U.Va. Institute for Public History Slavery 
Slavery the Focus of Summer Projects at Monticello, Ash Lawn-Highland,
Maymont 


The University of Virginia Institute for Public History launched its
first summer internship program with three internships focusing on
slavery and domestic servant life at Monticello, Ash Lawn-Highland,
and the Maymont Foundation in Richmond.
At Monticello, Joshua Rothman, a doctoral candidate in U.Va.'s
Corcoran Department of History, is compiling a database on slave
communities on Thomas Jefferson's plantations. He is researching
family patterns, living arrangements, sales, birth and death
demographics, as well as lifestyle information. The database is
intended to help history buffs, historians and scholars gather
information about slave communities.
Amy Murrell, also a doctoral candidate in the history department, is
launching a new African-American history project at Ash Lawn-Highland.
It is directed towards researching slave life at Ash Lawn while James
Monroe lived there, as well as servant life later in the 19th century.
Murrell is searching census rolls, deeds, marriage certificates and
wills for evidence. She also plans to interview descendants of
Monroe's slaves and servants.
At Maymont, architectural history graduate student Jeffrey Hamilton is
focusing on the lives of domestic workers at Maymont from 1886-1925.
He is writing an essay on servant life for Maymont's interpretation
manual, used to train docents. Hamilton also will revise the tour of
"downstairs" life, or the life of the servants who ran the household,
including African-Americans.
The program placed five additional interns at the Virginia Historical
Society in Richmond, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and
Public Policy in Charlottesville, Alexandria Archaeology, the
Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities at Jamestown
Rediscovery, and the Museum of American Frontier Culture in Staunton.
Interns are selected from U.Va. undergraduate and graduate student
applicants. Each works for 10 weeks on a specific project under the
guidance of a faculty mentor, the institute's director, Phyllis
Leffler, and a supervisor at the sponsoring agency.
The Institute for Public History was founded in 1996 to provide a
forum for scholars, students and the general public to research and
discuss historical and cultural issues. In addition to the summer
internship program, the institute holds symposia on history-related
topics, offers undergraduate courses and monthly discussion groups for
scholars in diverse fields, and conducts projects involving the
collection of oral histories from Virginia communities.
Reporters: Descriptions of the other five internship programs are
included below. For additional information, contact Phyllis Leffler of
her assistant, Nina Tisch, at (804) 924-6945, or Shannon Ballard,
U.Va. News, at (804) 924-6855.
Additional 1997 Summer Internship Programs
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy,
Charlottesville -- Mary Halnon (American Studies program graduate
student) is assisting in the development and implementation of public
education programs connected with Virginia's 400th anniversary as well
as a statewide project on "The Future of Rural Virginia."
Virginia Historical Society, Richmond -- Amy Feely (Newport News
native and history department doctoral candidate) is helping prepare
for Virginia's 400th anniversary celebration in 2007. She is
researching Virginia communities at the turn of the 20th century for a
guidebook that will encourage small historical societies throughout
the state to discover their community history.
Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities/Jamestown
Rediscovery Project -- Ciara O'Connell (fourth-year anthropology and
archaeology major) is developing an interpretive site plan for
Jamestown Rediscovery by analyzing visitor flow, surveying visitors
and staff and evaluating existing interpretive signs.
Alexandria Archaeology -- Margaret Cooch (fourth-year anthropology and
archaeology major) is involved with excavation and community
education. Some of her work includes processing artifacts, helping
create lesson plans and discovery kits, and assisting with Family Dig
Days.
Museum of American Frontier History, Staunton -- Katherine von Ter
Stegge (fourth-year history major) is developing a furnishing plan for
the museum's German farm, which involves researching and compiling a
reference guide on furniture common in German farm houses in the early
18th century. Once complete, craftsmen will reproduce the furniture
for the museum.