Fieldwork and the Glories of Spring

There’s something about springtime and fieldwork. Just like the earth reawakening after winter, so too does a historian’s desire to explore, document, and find stories. Old homesites, covered in multiflora rose and thickets rest of the year, show themselves to the world again by clumps of daffodils and hyacinths. In the past I’ve been lucky to conduct county-wide surveys, intended to locate and record all of the historic buildings that could possibly be found – and those projects often kicked off in the spring.

Forsythia, an agricultural outbuilding, and barn. Casey County, Kentucky.

It’s not just that the emerging buds on trees or blooming shrubs make an attractive backdrop for photographs (they do), but fieldwork in the spring is highly practical.

Livingston County, Kentucky.

Winter is cold. And sometimes snowy. I’ve done fieldwork in more than a foot of snow before, and firmly believe that generally, January and February should be spent researching and writing, someplace warm, with ample cups of hot tea available.

Flowers are one joy of springtime work…calves are another!

Yes, I know we often have nice days in Kentucky in those months – but nothing is quite like the glory of sunny March day!

I’ve encountered so many heritage varieties of daffodils and jonquils while working in the spring – and some of them have traveled home with me…

Now, it is important to remember that I am talking about early spring here – before the tendrils of kudzu and grapevines engulf many forgotten rural buildings. Although winter allows you to see rural landscapes clearly, sometimes it can be hard to distinguish the weathered gray of an abandoned house from the gray and brown natural world around it. Spring, however, makes the distinctions easy, and delightful.

The vegetation is still low enough to spot barns and old cars in spring. Taylor County, Kentucky.

The other nice thing about early spring fieldwork? Just as the soil is still warming up, and the trees haven’t leafed out enough to obscure rooflines, many critters are still not stirring – and I include ticks (the bane of fieldwork) among that number.

Root cellar in the spring, Franklin County, Kentucky. Photograph by William Macintire.

Although you do have to worry about spring flooding, and the unpredictability of March in Kentucky, people too are usually fairly accommodating in the spring to architectural historians seeking historic buildings of all shapes and sizes. Sometimes you can catch a farmer before they get too busy with the cycles of planting, cows calving, and other activities – and they can spare the time to talk with you, and share stories and insights.

I don’t know if the cat and the chicken on that country road really appreciated the clumps of magic lilies and jonquils like I did…

But the best part of fieldwork in the spring is simply being outside, appreciating the beauty of the season and the man-made historic resources that create our cultural landscape.