Heritage From the Ground Up: Using Technology to Study Enslaved and Free Workers in an Iron-making Community

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Documents
  • The African American Cemetery at Catoctin Furnace: Bridging the Past and the Future (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jane I. Seiter.

    The Catoctin African American Cemetery is the resting place of at least 50 individuals who labored at Catoctin Furnace and its surrounding community from the 1770s to the 1840s. Many of these men and women were enslaved workers, while others were possibly part of the free black population that also lived and worked at the furnace. In 2014, an ambitious project to preserve, protect, and interpret the cemetery was launched. Documentary research, forensic analysis, and geophysical investigations...

  • Catoctin Furnace: Academic Research Informing Heritage Tourism (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth A. Comer.

    For more than 42 years, the Catoctin Furnace Historical Society, Inc. has maintained heritage programs in the village of Catoctin Furnace. These activities balance the needs of the ongoing village lifestyle with those of the received visitor experience. Updating traditional seasonal events while adding leisure amenities involves constantly balancing funding sources and message.  However, the tourism experience must be rooted in solid academic research.  Current research on the African-American...

  • A Forest for the Trees: Remote sensing applications and historic production at Cunningham Falls State Park (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Bryce A. Davenport. Robert W. Wanner.

    This paper presents the results of surface analyses conducted at Cunningham Falls State Park in Frederick County, Maryland using Lidar-derived bare-earth models. During peak years (approximately 1859-1885) Catoctin Furnace employed over 300 woodcutters in 11,000 acres of company-owned land. Recent Lidar acquisitions for this area have allowed us to identify historic collier's pits in the hills and mountains surrounding modern Catoctin Furnace in Cunningham Fall State Park, opening direct...

  • Heritage Across Time and Space: A Transatlantic Conversation between Catoctin Furnace and Ironbridge Gorge (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Polly Keeler. Margaret A Comer.

    It seems obvious to say that an industrial heritage site should have strong ties to all of its communities, past and present alike, but how can each best be represented and included in all aspects of site planning and interpretation? The village of Catoctin Furnace enjoys a strong level of community support; current residents actively participate in a wide variety of archaeological and living history events. The planned museum, however, with its added emphasis on past worker communities,...

  • A Reanalysis of Human Remains from a Cemetery at Catoctin Furnace (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Karin Bruwelheide. Douglas Owsley. Kathryn Barca.

    More than three decades ago, a highway expansion project resulted in the excavation of thirty-five historic graves at Catoctin Furnace. Initial analysis was conducted by Smithsonian anthropologist J. Lawrence Angel, who identified the remains as African or African-American, presumably associated with the late eighteenth – mid-nineteenth century operation of the iron works. This report presents updated assessments of demography and pathology, as well as stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data to...

  • Technological Toolkit: Using XRF Analysis to better understand 19th Century Iron Making and its Implications for the Labor Force (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Joseph E. Clemens.

    The use of X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) as a tool for analyzing archaeological materials is becoming increasingly common.  Recently, various types of iron ore and iron products produced at furnaces in Maryland and Pennsylvania in the 19th century were analyzed using XRF measurements. These measurements were employed to create a representational graph of the elemental composition of iron artifacts in order to identify a connection between the source material and the iron product.  Documentary...

  • Traveling in Time: Connecting the public with local history through hospitality, heritage tourism in Catoctin Furnace (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Molly T. Greenhouse.

    Located in the picturesque foothills of the Catoctin Mountains, the village of Catoctin Furnace is a burgeoning heritage tourism destination. Recently, work began to renovate the Forgeman’s House, a stone "workers’ cabin" constructed ca. 1817. The primary goal of the project, sponsored by the Catoctin Furnace Historical Society, is to restore the house to its original layout and appearance. The cabin will serve as a short-term/vacation rental, available for visitors to reserve nightly....