James Madison's Montpelier website photo
Five BRVGS students will dig in the dirt this summer when they participate in the Archeology Field program at Montpelier, the home of U.S. President James Madison and Dolly Madison. Devon Burger, Sasha Morgan, and Lauren Staton from Fluvanna, and Kat Topf and Abby Whitlock from Louisa will be part of the Montpelier research team during their week-long experience in Orange. The students, all 2014-15 seniors, are taking the program for a variety of reasons: college credit, BRVGS Senior Internship placement, and/or personal discovery.
The current historic archeology of the 18th and 19th centuries mansion grounds is focusing on how the enslaved and owners’ lives intersected on the formal grounds and larger plantation, and also on uncovering the picturesque landscape design that Madison implemented in the 1810s.
In addition to their excavation work, the students will engage in lab work (processing of artifacts and samples), lectures, and tours of the mansion and various archaeological sites on the property, including the Slave Cemetery, Mount Pleasant, plantation farm complex, Civil War encampments, and the Gilmore Farm.
Participants in the Montpelier Archaeology Expedition program stay at Arlington House, an antebellum home located on the estate's historic grounds.