Lydia Ellington Joffray is director of the Gorgas House Museum at the University of Alabama.

She was the Assistant Historic Site Coordinator at the Archibald Smith Plantation Home in Roswell, Ga., for eight years before coming to UA and the Alabama Museum of Natural History in May 2012 as Museums Collections Technician for Natural History.

For the past two years, Lydia has been the director of the Gorgas House Museum, where she gets an opportunity to express her passion for history and the preservation of historic structures.

Built in 1829, the Gorgas House was the first structure to be built on the UA campus, and was one of only four buildings to survive the Union Army’s burning of the campus during the Civil War in 1865.

Originally from Cornelia, Ga., Lydia studied history at Oglethorpe University and has a masters degree in heritage preservation from Georgia State University.