2016 Wood Family Fellowship

Ed Chappell working on portico in 2013.

Each year since 2005, Drayton Hall has awarded the Wood Family Fellowship to a rising professional in the field of archaeology, architectural history and conservation, landscape studies or collections management. Given by Tony Wood in memory of his brother and fellow preservationist, Stephen Wood, and his parents Tanya and Leonard Wood, the fellowship has been a formative experience for many graduate-level preservation professionals. Advances in collections management, documentary research and archaeology have all been made possible by the Wood Family Fellowship, and this year’s fellow continues the tradition of scholarly progress at Drayton Hall.

This year, we’ve taken a slightly different tack in the effort to engage young preservation professionals. Edward Chappell, 2016 Wood Family Fellow, is an accomplished architectural historian who has studied Drayton Hall for several years. This year, he is completing an in-depth analysis of the main house, and will conduct workshops with graduate preservation students to teach them how to study and document historic structures. His vast experience, careful eye and affable nature make him an ideal teacher and mentor, roles which he has enthusiastically stepped into for this fellowship. We are excited about the things we’ve already learned about Drayton Hall in the course of Ed’s fellowship, and we know the students will benefit from the experience.

Ed Chappell in Architectural Fragment Storage, 2016.