Jack Gary, executive director of archaeology at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, to speak at Randolph

Jack Gary, executive director of archaeology at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, will deliver Randolph’s David F. Anthony Memorial Lecture next week.

“What Lies Ahead… And Beneath: The Future of Archaeology at Colonial Williamsburg” will be held on Monday, Sept. 16 at 6 p.m. at the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, with a reception at 5 p.m. 

Archaeology has been an integral part of the research, interpretation, and reconstruction of Colonial Williamsburg for almost a century. 

Over the past five years, the archaeology department in Williamsburg has embarked on numerous projects,  asking new questions, employing new techniques, and incorporating the voice of the community. 

Gary’s talk will cover everything from the community-engaged work being conducted on the First Baptist Church of Williamsburg to new discoveries at the iconic Powder Magazine—one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city’s historic area—in the center of town. 

Before joining Colonial Williamsburg, Gary, a graduate of the College of William & Mary, served as director of archaeology and landscapes at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest. 

He has also conducted research in New York and Massachusetts with specific interests in plantation and ornamental landscapes, the material culture of marginalized communities, environmental investigations of historic landscapes and applications of geographic information systems to historical archaeology. 

He earned his master’s degree in historical archaeology from the University of Massachusetts Boston and is co-editor of Jefferson’s Poplar Forest: Unearthing a Virginia Plantation. He is the immediate past president of the Council of Virginia Archaeologists.

The David F. Anthony Memorial Lecture is sponsored by Randolph College’s museum and heritage studies program. It is free and open to the public.