I worked on Long Island for the summer of 2007. I drove their everyday from the city. Not too far into the summer I started having these visions of a women in red walking away from the island, into the water…she was peaceful, content, connected to the island somehow. I thought, assumed, I was having some weird performance art vision of myself. Something new for me, but the vision was strong, a little irritating actually, because it had nothing to do with my work.
I thought Tremor 4 was the perfect opportunity to capture this vision / image. An image I wanted to fulfill. Before proposing, I thought I should do a little research about the island, this is what I found….
On July 17, 1776, about a month after the British were driven from the outer harbor, the Long Island Battery on East Head fired a thirteen-gun salute in celebration and honor of the promulgation of the Declaration of Independence. Similar salutes were fired from the other batteries throughout Boston Harbor.
Edward Rowe Snow related a story about a Mary, the wife of a Tory, William Burton, who was aboard one of the British ships that formed the blockade on Boston Harbor, together with her husband. A cannonball from the Long Island Battery struck Mary. As she lay dying, she pleaded with her husband not to bury her at sea. A flag of truce was struck that allowed Burton to go ashore with his wife's body. Mary Burton was buried on East Head after her body was sewn into a red blanket. One of the Americans agreed to put her name on a grave marker. Her husband planned to return to Boston but never did. Over the years, the wooden marker rotted away. People who knew this story erected a stone cairn over the burial site. In 1804, some fishermen were wrecked on Long Island and they took refuge in an old powder magazine. As they were building a fire, they were startled by a moan coming over the hill near Mary Burton's cairn. The stunned fishermen claimed to have seen a form of a woman wearing a scarlet cloak coming over the hill. Blood appeared to be streaming down the cloak from a wound in her head. The ghost just kept on walking by the fishermen and soon disappeared over the hill. Again, during the War of 1812, a "woman in scarlet" was reported at Fort Strong. Also, in 1891, Private William Liddell reported seeing a "woman in scarlet." Liddell, while on guard duty at night, reported that that ghost came toward him from an easterly direction emitting distinct moans.
Baron Barlow Trecothick, the owner of Long Island, died on June 11, 1790 and the island passed to his brother-in-law, Charles Ward Apthorp from New York. Apthorp sold the island on June 13, 1791 to James Ivers of Boston. Around this date, the island began to be officially called Long Island.
So, I suppose Mary was visiting me too. I plan to document my vision for Tremor 4. --for more information about Long Island click here
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