One of Great Note: Honoring the Career of Elizabeth Scott

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

At just 15 years old Elizabeth Scott discovered the field of archaeology and never looked back, and for that we could not be more grateful. Now, after an illustrious career, former students and colleagues gather to honor this remarkable woman. Please join us as we recall our favorite memories and present research inspired by her contributions to the field. Dr. Elizabeth Scott created a career chasing the roots of inequality and bringing history to life in hopes that, one day, these inequalities can be eliminated. As a multi-faceted, complex scholar, Dr. Elizabeth Scott is unique in the depth and breadth of her work, most notably French colonial studies, zooarchaeology, and Marxian and feminist archaeology. These papers demonstrate how she will continue to impact the field of historical archaeology for generations to come.

Other Keywords
Ethnicity • Identity • Industry • Bones • Labor • Chocolate • Gender • feminism • data • class

Temporal Keywords
19th Century • 18th Century • 19th and 20th centuries • 1790s-1833 • 1759-1850 • Early modern: sixteenth to eighteenth century

Geographic Keywords
North America • Massachusetts (State / Territory) • New York (State / Territory) • New Hampshire (State / Territory) • Idaho (State / Territory) • Maine (State / Territory) • Wisconsin (State / Territory) • Michigan (State / Territory) • Washington (State / Territory) • Minnesota (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)

  • Documents (8)
Documents
  • And why would you want to study that? Reflections on Post-Conquest Archaeology (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Allison L Bain. Reginald Auger.

    When Dr. Elizabeth Scott visited us in Quebec City during her last sabbatical leave she was interested in post-Conquest collections from the îlot des Palais and Île-aux-Oies sites. We were happy to oblige as the years immediately following the British Conquest are understudied, ignored and perhaps forgotten at times by archaeologists in our region. Is this due to the fact that we work in Quebec City, best known for its French flavour? And for its promotion of French heritage? After the Conquest,...

  • Expessing ethnic identity in a French town: study of the Janis-Ziegler Site (23SG272) in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lisa M. Dretske.

    Dr. Elizabeth Scott introduced me to many aspects of understanding ethnicity in the historical and archaeological record through her years of work at the Janis-Ziegler site (23SG272). Despite Ste. Genevieve being founded by the French, the German Ziegler family resided in the town beginning in the early 19th century. In 2006, archaeological investigations went underway on the Janis-Ziegler site, directed by Dr. Elizabeth Scott and Donald Heldman.  The purpose of my research was to discover to...

  • Hey Girl, I See You: Identifying Women Within Household Assemblages (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Cori Rich.

    I was inspired by the work of Dr. Elizabeth Scott and her ability to shed light onto underrepresented, often invisible, groups of people. This paper looks into the shadows of our past in an attempt to better understand women of different ethnicities and classes. Using ceramic assemblages and women’s activity related materials, I examine how class and ethnicity can impact women’s visibility within the archaeological record. Analysis of this data shows distinct differences between women’s...

  • It is Christmas and the House is on Fire: Understanding Labor Relations in Late Nineteenth-Century Baltimore (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Adam Fracchia.

    On Christmas Day 1877, a fire spread through a block of homes in the small quarry town of Texas in Baltimore County, Maryland.  Although the fire destroyed the large stone rowhouse building, the flames also sealed the material record of the lives of a group of laborers and their families at that moment in time.  Examining labor relations within the town of Texas and the wider Baltimore area in the latter half of the nineteenth century places these artifacts in context and helps to explain the...

  • "I’m a lumberjack, and I’m okay . . . .": Inspiring Critical Reflection on Gender and Bias (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Valerie M. J. Hall.

    The archaeology of gender is a complex field, examining the intersection of gender, sexuality, and class as performed through material culture.  Research in the field also turns a spotlight on biases inherent in Western culture that are often blindly projected onto the past.  Dr. Elizabeth Scott’s work challenges these biases, inspiring students and colleagues to think critically about perception and perspective while examining the lives of people "of little note." Her research elucidates the...

  • Landscapes of Forgetting and the Materiality of Enslavement: Using Class, Ethnicity, and Gender to Search for the Invisible on a Post-Colonial French Houselot in the Illinois Country (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Erin Whitson.

    Elizabeth Scott has spent many years working in Francophone settings on subjects connected to identity. She has been especially interested in the social makeup of such communities. In honor of Dr. Scott, I will focus on the materiality of enslavement within a houselot in the French town of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Forgetfulness can be a violent act. Modern landscapes and historical narratives of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri similarly reflect a semi-purposeful "forgetfulness" of enslaved individuals...

  • The Little Things (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew A. Cox.

    "It’s the little things…" this often-used quote sums up one of the most important things that I learned while working with Dr. Scott.  Whether it was taking the time to show us how to properly sharpen our trowels during an excavation, reminding us to double check our data, and to make sure to keep artifacts together by their respective proveniences when in the lab, each of these little pieces of advice helped to shape my own career. I find her advice on the little things coming back to me at the...

  • Sex in a Cup: Feminist Dilemmas in French Chocolate (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kathryn E Sampeck.

    This paper considers the intertwining of chocolate-related material culture, representation in paintings and drawings, gender, and recipes across the colonial French Atlantic world. During the eighteenth century, chocolate moved from being an exotic luxury to a daily necessity. In fact, chocolate was one of the crucial items that Loyalist escapees from the French Revolution asked for when they moved to French Azilum in Pennsylvania. During this time, chocolate also became increasingly gendered,...