Everywhere we go in rural New England, the past surrounds us. In the woods and fields and along country roads, the traces are everywhere if we know what to look for and how to interpret what we see. A patch of neglected daylilies marks a long-abandoned homestead. A grown-over cellar hole with nearby stumps and remnants of stone wall and orchard shows us where a farm has been reclaimed by forest. And a piece of a stone dam and wooden sluice mark the site of a long-gone mill. Although slumping back into the landscape, these features speak to us if we can hear them and they can guide us to ancestral homesteads and famous sites. Lavishly illustrated with drawings and color photos.Provides the keys to interpret human artifacts in fields, woods, and roadsides and to reconstruct the past from surviving clues.Perfect to carry in a backpack or glove box.A unique and valuable resource for road trips, genealogical research, naturalists, and historians.

This essay collection draws upon work presented at three national conferences on women and historic preservation held at Bryn Mawr College in 1994, Arizona State University in 1997, and at Mount Vernon College in 2000.

Containing more than 10,000 entries that cover the entire breadth of building preservation in North America, this is the best source available for definitions of terms used for buildings, parts of buildings, the development of historic structures, technical standards, relevant legal terminology, and preservation practice. It provides detailed information on various historical styles and fashions, structural, mechanical, and electrical systems, and current restoration techniques.