R. Grant Gilmore III

Director, Historic Preservation and Community Planning Program | Addlestone Chair in Historic Preservation

During my twenty-five years of professional archaeological teaching and excavation experience I have worked in the United States, United Kingdom and sites across the Caribbean dating from the present to the Medieval (in Europe) and Contact Period (in the Americas).  I specialize in 17th- and 18th-century archaeology and heritage management. With Nathaniel Walker I co-founded and currently direct our urban design graduate program, Community Planning, Policy and Design.

After completing my B.A. and M.A. at the College of William and Mary I worked for several years with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Department of Archaeological Research. During this period I took a Comparative Colonial Archaeology Class taught by Prof. Marley Brown III, Prof. James F. Deetz and Dr. Edward Cecil Harris that expanded my research vision well beyond Tidewater Virginia to include much of the Atlantic World.  My fieldwork with Prof. Norman Barka introduced me to the island of St. Eustatius.  The island became the focus of my doctoral research at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London where I examined the African Diaspora in the Atlantic World.  The IoA is considered the top archaeology department in the United Kingdom.

In addition to co-editing the Encyclopedia of Caribbean Archaeology with Prof. Basil Reid, I am the author of several book chapters, articles and monographs in professional and public journals and magazines. I established (in 2004) and Directed the St. Eustatius Center for Archaeological Research until I left St Eustatius in 2011.  At SECAR, I taught hundreds of professional, student and avocational volunteers in courses on artifacts, excavation techniques and historical archaeology and building recording and preservation. Through my appointment in the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University, I taught graduate courses in Historical Archaeology as well as undergraduates in the field.

Education

PhD University College London, Institute of Archaeology

M.A. College of William and Mary in Virginia, Anthropology/Historic Archaeology

B.A. College of William and Mary in Virginia, History and Government

International Fellow at Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello

Research Interests

My research interests include slavery and its impacts on societies, the origins of Capitalism within colonial economies, religious sites, vernacular architecture, heritage management, historic preservation and public archaeology.

• Committee for the Study of Slavery in Charleston
• Committee for Commemoration and Landscapes
• Development Chair and Board of Trustees
• US national committee for UNESCO’s International Committee on Monuments and Sites
• Program Committee, International African American Museum
• Expert Member of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee for Archaeological Heritage Management (ICAHM)
• Center for Historic Landscapes at the College of Charleston.

Courses Taught

• Introduction to Historic Preservation
• Researching Historic Properties
• How Its Made
• Vernacular Architecture and Material Culture
• History of American Interiors
• Senior Seminar
• Study Abroad Programs in Scotland, England, Japan and Cuba.

Publications

Selected Publications