled A Family Affair. The sign consists of a graphic panel measuring 3 feet (1 meter) wide by 2 feet (0.5 meters) tall. An audio speaker with push buttons and two solar panels is to the right of the graphic panel. All parts are set within an angled black metal frame with two legs that raise the sign 3 feet (1 meter) off the ground. The view beyond the sign contains a large grassy area bisected by a curving concrete sidewalk. At the far-left corner of the grass stands the stone Lockkeeper’s House. At the far right corner is the curved, gray stone levee floodwall and further beyond is the Washington Monument.

Exhibit Panel Content
246 words / 1 minute, 21 seconds

The title reads A Family Affair.This panel features a busy domestic scene surrounding the Lockkeeper’s House. In the foreground, two small boats loaded with goods are docked along an earth and wood wharf, while an adult and a child fish from a boat just offshore. Domestic animals such as white sheep, chickens, and goats graze in the front yard, while a black and white dog keeps lookout with a watchful eye. Workers lead horses around the yard and carry lumber toward a smaller building. In the center of the illustration, the stone Lockkeeper’s House stands showing all three original levels, smoke wafting from the rust-colored chimneys.

Dark text on the blue river reads:

History remembers the names of two lockkeepers, first John Hilton then Thomas Sampson, but everyone in the family helped operate the lock. The families lived and worked together every day. We can imagine a morning when the lockkeeper collected tolls from barges while his children opened the lock to allow the barge to pass. The lockkeeper’s wife, down at the dock, may have answered questions for barge and dock workers.

Near the canoe, a caption in white text reads:

Canal boats were towed by mules down hundreds of miles of canals. Their journey ended here, where the C&O Canal finally met the Potomac River.

In the bottom right-hand corner of the panel, a dark yellow circle lined in blue with dark text reads:

How would you feel working with your family every day?


[End of description.]