Sun. Feb. 4. Pleasant quiet warm day, first quiet day in ten days. Most of us up a half hour late. Merrill spent whole day on his drawings. Lothrops took a little trip up river to see Verrills site and found two new ones. The Cornings spent most of day straightening up equipment. John M. took things easy. I spent morning housecleaning my tent and distributing general equipment I had in there, and in afternoon until 5:00 went over paper accounts and got everything filed and in order. Talked over maps[?] with Merrill & began a letter in evening.
-J. Alden Mason, Field Notes, February 4, 1940
Sunday, Feb. 4 was a day of rest for the excavation team. Now that the initial work of setting up camp is over, we get a glimpse of what camp life is like during their downtime.
Someone we haven’t heard much about this whole time is John M., Mason’s son, who tagged along for the whole of the expedition. John Jr., was a senior at Tredyffrin-Easttown High in Berwyn in 1940, but had taken the school year off to join the expedition as a “general helper.” Below is a photograph of John Jr., taking things easy indeed!