William M. Kelso, C.B.E., Ph.D., F.S.A. (born 30 March 1941), often referred to as Bill Kelso, is an American archaeologist specializing in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

's colonial period, particularly the Jamestown settlement. He is currently the Emeritus Director of Archaeology and Research at the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, having retired in 2021.

Personal life

A native of Lakeside, Ohio, Kelso earned a B.A. in History from Baldwin-Wallace College, an M.A. in Early American History from the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II, it is the second-oldest instit ...

, and a Ph.D in Historical Archaeology from

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

. His doctorate thesis, overseen by Ivor Noël Hume, covered the archaeology of Wormsloe Plantation in Georgia. He married schoolteacher Ellen Beveridge in 1962, and has two children.

Career

Kelso has served as director of archaeology at Carter's Grove,

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...

, and Poplar Forest, as well as Commissioner of Archaeology for the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission. During his 14 years at Monticello, he was one of the first to make early colonial slave life the focus of archaeological research.

Rediscovery of Jamestown

The prevailing opinion by the 1990s was that most or all of the original Jamestown location had long since washed into the

James River The James River is a river in Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows from the confluence of the Cowpasture and Jackson Rivers in Botetourt County U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowli ...

. In 1993, Kelso became the Director of Archaeology for the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (now Preservation Virginia) and launched the Jamestown Rediscovery project, starting excavations on Jamestown Island to ascertain if that was truly the case. It was not long before Kelso's small team uncovered the footprint of the fort's southern palisade in 1994. His 2004 book includes an in-depth study of the features uncovered during the excavations.

Published works

*''Kingsmill Plantations, 1619-1800: Archaeology of Country Life in Colonial Virginia.'' Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1984. *(with J. Deetz) ''Archaeology at Monticello.'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. *(with B. Straube) ''Jamestown Rediscovery: 1994-2004.'' Richmond: APVA Preservation Virginia, 2004. *''Jamestown: The Buried Truth''. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006. *''Jamestown: The Truth Revealed''. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2017. *''Captain Jones's Wormslow: A Historical, Archaeological, and Architectural Study of an Eighteenth-Century Plantation Site near Savannah, Georgia''. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2017. *''Jamestown Archaeology: Remains To Be Seen''. New York: Routledge, 2023.

Awards

In 2007 Kelso received the J. C. Harrington Award, presented by the

Society for Historical Archaeology The Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA) is a professional organization of scholars concerned with the archaeology of the modern world (15th century-present). Founded in 1967, the SHA promotes scholarly research and the dissemination of knowledg ...

for his life-time contributions to archaeology centered on scholarship. In July 2012, as a result of his work on Jamestown Island, he was awarded an honorary knighthood as Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C on behalf of

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

, whom he had escorted during her visit to Jamestown in 2007.

References

External links

Encyclopedia of Baldwin Wallace History: Bill Kelso
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelso, William College of William & Mary faculty 1941 births Living people College of William & Mary alumni Emory University alumni Baldwin Wallace University alumni 20th-century American archaeologists 21st-century American archaeologists People from Ottawa County, Ohio Historians from Ohio