Dr. Philip Levy, a professor of history at the USF College of Arts and Sciences, has been named the 2024 recipient of the James Deetz Book Award from the Society for Historical Archaeology for his book, “The Permanent Resident: Excavations and Explorations of George Washington’s Life.”
Philip Levy, PhD, professor of history. (Photo source: USF)
The James Deetz Book Award is awarded to books that are well-written and suitable for a broad audience of potential readers, including both professional archaeologists and non-specialists, according to the society.
“This is a huge honor,” Levy said. “This is the most important book prize the field awards and it is named for one of the most influential scholars the field ever produced. Deetz was the mentor of my mentors, so I am thrilled to have my work associated with his career in this way.”
Levy explains that his book is an “archeological biography of Washington and his memory as seen through the most significant places of his life” and validates the importance of “protecting historical sites and resources.”
“Washington’s prominence in the national story has made his life a thing of unique importance to Americans as they constructed and used their national identity. Washington’s home was the object of the first national historical preservation effort, sites of his life were early National Park Service (NPS) projects, and excavations at those sites locate Washington’s memory in the history and development of American archaeology,” he said. “My goal in this book was to bring these many places together in one study to see what they collectively say about Washington, historical memory, and archaeology itself and how Washington has been remembered and commemorated.”
“We have an obligation to make sure that we pass [history] on as intact as possible to future generations,” Levy said.
In addition to earning the book award, Levy has also been named an Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer.
Levy has been bringing USF students up to Ferry Farm, Washington’s childhood home in Fredericksburg, Va., since 2002 to work on excavations conducted by the George Washington Foundation.
“When we first got there, the place was a big empty field. Today, visitors will see restored fences, outbuildings, and a full rebuild of the Washington home sitting atop the remains of the original. All of this is based on the site’s archaeology. I have written three books that deal with this work in one way or another, but every time I see visitors touring the rebuilt home, I am so proud that I and my students have been a part of making that happen,” he said.
Dr. Philip Levy’s book, “The Permanent Resident: Excavations and Explorations of George Washington’s Life.”
Levy, who began the William and Mary graduate history program in 1993 with a summer internship learning historical archaeological techniques through Colonial Williamsburg, says that the field of archaeology “found” him.
“I had an aptitude for the work and stuck with it through graduate school. I am a historian, though, in a field where anthropologists are more the norm—even though these days in many ways the fields are blurred and intermixed—particularly in historical archaeology, defined as the use of archaeological theory and method to study the historical era,” he said.
He describes his early work as split on two paths—half of it with historical work dealing with early America, particularly the Native American experience of colonization—and the other half working and writing about early Virginia historical archaeology.
“Around the time I earned tenure at USF though, my scholarly worlds were converging. Tenure gave me the freedom to pursue research avenues that are not easily pigeonholed by existing categories. For me, that meant leaving traditional early American studies and diving deep into the intersection of history, historical archaeology, public history, commemoration, historical memory, and historical preservation. I am very much a transdisciplinary creature—and that is not always a happy thing because it often leaves one neither fish nor fowl. But over the years, I have honed what I do and seen it produce very satisfying rewards in the form of invitations to work with the NPS, National Geographic, Mount Vernon, and others, and of course, the Deetz Prize is another sign that I have not been wasting my time,” he said.
One thing he remains most proud of is being able to bring USF students in to work on various projects and see them eventually branch out into their own research and careers.
“Turning students into colleagues is perhaps the most important thing we can do as university researchers,” he said.
Levy’s career played a vital role in helping to create access to knowledge about the nation’s first president and other important areas of American history.
In 2022, he completed a new historical resource study (HRS) for the George Washington birthplace national monument (NPS) in Westmoreland County, Va.
Dr. Philip Levy (right) with his USF students working at George Washington’s childhood home Ferry Farm. (Photo source: X)
“These documents serve as the basis of a site’s interpretation as park rangers use that research to develop tours and teach park visitors. Writing that HRS was a huge task that entailed extensive research in county records to recover and understand the world of seven generations of the Washington family. Part of that work included understanding the enslaved people who lived and worked on the land the NPS now owns. That work took on a life of its own,” he explained. “In 2023 I created a database of over 1000 entries recording every mention of the relevant enslaved people in a host of records. I then created biographical statements for the close to 500 individual enslaved people I found. The resulting study became a supplemental report to the NPS. I am now turning that work into a book that uses the recovered lives of these enslaved people to tell the story of this landscape and its development over time.”
His fervor for protecting history—homes, landscapes, objects, and more—for the future is something he remains passionate about.
“We have an obligation to make sure that we pass [history] on as intact as possible to future generations,” he said.
Learn more about the Department of History at USF.