Welcome to the HRG!

History is fun and exciting.The HRG are a group of living historians who educate and perform at a few select events in Alaska.

The time periods we frequently demonstrate are the medieval era and the 1740s, with a Scottish focus. We also have members with an interest in early Celt, Celto-Roman, and Renaissance time periods.

Our areas of expertise and interest include blacksmithing, armour, sewing, cooking, fletching and archery, clothing, music and the arts, all within these time periods

Our demos include living history demonstrations, reenactments, historical facts, and humor.

History of the HRG

Rick Ford and David Teague (we in the HRG have long nicknamed ourselves the Rick and David Show, after our Founding Fathers) have been demonstrating living history together since 1981, and have operated under the name Highland Recrudescence Guild since the early 1990s. In 1994, they began studying eighteenth century swordplay, building on Rick’s considerable experience with modern and classical fencing. In 1996 the Alaska Highland Games Committee asked them to do a demonstration at the Games to celebrate the anniversary of an important Scottish battle. To increase the impact of the show, they began inviting other people to join them, and it snowballed from there. As of 2009, to allow us to broaden the sphere of our studies and demonstrations, we have changed our name slightly, to Historic Recrudescence Guild.

Many people have come and gone from our group over the years, some onto better things, and some back to the real world. We remember them fondly and thank them for their input. Currently the HRG consists of some 45 candidates for the asylum. About a quarter of our number have completed post-secondary studies specializing in various aspects of history, ranging from archaeology to political history to early music, and several individuals from our group have won awards and other recognitions of merit, both locally and internationally, for excellence in the skills they choose to demonstrate with us. Please take time to look at our Research page, and check up on it every so often, as we get time to upload more of our doings.