Blog post written by Elizabeth Donison, staff archaeologist, Fairfield Foundation. Most of us can agree that 2020 was a year of reckoning with our notion of death, and the Fairfield Foundation’s various projects seemed to align with this challenging and often depressing year. Some of you might remember our participation with the mid-19th-century graves under […]
The Thruston Library: What One Family’s Books Tell Us About Their Past
By Jordan Knepper, Fairfield Intern The Complete Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson (Hurst & Co Publishers, New York, 1880). Written in the back is “Tennyson died in 1892 at the ripe age of 85.” It was given to Mattis C. Harwood by L.T. Jones, December 21st, [18]’84. Jordan Knepper was a digital intern with The […]
17th-century Settlement on the York River: Fairfield Foundation Receives Grant to Research Early Archaeological Sites at Timberneck and Shelly
We are proud to announce that The Fairfield Foundation was one of 11 research, education and historical institutions and specialists to receive funding from The Conservation Fund as part of their Chesapeake Cultural Studies Grant Program. The program dispersed over $260,000 to support the research and study of cultural artifacts of the Chesapeake region. The […]
Happy 20th Anniversary Fairfield Foundation
In November 2000, we dug our first shovel tests at Fairfield, beginning 20 years of public archaeology on the Middle Peninsula. To dig at Fairfield had been a dream held by Co-Directors David Brown and Thane Harpole for several years- we never thought it would come to fruition so quickly. The two decades that followed […]
Witness to Change: The Rise and Fall of Monument Avenue’s Confederate Statues
Disclaimer: Some images contain mature content. Every spring over 20,000 runners gather at the east end of Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia to participate in the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10k. Spectators line the wide grassy medians to cheer on the runners while enjoying live music and beautiful scenery. The course spans the length of Monument […]
Places Worth Saving: The Booker Family’s Three Landmark Buildings on Gloucester’s Main Street
There are three prominent structures located on the north side of Main Street in Gloucester that are often called the Booker buildings. Each has its own history, and they have endured changes through the years, but all were built and maintained by the Booker family. Sadly, the buildings are currently slated for destruction, as the […]
A Golden Lion’s Paw
Yep. You read that title correctly. A golden lion’s paw. While this certainly ranks highly on any list of “coolest things ever found,” it is also the inspiration for an amazing collaboration between three institutions that value meaning and substance as much as they do the “Wow” factor. As organizations dedicated to public archaeology and […]
Preservation vs. Growth
Updates from a summer researcher: Ruth Blair Moyers, Masters of Architecture candidate at MIT Preservation is not only a question of history but it is also a topic that deserves attention from the fields of architecture and urban planning. Historically, when architecture overlaps with the field of history, it is through historic preservation of buildings […]
Delving into Gloucester’s Public School Past
Guest blog written by Colleen Betti, current doctoral candidate at UNC-Chapel Hill and long-time Fairfield Foundation friend. In 1912, Gloucester County’s surveyor and superintendent of public schools, R.A. Folkes, illustrated a map showing all of the public schools in the county. At the time, he identified 20 black schools and 20 white schools. This nearly […]
History’s Mysteries: Toddsbury’s Lost Plantation Landscape Revealed One Building at a Time
This blog was prepared by intrepid and passionate avocational archaeologists Jim Gloor and Carol Reynolds. WHAT MEASURES 13.4 FEET X 13.2 FEET, CONTAINS OVER 1000 LBS OF HINGED OYSTER SHELLS, AND RESIDES AT TODDSBURY? The excavations continue at Toddsbury (44GL0264), a 17th– to 19th– century historic plantation located on the Middle Peninsula along the west […]
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