The Veterans Curation Program: An Innovative Approach to Collections Management
The Veterans Curation Program (VCP) employs veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in the rehabilitation of archaeological collections under the administration of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District’s Mandatory Center of Expertise in the Curation and Management of Archeological Collections. Since its inception in 2009, the VCP has employed and trained more than 420 veterans who have worked with collections from 11 Corps Districts. In working with these collections, the veterans learn office skills including computers, records management, word processing, databases, and digital photography. Employed for five-month terms and provided support for personal growth and development as part of their employment, the VCP has also proven very successful in supporting veteran’s transition to civilian life. Of the veterans employed at the VCP, 73% have obtained permanent employment while another 16% have pursued higher education. The presentations in this session provide perspectives on the VCP’s engagement of veterans, the VCP as public outreach and advocacy, VCP operations, and collections based opportunities through the VCP.
Site Name Keywords
23CL199 •
Colbert •
22CL806 •
Barton •
22CL807 •
Vinton •
22CL808 •
Cedar Oaks •
22CL809 •
24BE149
Site Type Keywords
Resource Extraction / Production / Transportation Structure or Features •
Agricultural or Herding •
Reservoir
Other Keywords
Conservation and Curation •
Cultural Resource Management •
Public and Community Archaeology •
Education •
Historical Archaeology •
Tombigbee Historic Townsites Project •
Ceramic Analysis •
Woodland •
Historic •
Education/Pedagogy
Culture Keywords
Hopewell
Investigation Types
Collections Research •
Data Recovery / Excavation •
Heritage Management
Material Types
Ceramic •
Chipped Stone •
Fauna •
Projectile Point •
Ground Stone •
Macrobotanical •
Shell •
Hammerstone •
Mano •
Hematite
Geographic Keywords
United States of America (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
Bermuda (Country) •
Commonwealth of The Bahamas (Country) •
North America •
United Mexican States (Country) •
Department of Martinique (Country) •
Republic of El Salvador (Country) •
Department of Guadeloupe (Country) •
Cayman Islands (Country)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)
- Documents (8)
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Artifact Highlights from the Yeo Site (23CL199): A Kansas City Hopewell Site (2018)
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The St. Louis Veterans Curation Program has close to 50 investigations currently being processed in our lab. One of these investigations is from the Smithville Lake Project area in the Kansas City District. This investigation alone contains materials from 27 different sites including the Yeo Site (23CL199) and dates from the late 6th to 7th century A.D. The site was excavated by Kansas State University archaeologists ca. July 1976 and this past year, veteran technicians began processing the...
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Forensic Photography and the VCP - Teaching Veterans and Capturing History (2018)
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One of the unique opportunities given veterans within the Veterans Curation Program (VCP) is professional training in high quality digital artifact photography that far exceeds the quality of photography practiced by most Cultural Resource Management firms. A representative sample consisting of 10% of every collection processed by VCP is photographed by the veteran technicians and subsequently combined with the finalized collection. These digital images are reviewed and a selection is eventually...
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Introduction to the USACE Veterans Curation Program (2018)
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For the last 100 years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has been accumulating archeological materials that require, by laws and regulations, adequate care that ensures continued preservation. USACE administers one of the largest archaeological collections in the country. However, these materials are in less than optimal condition. Overseas contingency operations have increased the number of veterans that lack the essential skills for the current job market. The Veterans Curation...
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Teaching Archaeology to Veterans: Case Studies from the Veterans Curation Program (2018)
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According to 36CFR79, collections recovered with federal funds must be made accessible to the public for research and educational purposes. However, this goal is deceptively difficult to achieve. Collections can be made available to professionals and archaeology students easily enough, but is there a way that we can involve the public in the process? The Veterans Curation Program (VCP), funded by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), St. Louis District, has become well known for...
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To Be of Use: Re-examining Army Corps of Engineer's Collections (2018)
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The Veterans Curation Program has been rehabilitating U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) collections for long-term preservation since 2009. With the dual goal of training and assisting veterans with their professional goals while also archiving and curating USACE collections, this program ultimately produces high quality digital records and photographs of cultural materials from across the U.S. This paper delves into the value of USACE’s digital collections for continued research, education,...
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The Tombigbee Historic Townsites Project: A New Look at a Previously Excavated Collection (2018)
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With the curation crisis growing more prominent in the realm of archaeology, research focus is slowly being shifted to previously excavated collections that are under analyzed and underreported. Many of these previously excavated collections are overlooked by potential researchers because of the perceived difficulties of re-establishing provenience and quantitative control for artifacts that have been long separated from their original archaeological context. Since 2009, the Veterans Curation...
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Veteran Archivists: The Harry S. Truman Reservoir Project (2018)
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The Saint Louis laboratory of the Veterans Curation Program processes several archival investigations throughout each five month term, but few have been to the scale of the Harry S. Truman Reservoir Project. This project produced 23 boxes worth of documentation spanning over 268 linear inches. The Harry S. Truman Reservoir is the largest man-made lake in Missouri and covers over 100,000 acres of government owned and flood easement lands. To prepare for the construction of the dam, a number of...
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The Veterans Curation Program: Unintended Public Archaeology (2018)
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The Veterans Curation Program was created with the mission to rehabilitate U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) archaeological collections while providing temporary employment and vocational training to veterans. In the nine years that the VCP has been in operation, it has evolved into a dynamic public archaeology effort that engages non-archaeologists in the field of archaeology on a daily basis. This paper explores the varied approaches to public archaeology within the Program, as well as the...