Preservation Technology

Preservation technology is playing a major role in the Natchez Outbuilding Survey. A partnership between HNF, the Natchez National Historical Park, the Mississippi Department of Archives & History, and Texas A&M University Center for Heritage Conservation, this study analyzes and documents the buildings most closely associated with the lives of enslaved servants and workers.

Texas A&M University Professor Brent Fortenberry has utilized new technologies to document various building types throughout Natchez and Adams County. The GIF below shows the relationship between laser scans and 3-Dimensional Revit data models. This model of the slave quarters/kitchen/laundry building at Dunleith provides an example of this important work. This type of documentation is in addition to traditional hand-measuring and photography. HNF is excited to continue this research to better understand these buildings and the lives of the enslaved people who worked and lived in them.