Rab286
Welcome!
editHello, Rab286, and welcome to Wikipedia! My name is Adam and I work with the Wiki Education Foundation; I help support students who are editing as part of a class assignment.
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If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on my talk page. Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 05:31, 19 January 2017 (UTC)
Peer Review
editHi! This is Lily from class. I really enjoyed reading through your article. This article appears well-balanced and researched. I found that the overview gave a good indication of what the article would discuss, and what information was most important (i.e. the relation of the property to Jefferson, the slaves on the property, and the archeological research conducted there).
When I was reading through the history section, what stuck out to me most was that the ownership history of the property was very well researched and explained, but that it could be strengthened by adding more nuanced information about how the plantation was used/worked during each period of its history; there is some information about how it was used thrown in, but I think more deliberate explanation would be helpful to the reader and would make the section more interesting rather than just a list of owners.
The architectural design section gave a good short explanation of the architectural process/history of the home in relation to Jefferson and his role in the design. However if possible, I believe this section could be strengthened by adding more information on the architecture and design - did the architecture follow a specific style? Are there any special ornamentations? What kind of furnishings were there? However reading through the article it is clear that there were many renovations/redesigns, so it may be that this information is simply hard to glean from modern sources; if this is the case I still think the section is strong as-is.
The slavery section is strong in the historical information given - I like how it describes where/from whom the slaves came to Poplar Forest and how their lives were dictated by the needs of the masters (i.e. slave families were sold and separated by owners to pay off debts). I also really enjoyed reading about how modern archaeological research has provided information on slave life on the property. Describing this research process instead of just giving the information definitely gives the section more legitimacy and strength. It may be a good idea to consider adding the historical information on slave life to the history section and the archaeological information to the preservation/present-day sections, but this structure also makes sense and grounds the historical information in modern research.
The present-day section gives good information on who is involved with the property today and the property’s modern historical status and use, but could be strengthened by being combined with the preservation section to put these related pieces of information together, since it is the Corporation described in the present-day section that is doing the work described in the preservation section. Overall this is a very informational article and I think just a bit more information and possibly some slight restructuring will make it even stronger! Please feel free to contact me personally if you want more specific feedback or explanation of anything I said. LTyndall (talk) 17:24, 19 March 2017 (UTC)
Peer Review
editHey Rachel!
I really liked the changes you've made to this article. Right at the beginning, it is apparent to the reader that enslaved persons made up a significant fabric of life on this property, and that's the point of our class. I also noticed the new section on archaeological excavations, which is succintly conveyed and easy to read and understand. You used the same source that I picked up for excavations of Jefferson's properties! I don't have much to add in the way of improvements--from what little I know of your exact topic, you have the necessary information. It may help, if this information exists, to give the dates of the subsequent excavations you mentioned just so the readers have an idea of how quickly the excavations followed one another. I did notice that you have my guy John Hemings listed as a slave connected with Poplar Forest but with no information, so I'm here to provide: he lived at Monticello but was responsible for much of the interior woodwork at Poplar Forest. Hope that helps, and I'll reciprocate with a link to your page :)
In terms of what can be added, I think your readers would benefit from knowledge about ongoing excavations. The Poplar Forest website has a page for current excavations; maybe you could add it to your external links section next to your link for the general Poplar Forest website? Also, and this may be far outside the scope of what is reasonable or even possible, but I think photographs of the excavations in progress, if they are not under copyright protection, would be a great addition to this page. That's probably pretty unlikely, but it may not hurt to contact the Poplar Forest staff and ask. Meghankreidy (talk) 03:12, 20 March 2017 (UTC)