FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 27, 2007

Poplar Forest Awarded Prestigious National Grant
Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services
Will Support Archaeological Excavation and Research

Forest, VA – Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest will begin an intensive two-year project, “Sharing Knowledge of Thomas Jefferson’s Retreat” thanks to the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services’ (IMLS) Museums for America grant program. Poplar Forest received an award of $106,345 that will be used to support the most current archaeological excavations at Thomas Jefferson’s retreat home.

Through the grant, Poplar Forest’s archaeology department will utilize the expertise of two research facilities to better understand the landscape history of Jefferson’s plantation and retreat. Analysis will focus on two archaeological sites in the “curtilage,” a sixty-one-acre enclosure surrounding the main house. Additional research will uncover new clues as to how the land was shaped, used and occupied, including insights into the lives of Jefferson-era slaves living and working in this area.

• The Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts will analyze pollen trapped in layers of soil in a large trench near the house to determine the types of vegetation grown in Jefferson’s curtilage. Staff will also examine burnt seeds and plant remains from a post-Jefferson slave cabin to understand how diet and use of natural resources changed over time.
• The Archaeology Research Laboratory at the University of Tennessee will examine soil samples from two archaeological sites to better understand how Jefferson shaped the landscape at Poplar Forest. Archaeologists know that Jefferson conducted large-scale earthmoving projects and this analysis will help them to better understand how Poplar Forest’s landscape may have looked in Jefferson’s time.

Additionally, the grant will allow Poplar Forest ’s archaeologists to catalogue and analyze approximately 23,500 Jefferson- era artifacts that have been recovered from two sites located almost 100 yards southeast of the octagonal brick house. The inclusion of this data into Poplar Forest ’s archaeological database will allow Poplar Forest staff to better understand the entire collection of over 200,000 individual artifacts as they continue reconstructing the history of this nationally renowned historic property.

The research will inform both online and on-site exhibits that focus on changes in the lives of Poplar Forest ’s slave community and the evolution of Jefferson’s landscape design and the alterations that turned his Central Virginia plantation into a formal villa retreat.

“This grant gives Poplar Forest the resources to properly catalogue and analyze a portion of this nationally significant collection and the ability to integrate that information and data to give our visitors, both online and onsite, the most accurate and detailed descriptions of the natural and material world of Poplar Forest”, said Jack Gary, director of archaeology and landscapes at Poplar Forest. “In time this information can help us to restore aspects of Thomas Jefferson’s plantation with an accuracy not often seen on historic properties.”

Poplar Forest was chosen for the grant, along with 157 other recipients, out of a pool of 414 applicants. Museums for America is the nation’s largest grant program for museums, providing more than $17 million in grants to support the role of museums in American society, to sustain cultural heritage, to support lifelong learning, and to be centers of community engagement.

IMLS is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. Through its grant making, convenings, research and publications, the Institute empowers museums and libraries nationwide to provide leadership and services to enhance learning in families and communities, sustain cultural heritage, build twenty-first-century skills, and increase civic participation. To learn more about IMLS, please visit: http://www.imls.gov.

Discover the unexpected Thomas Jefferson at Poplar Forest , Jefferson’s Bedford County plantation where he designed and created his personal retreat. America ’s first brick octagonal house is open for tours 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Monday, April through November (except for Thanksgiving Day). More information is available at (434) 525-1806 or on the web at www.poplarforest.org

Images are available. Please email media@poplarforest.org for additional information.

www.poplarforest.org/pressreleases/pr2007IMLSgrant.html

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