Guest blog written by Colleen Betti, doctoral candidate at UNC-Chapel Hill and long-time Fairfield Foundation friend and collaborator. In a December 2020 blog, I gave brief updates on my excavations at three of Gloucester’s historic Black schools: Woodville, Glenns/Dragon, and Bethel. Now I’d like to dive deeper into the archaeology of Woodville School and explain […]
“In death – no! even in the grave all is not lost.”: 19th-Century Coffin Hardware in Urbanna, VA
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 […]
Three Weeks as a Fairfield Intern: Rachel Shin, 2019
Guest blog by summer intern Rachel Shin, a high-school student from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Week 1:On the first day of my internship, I got to dive into field work right off the bat. We made the short trip to Tucker Store in Gloucester Courthouse, a lot where a general store once stood. I began excavating a […]
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 […]
Conservation Update: Fairfield Cast Iron Stove Under the X-ray!
Thanks to Kate Ridgway at the Department of Historic Resources, we have an update on the conservation of our cast iron stove excavated at Fairfield! For background information on this project, you can read our previous blog post “What’s Under the Rust? Preserving and Conserving Fairfield’s Cast Iron Stove”. As our previous post described, the […]
What’s Under the Rust? Preserving and Conserving Fairfield’s Cast Iron Stove
We love doing archaeology at a variety of sites across the Middle Peninsula, but Fairfield Plantation will always be our home. There are thousands of fascinating artifacts that have been recovered from the manor house and surrounding property, and we don’t always have the time or resources to give them the attention and care they […]
Join us for Adventures in August!
Where else can you work with historic ruins, 3-D models, artifacts, and drones? For the seventh year in a row, Fairfield Foundation is teaming up with Adventures in Preservation to host enthusiastic and curious preservationists who want to learn how to excavate, document, and preserve our past. The week-long experience (August 12 to 18, 2018) […]
The Hall Site: A “Hallmark” of Mathews County
Guest Blog author Katie Brauckmann has worked with the Fairfield Foundation/DATA Investigations for three years, first as a volunteer and intern, and now as a part-time employee. Katie is a sophomore anthropology major at James Madison University. The Hall Site (44MT0173) is a predominately 18th-century site located in Mathews County, Virginia. Conrad Hall, former President […]
Cemetery Preservation in Mathews
The Fairfield Foundation is coordinating a Cemetery Preservation Day in Mathews County. Read on to learn how you can be a part of this exciting project! The Brooks cemetery is overgrown with trees and brush. The New Point Comfort Natural Area Preserve in Mathews County is beautiful for many reasons. The boardwalk provides fantastic views […]
Discovering history at Mathews Market Days
The Fairfield Foundation hosted a very successful public outreach excavation during Mathews County’s annual Market Days festival in September. More than 40 eager kids and adults helped us excavate four 5′ square units in two days. These units helped investigate the site of a former hotel located along Main Street, providing more clues about how this area was […]
