For More Information: http://www.wm.edu/as/niahd/summerfieldschool/index.php

College of William and Mary Architectural History Field School

 History 406.01/590.01

July 3-August 4, 2017 Williamsburg, Virginia

Carl Lounsbury, Instructor

The College of William and Mary’s National Institute of American History and Democracy offers a five-week course this summer that is open to all undergraduate and graduate students as well as those with a special interest in early American architecture. This field school introduces students to the methods used in the investigation and recording of historic buildings.  The program is intended to help students distinguish the form, fabrication, and assembly of materials and building elements and understand their chronology. They will learn how to apply field evidence to answer larger questions concerning architectural and social history.

Following several introductory lectures on building technology and architectural features, students will study structures in Williamsburg and the surrounding Tidewater region. Tentatively, the fourth week will be spent documenting buildings in Alexandria, Virginia in preparation for the 2018 Vernacular Architecture Forum Conference that will be held in that city. In the last week, students will convert their fieldwork into CAD drawings and write site reports.

This class will meet four or five days a week from 10:00 to 4:30. It will require travel (in a van) and some physical exercise. Students must be enrolled for the course through the College of William and Mary. For more information about the nature of the course, please email Carl Lounsbury at crloun@wm.edu or call (757) 870-7599. Registration information is available at the William and Mary website: http://www.wm.edu/as/niahd/summerfieldschool/index.php