Participant Info
- First Name
- Sarah
- Last Name
- Thomas
- Country
- United States
- State
- VA Virginia
- sarahethomas4@gmail.com
- Affiliation
- The Lemon Project, College of William and Mary
- Website URL
- Keywords
- material culture, architectural history, backcountry, vernacular architectural history; history of slavery in Virginia
- Availability
- Media Contact
- Additional Contact Information
- PhD
- PhD
Personal Info
- Photo
- About Me
I hold a PhD in history from William & Mary, a MA in history from William & Mary, and a MA in architectural history from the University of Virginia School of Architecture. My dissertation, “Community and Culture: Material Life in Shenandoah County, Virginia, 1750-1850,” was advised by James Whittenburg and Susan Kern.
I have spent three summers working as an architectural historian at Colonial Williamsburg’s Robert Carter House. There I lead the “Building Detectives” program, investigate the house’s historic fabric, and work on the historic structure report. I also work as the consulting historian on Historic Annapolis’s James Brice House Restoration Project, and I served as the Lemon Project Fellow during my final two years as a graduate student at William & Mary.
I have received numerous grants and fellowships, including two Coffelt Fellowships from Colonial Williamsburg’s John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, a research fellowship from Winterthur, a Mellon fellowship from the Virginia Historical Society, the Decorative Arts Trust Summer Research Grant, the Society of American Period Furniture Makers Education Grant, the Virginia Crouch Memorial Research Grant, and the Provost Summer Grant for Graduate Research, and given presentations at Colonial Williamsburg, the Jamestown Yorktown Foundation, the Virginia Forum, the Shenandoah Valley Regional Studies Seminar, and the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians.
- Recent Publications
“Godfrey Wilkin’s ‘WEL DON’ Chest and the Growth of Community in Shenandoah County, Virginia,” The Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Volume 70, Issue 3, September 2017, 89-101.
“Wedged Dovetails from Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley,” American Period Furniture, December 2017, 6-12.
- Media Coverage
- Social Media
- archihistorian
- Country Focus
- United States
- Expertise by Geography
- United States
- Expertise by Chronology
- 17th century, 18th century, 19th century
- Expertise by Topic
- Art & Architectural History, Family, Material Culture, Museums, Public History, Race, Slavery
