1830-1920 (Temporal Keyword)
1-15 (15 Records)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "On the Centennial of his Passing: San Diego County Pioneer Nathan "Nate" Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Advances in transportation during Nathan Harrison’s lifetime significantly impacted his activities and strategies on Palomar Mountain. The second industrial revolution, the arrival of the railroad in San Diego, and the county’s expansion of the road that...
The Apotheosis of Nate Harrison (2018)
Historical accounts of famed San Diego pioneer Nate Harrison (ca. 1833-1920), a former enslaved African-American from the antebellum South, underwent meaningful transformations during the 20th century. Secondary narratives of the region’s first African-American homesteader grew into some of the county’s most popular and exotic legends. Local authors repeatedly altered specific details of Harrison’s emancipation, longevity, living quarters, and other related biographical phenomena, resulting in...
Chemical Analysis of Small Sealed Metal Containers from the Harrison Site (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "On the Centennial of his Passing: San Diego County Pioneer Nathan "Nate" Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Three of the more enigmatic finds from the Harrison site were small, flat, cylindrical sealed metal containers. The first was an unlabeled brass tin that appeared to contain a white cosmetic. In addition, excavators found two similarly shaped iron...
Fired Rifle Cartridges as an Archaeological Tool for Dating Later Historical Sites: Harrington Histograms and Measures of Central Tendency (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "On the Centennial of his Passing: San Diego County Pioneer Nathan "Nate" Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The wealth of qualitative and quantitative analytical techniques that have been used in researching tobacco pipestems from 16th-19thcentury sites can be employed on fired cartridges from 19thand 20th-century sites. When Harrington-style occupation...
An Historical Archaeology of Minstrelsy (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "On the Centennial of his Passing: San Diego County Pioneer Nathan "Nate" Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. For over a century, the accepted story of Nathan Harrison was that he was a charming yet anachronistic fool. Ironically, even though contradictory details of his pre-Palomar Mountain life were hotly debated, the narratives were in agreement when...
Historical Photography and its Impacts on the Life and Legend of Nate Harrison (2018)
The numerous photographs of Nate Harrison by visitors to his Palomar Mountain property are an undeniable part of his continuing legacy. There are 32 different images, making Harrison the most photographed 19th-century San Diegan. This was a remarkable feat considering that he lived so far from the urban center of the city. Photography and photographs have long been a cornerstone of substantiating historical existence and constructing knowledge about the past. This paper discusses the social,...
How Wild Was Nathan Harrison’s Old West: Unsolved Murders and Mayhem in late 19th and early 20th Century San Diego County (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "On the Centennial of his Passing: San Diego County Pioneer Nathan "Nate" Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Harrison’s time in Southern California was bookended by two of the region’s most famous unsolved murders. In 1868, San Diego County pioneer and former sea captain Joseph Smith was killed at his Palomar Mountain home. In 1907, English storekeeper and...
The Nate Harrison Historical Archaeology Project: Material, Methodological, and Theoretical Overviews (2018)
Ongoing research from archaeological and historical investigations into 19th-century San Diego County legend Nate Harrison (ca. 1833-1920) have revealed a wealth of insight into one of the region’s most celebrated pioneers. This paper offers an overview of the project’s most significant finds, places these ideas in context, and fosters comparisons between Harrison’s legend and the refuse uncovered at his hillside homestead. Instead of insisting that these lines of evidence be seen...
Photography, Performance, and Identity: Social Constructions of a Local Legend (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "On the Centennial of his Passing: San Diego County Pioneer Nathan "Nate" Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The numerous photographs taken of Nate Harrison in the early 20th century are an undeniable part of his continuing legacy. Photography and photographs have long been a cornerstone of substantiating historical existence and constructing knowledge about...
Production and Consumption in the Old West: Examining Cottage Industry and Diet at the Nate Harrison Site (2018)
A life-long laborer, Nate Harrison engaged in many industrious activities during his time on Palomar Mountain in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Using historical, photographic, and archaeological evidence, this paper aims to analyze and evaluate the different industries in which Harrison participated and the significance of these activities for the local community. Soil-chemistry studies, faunal analyses, and various archaeologically-uncovered tools present a robust portrait of activity and...
Public Engagement, Archaeology Museology, and Sustainable Heritage Management in the Twenty-First Century Museum Experiences: A Case Study from the Harrison Site (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "On the Centennial of his Passing: San Diego County Pioneer Nathan "Nate" Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In an effort to provide the Nathan “Nate” Harrison Historical Archaeology Project with a long-term and sustainable plan for community outreach that will continue after excavation has finished, this paper discusses strategies in the current context of...
A San Diego Slave Quarters: Archaeological and Architectural Analyses of the Late 19th-and Early-20th Century Nate Harrison Cabin (2018)
The architectural footprint of the Nate Harrison cabin site is unlike the remains of any other structure found in San Diego County: past or present, rural or urban, ornate or ordinary. An examination of archaeological, historical, and photographic evidence reveals how anomalous Harrison’s home structure truly was for 19th-century southern California. While the immediate region has no architectural parallels in terms of the cabin’s size, shape, building material, orientation, and use areas...
Spatial Patterns and Activity Areas at the Harrison Site: A Case Study in Multiple Lines of Evidence and Differential Uses of Space (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "On the Centennial of his Passing: San Diego County Pioneer Nathan "Nate" Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Spatial archaeological investigations by participants in the Nathan “Nate” Harrison Historical Archaeology Project occurred on a variety of scales, from large landscapes to microscopic chemical analyses within the dirt itself. These spatial studies...
Sustainable Heritage Management Strategies at the Nate Harrison Site (2018)
To provide the Nate Harrison Historical Archaeology Project with a sustainable plan for community outreach, even post-excavation, this paper discusses local, related museums and their viability in a time of low attendance and budget-related struggles. It addresses the justification for a museum at the Nate Harrison site on Palomar Mountain when so many similar entities have been devalued. If a museum is created, the design must transcend archaeological finds from a single historical figure and...
"Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over": The Harrison Spring, Water Control, and Strategic Gift Exchange on Palomar Mountain (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "On the Centennial of his Passing: San Diego County Pioneer Nathan "Nate" Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Water was central to Nathan Harrison’s existence on Palomar Mountain; in fact, he filed a water claim for his spring two years before he homesteaded the property. The stakes were high for water control in the Old West and the emerging hydraulic American...