Monday, July 25th: Preparing for GPR

Today we spent time in the classroom looking at large scale aerial photos of the terraced field and formal garden space. We wanted to identify areas that would be useful to conduct GPR (ground penetrating radar) on Tuesday. We decorated the walls of the classroom with photos, a large Gillette garden plan (1928), and historic Holsinger photos taken at Birdwood in 1917. We decided to bring a few of the larger photos with us to help guide where we would use the GPR. We also read online about how GPR works. We spent time looking online at other Virginia plantations, like Montpelier, to see what their outbuildings, including slave cabins, looked like. We continue to ponder the questions, how much, if any, of the Charles Gillette formal garden was actually built? We are excited about what we may find at Birdwood tomorrow!