The Center's Facilities

Archaeological and historical research activities undertaken by the Center for Historic Preservation are supported by laboratories and research facilities operated by the Center and the University. The Center maintains an archaeological laboratory in Combs Hall on the University of Mary Washington campus. Shared with the academic program in historic preservation, this laboratory is equipped to handle all aspects of artifact processing, analysis, initial conservation, and cataloguing. Artifact catalogues are maintained on computer software programs shared by the Center, Mount Vernon, Monticello, and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Field equipment for Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III projects is managed through the laboratory. At Combs Hall, the Center shares with the Department of Historic Preservation drafting facilities, a computer lab (AutoCad, SPSS, GIS, ArcView), office support, storage facilities, research files, and computerized data bases for public documents (tax and census records, fire insurance policies, newspaper indices).

Simpson Library at the University of Mary Washington contains an extensive collection of reference collections, books and journals that pertain to the history of eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Virginia. In addition to the library's collection, the Center for Historic Preservation maintains a specialized archaeological reference collection in its laboratory and is linked electronically to reference collections in the United States, Canada, England and continental Europe. The Department of Historic Preservation also maintains a library collection of books, journals, newsletters, and specialized studies related to preservation, architecture and architectural history, archaeology, landscape, folklife, and museums.