PAWV
  • Give to PAWV
    • Give Online
    • Ways to Give to PAWV
    • Volunteer
  • Resources
    • Funding Resources >
      • Saving Historical Places Grant
    • Consultants and Contractors
    • Preservation Techniques >
      • Historic Building Assessment
      • How to Recycle Asbestos
      • Mothballing Property
      • Window Rehabilitation
    • Educational Resources >
      • Frances Benjamin Johnston >
        • Essay - Frances Benjamin Johnston: A West Virginia Icon
        • Selected Photos
        • Behind the Lens Activity
      • Webinar Archive
  • Programs
    • Advocacy >
      • Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits
    • Annual Awards >
      • 2020 Historic Preservation Awards
    • West Virginia Endangered Properties >
      • West Virginia Endangered Properties List
      • Saved Sites
      • Archived Sites
    • West Virginia Historic Preservation Conference
    • Historic Preservation Loan Fund
    • Webinars
    • West Virginia Historic Theatre Trail >
      • Movie Theatres of West Virginia
    • WV New Deal Trail
  • AmeriCorps
    • About Preserve WV
    • Preserve WV Stories
    • Preserve WV Members
    • Join AmeriCorps >
      • Open AmeriCorps Opportunities
      • Apply for AmeriCorps
    • Sponsor a Member
    • Preserve WV Alumni
  • About Us
    • Contact PAWV
    • Our Team
    • Our Story
    • News and Notes

MEET THE PRESERVE WV AMERICORPS – SAMANTHA

10/4/2016

 
Hello all! My name is Samantha Hartford, and possibly the most important thing I can tell you about myself is that I love learning – both figuring new things out myself, and helping others learn. Perhaps you can attribute this to the fact that I was raised by two schoolteachers, frequently hiking or combing the beach.

I grew up just north of Seattle, Washington, and to this day I love the Pacific Northwest very much. However, when it came time to go to college, I decided that I should take the opportunity to experience living in a new place. Accordingly I did my undergraduate degree in History with minors in Paleontology and Environmental Studies at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Picture
Though living in a cold desert was quite an adjustment from the temperate rainforest of the Northwest, I did enjoy the red rock and ancient history of Utah. While there I also began working at museums, cleaning bones, running hands-on activities, and developing interpretive material for the Dead Sea Scrolls.

History had been fascinating to me all my life, but it wasn’t until a college trip to Peru that I really decided to make archaeology the focus of my studies. Seeing great stone monuments like Machu Picchu was extremely impressive, but it was seeing modern brick reconstructions of these beautiful cut stone structures that really made me start thinking about the way we interact with the past today.

Researching reconstruction led me to the door of experimental archaeology, a subfield in which ancient technology and artifacts are recreated to answer questions about process, knowledge, and invention. With a little more research, I found one of the most promising programs in experimental archaeology in the world at the University of Sheffield, England. With more than a little luck and trepidation, I packed up once more and spent a year of hard work earning my MSc in Experimental Archaeology, completing my very own research on historical reenactment and our present experience of the past.

It was in completing my research that I truly fell in love, and that is why I am here today. I graduated knowing without a doubt that I wanted to learn more about living history, and that is one of the main reasons why the position at Jackson’s Mill piqued my interest when I stumbled across it on a preservation job board just several months ago. The chance to apply what I already know and to discover much more in dealing with hands-on history and the public was too good to pass up, especially when considering that as an Preserve WV AmeriCorps I could be a true help to a small organization. Both in terms of giving tours and interacting with visitors, and in developing exhibits and strengthening volunteer programs, there is much to keep me occupied at Jackson’s Mill.

While I had been in West Virginia once before, that one time was just a few days ten years ago on a road trip – so moving here has been a learning experience in more ways than one! So far I have had a very welcoming and invigorating experience, and I look forward to what we can accomplish in the coming year.

Comments are closed.

    Preserve WV Stories

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Improvement Projects
    Learn Something New
    Meet The AmeriCorps
    Recruitment
    Support Preserve WV
    Volunteering

    Archives

    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016

Get Involved

  • Give Online
  • ​Volunteer
  • Join AmeriCorps 
  • ​Subscribe 
  • Kroger Community Rewards
  • Shop with Amazon Smile
  • Contact Us

Programs

  • Our Latest E-News
  • Saving Historical Places Grant
  • Preserve WV AmeriCorps
  • Advocacy
  • ​Preservation Awards
  • Endangered Properties List
  • Conferences
  • Historic Preservation Loan Fund
  • WV Historic Theatre Trail
  • WV Historic New Deal Trail


Contact Us

Preservation Alliance of West Virginia
​421 Davis Avenue, #4  |  Elkins, WV 26241
​Email: info@pawv.org
Phone: 304-345-6005
Donate with Crypto

PAWV Logo
Picture
Picture
Picture
© COPYRIGHT 2021 - PRESERVATION ALLIANCE OF WEST VIRGINIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Give to PAWV
    • Give Online
    • Ways to Give to PAWV
    • Volunteer
  • Resources
    • Funding Resources >
      • Saving Historical Places Grant
    • Consultants and Contractors
    • Preservation Techniques >
      • Historic Building Assessment
      • How to Recycle Asbestos
      • Mothballing Property
      • Window Rehabilitation
    • Educational Resources >
      • Frances Benjamin Johnston >
        • Essay - Frances Benjamin Johnston: A West Virginia Icon
        • Selected Photos
        • Behind the Lens Activity
      • Webinar Archive
  • Programs
    • Advocacy >
      • Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits
    • Annual Awards >
      • 2020 Historic Preservation Awards
    • West Virginia Endangered Properties >
      • West Virginia Endangered Properties List
      • Saved Sites
      • Archived Sites
    • West Virginia Historic Preservation Conference
    • Historic Preservation Loan Fund
    • Webinars
    • West Virginia Historic Theatre Trail >
      • Movie Theatres of West Virginia
    • WV New Deal Trail
  • AmeriCorps
    • About Preserve WV
    • Preserve WV Stories
    • Preserve WV Members
    • Join AmeriCorps >
      • Open AmeriCorps Opportunities
      • Apply for AmeriCorps
    • Sponsor a Member
    • Preserve WV Alumni
  • About Us
    • Contact PAWV
    • Our Team
    • Our Story
    • News and Notes