Fieldwork is at the heart of good scholarship in the study of early American architecture.  This field school will introduce students to the methods used in the investigation and recording of buildings.  It will consist of several days of introductory lectures on building technology, on-site examination of structures in the Historic Area of Williamsburg, and visits to buildings in the surrounding Tidewater region.  The program is intended to help students distinguish chronological patterns in the form, fabrication, and assembly of materials.  The next phase will consist of a number of recording exercises where students will learn the rudiments of measured drawing, one of the primary means of communicating ideas about buildings. The final exercise will be an independent project in which a student will document the development of a building in measured drawings and a written review of the evidence. By the end of the field school, students will recognize the differences between such artifacts as wrought and cut nails, discern the hierarchy of ornamentation in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century buildings, and know how to apply field evidence to answer larger questions concerning architectural and social history. This class will meet four days a week from 10:00 to 4:30. Students may take this field school as either an undergraduate or graduate-level History course. Students may register for the field school through normal summer-school procedures. Special permission is not required and there are no prerequisites.