Beyond the Borders: Using 3D Public Archaeology to Democratize the Past at US National Parks

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Public Lands, Public Sites: Research, Engagement, and Collaboration" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

National Parks in the United States contain within their borders a natural and cultural heritage not only significant to all the nation’s inhabitants but also hold importance on a global scale. Although interaction with this heritage within a national park is intended to be direct and physical, this is not always feasible for potential visitors, owing to various limiting factors, including inadequate accommodations for all individuals and economic restrictions, such as costs of travel or lodging. Most recently, most national parks had restricted access or were closed during the ongoing COVID pandemic. To address some issues, the National Park Service teamed with the Virtual Curation Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University to 3D scan artifacts, fossils, and historic objects of great interpretive value that could be readily integrated into educational lessons drawing on 3D models and accurate replicas made with 3D printers. These digitally archived and freely downloadable 3D models include historical objects owned by Frederick Douglass and Maggie Walker, Ben Franklin’s mastodon tooth, artifacts from Philadelphia dating to the time the US Constitution was written, bullets and bayonets from Petersburg National Battlefield, and coins from late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Spanish shipwrecks off the shores of Assateague Island.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Public Lands, Public Sites: Research, Engagement, and Collaboration   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35772.0