When Nobody’s Home: Nationalistic Veneration and the Constraints of Interpretation at the Unreconstructed Ruins of Secretary Thomas Nelson’s House in Yorktown, Virginia

Summary

The destruction of Secretary Thomas Nelson’s ca. 1755 house’occupied by Lord Cornwallis as his headquarters during the siege of Yorktown (1781)’forever transformed the estate of an elite Virginian into a potent, nationalistic icon for a newly independent nation. Travel accounts and art depict the shattered house conspicuously. While the owner is often misidentified, the site’s role in the demise of British rule is never omitted. Archaeological excavations and documentary research conducted at the site by Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in 2002 revealed a multivalent cultural landscape. Since its ruination, preservationists such as the National Park Service and Preservation Virginia have narrowly interpreted the unreconstructed ruins of Secretary Nelson’s house to create a simplistic creation myth that venerates national identity. This is consistent with an ancient pattern in which nation-states, despots, regimes, and victors have exploited the ruins of warfare to legitimize the right to rule while disregarding earlier occupations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Discovering what Counts in Archaeology and Reconstruction: Lessons from Colonial Williamsburg   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-9,05