P. Newman Lecture Series: Leading Archaeologist Commemorating Jamestown’s 400th Anniversary

Dr. Kelso (Hon.) CBE, FSA is the Emeritus Director of Archaeology and Research at the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation. In 1607, lured by the promise of gold in Va. and a western trade route to China, a band of adventurers formed the first enduring English settlement in the New World at Jamestown, Va. Civil unrest, power struggles, Indian wars, drought, starvation, and cannibalism plagued the early years. The site of that first settlement, James Fort, was long thought to have been lost to river erosion.  Dr. Kelso thought otherwise. Twenty-five years of on-going discoveries by Kelso and his team of archaeologists proved that the lost site survived on dry land.

In 2019, the 400th anniversary of two seminal Jamestown events, the meeting of America’s first Democratic Assembly and the first arrival of Africans, are being commemorated. The site of the Assembly and where one of the first Africans lived and worked will be unveiled in a multi-media presentation of a re-written Jamestown story based on the discovery of the original lost town plan, written messages left in the ground, shocking mysteries from the grave, and Jamestown legacies in contemporary American society.

Heritage Frederick’s annual P. Newman Lecture Series honors the civic leadership of Parsons Newman, a former president of Heritage Frederick. The series was made possible through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Hendrickson II, who created the Parsons Newman Memorial Fund at the Community Foundation of Frederick County. For more information 301-663-1188 x107 or mboswell@frederickhistory.org.