Sarah Thomas
MA/PhD
Email: setho2@email.wm.eduBio
Fields of Interest: vernacular architectural history, material culture, history of the early Southern backcountry, slavery, and industry
Academic Biography: B.A, College of William and Mary, 2008.M.Arch.H., University of Virginia School of Architecture, Architectural History and Historic Preservation, 2010.
Conference Presentations: “Slavery in the Shenandoah: A Study of Buildings and Landscapes,” Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians conference, Jackson Mississippi, October 28, 2009
“Slavery in Shenandoah County: Buildings and Landscapes,” lecture at the Shenandoah Valley Regional Studies Seminar, James Madison University, November 13, 2009
Awards: The Ellen Monk Krattiger Award, 2008; William and Mary Alumni Association Academic Excellence Award in History, 2008.
Master’s thesis: I am researching an ironworking community in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Shenandoah County called Redwell Furnace and Pine Forge. At these ironworks, people of Irish, African, and Germanic descent interacted on a daily, if not hourly, basis, making iron stove plates, andirons, plates, utensils, and other utilitarian objects. I will compare the buildings, labor force, and output of these early Shenandoah Valley ironworks by studying account books, wills, and other primary
documents. By studying Redwell Furnace and Pine Forge, I hope to focus on broader issues surrounding the development of ironworking culture in the Shenandoah Valley in the late eighteenth century.