In 1944, a woman named Irene Morgan was riding a bus from Hayes to her home in Baltimore. Ms. Morgan was at a hard point in her life. She […]
Gone Before We Knew to Look: Searching for Green Book Sites in Rural Virginia
This project arose out of a seemingly random email. Dr. Jessica Taylor (Virginia Tech) caught a reference to the Watkins Motel and Florist at Gloucester Courthouse when she was conducting […]
Mobjack: Starfish, Pickled Herring and Hidden Stories of Mathews County
One of the best parts of our work is the idea that you can discover something new and exciting every day. Most of you see this excitement from our archaeological excavations, and […]
Archaeology in Mathews County: What do we know? Where do we go from here?
“You can’t set foot in Mathews County without tripping over a piece of history.” Many of you have heard this before, and you’d be hard pressed to argue against the sentiment. […]
Mathews County Oral History and Folklore: Old House Woods and More!
This week for the first time, University of Florida students, along with Fairfield intern alum Jessica Taylor, will record oral histories and folklore in Mathews and Middlesex Counties. Nine undergraduates, […]
The Main Street Oral History Project
We recently launched a special page on our website dedicated to local oral history. Our first contribution to this initiative is The Main Street Oral History Project: preserving and presenting the […]
Finding African-American Cemeteries and What to do Once You’ve Found Them
Antioch Church in Gloucester was built by African-Americans who had been slaves at Fairfield and other local farms. While there are many marked burials here, mostly from the 20th century, […]
Rotten Eggs and Other Mischief: Halloween Traditions on Gloucester’s Main Street
The following is the third installment in a series of blog posts focused on the oral history project directed by University of Florida graduate student Jessica Taylor, aimed at recording oral […]
“The cool guys in Gloucester, the cool girls in Mathews”: Oral History Reveals Courtship Strategies of Gloucester Youth in the 1940s and 50s
In August, The Fairfield Foundation wrapped up interviews for an oral history project directed by University of Florida graduate student Jessica Taylor, aimed at recording oral histories about the Edge Hill […]
We Need To Talk: The Importance of Oral History
The following is a guest blog by Jessica Taylor, doctoral candidate at University of Florida, and Lead Interviewer on our project to record oral histories about the Edge Hill Service Station […]
