2001 Poplar Forest-University of Virginia Summer Field School in Historical
Archaeology
Dates:June 3-July 6, 2001 (students will meet on the 4th of July!)
Credits: 5 graduate level credits in Anthropology
cost: $360 in-state; $622.50 out-of-state plus accommodations (estimated at
$21/day at Lynchburg College)
Application deadline: April 2, 2001
Thomas Jefferson inherited the Poplar Forest plantation in Bedford County
Virginia in 1774. It provided him with an important souce of income for the
rest of his life, and became the site of his second home, begun in 1806.
Jefferson envisioned Poplar Forest as a retreat from the pressures of public
life, and visited the property several times a year between 1810-1823.
During his lifetime, a community of 60-100 slaves and several overseers
lived and worked on the plantation. Following his death in 1826, the
property remained a working plantation with a resident owner and slave
community throughout the antebellum period. It was used by its owners as a
"summer home" in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with tenant farmers
continuing to work the land. In 1983, the non-profit Corporation for
Jefferson's Poplar Forest purchased the property from private owners, and
continues to restore and interpret the site today. Archaeological
investigations around the main house and across the remaining 500 acres of
the original plantation have been on-going since 1989, documenting
Jefferson's use of the property, the living conditions of enslaved
African-Americans, and the changing face of the landscape from the late 18th
through the early 20th centuries.
During the summer of 2001, field school students will spend several days
taking part in a phase 2 survey of an area historically known as Ridge
Field. To date, the survey has refined our understanding of the scope and
boundaries of a Middle to Late Archaic site located on the northern edge of
the field. The field's proximity to the intersection of an 18th-century
public and internal plantation road suggests the possibility of
Jefferson-era outbuildings, although none have yet been located.
Students will spend the remainder of the session participating in on-going
excavations near the main house. This summer, we will be investigating an
area believed to contain significant landscape features and outbuildings.
The project will attempt to locate several important features of the early
19th-century landscape, including two stables, a spinning house, slave
cabins, a kitchen garden, an important boundary fence and a plantation road.
Later 19th-century buildings and landscape elements are also believed to be
present in this area.
In addition to field work, students will process, catalogue and analyze
artifacts and have access to the site study collection that contain
artifacts dating from the Archaic period through the first half of the
twentieth century. In addition to their duties in the field and lab,
students will be required to keep a daily journal and to participate in
weekly discussions of assigned readings. Field trips to other historic sites
and archaeological projects in the area are scheduled.
Students will also learn about the on-going architectural restoration of
Jefferson's house and dependency wing, and will explore the role of
archaeology within a museum setting. Participants in the field school have
an rare opportunity to contribute directly to the interpretation and
restoration of an important public site.
The program will be directed by Dr. Barbara Heath, the Director of
Archaeology and Landscapes at Poplar Forest. Scott Grammer, Randy
Lichtenberger and Heather Olson of the Poplar Forest archaeology staff, and
architectural historian Travis McDonald, will contribute to the teaching of
the field school, along with visiting lecturers.
For more information, please contact Barbara Heath at the address below, or
visit our website at www.poplarforest.org/13annual.htm
Barbara Heath
Director of Archaeology and Landscapes
Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest
P.O. Box 419
Forest, VA 24551
(804) 525-1806
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