Jenna Hershberger

M.A. Student

Advisor: Chris Grasso
email: jkhershberger@email.wm.edu
Current Research: Atlantic World Material Culture, Fashion History

Bio

Jenna received her B.A. in History from Grove City College in 2018. During her undergraduate days, she focused on early modern European history, and continually found herself drawn to studying historic fashion. She made her first foray into researching American history in her junior year when writing her thesis, a paper which concerns Puritan sumptuary laws applicable to apparel in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. After obtaining her B.A., Jenna took a year off from school, during which she worked as a tour guide at Woodlawn and the Pope Leighey House, and as a preservation technician at George Washington's Mount Vernon. Her experiences in these historic houses drew her to architectural history, and the histories of the people involved in creating that architecture. Consequently, since coming to William & Mary, she has researched Virginia house painters. After graduation, she plans to put her love of historic sites into practice and work in preservation.