Shipwrecks and the Public: Getting People Engaged with their Maritime History

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2019

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Shipwrecks and the Public: Getting People Engaged with their Maritime History," at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Due to the inherent difficulties of public access to submerged archaeological sites, an effective public outreach strategy is one of the primary responsibilities of nautical archaeologists. A series of recent shipwreck archaeology projects in North America are linked by similar efforts of public involvement. These projects studied 18th- and 19th- century shipwrecks in the public eye by enthusiastically engaging the local public in project details. Incorporating the public can be as simple as giving public presentations or as complicated as including local divers in field schools or diving projects. One of the more challenging aspects of public outreach is balancing public involvement with adequate data accumulation. The projects in this session will discuss the creative ways they incorporated the public while ensuring project goals continued to be met.

Other Keywords
Conservation • Public Archaeology • Nautical Archaeology • public • Lake Champlain • Underwater Archaeology • Steamboats • Shipbuilding • Schooner • Shipwrecks

Temporal Keywords
Early 19th Century • Historical Period • 1832 • 19th Century • Early to Mid 19th Century • late 18th-early 19th c.

Geographic Keywords
Coahuila (State / Territory) • New Mexico (State / Territory) • Oklahoma (State / Territory) • Arizona (State / Territory) • Texas (State / Territory) • Sonora (State / Territory) • United States of America (Country) • Chihuahua (State / Territory) • Nuevo Leon (State / Territory) • Delaware (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)

  • Documents (9)
Documents
  • Basin Harbor Wreck Field School 2018 (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mason Parody.

    This is an abstract from the "Shipwrecks and the Public: Getting People Engaged with their Maritime History" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The 2018 Lake Champlain Maritime Museum field school returns to the wreck site at Basin Harbor. Despite not yet having a ship identification nor knowledge of the exact type of vessel which lies at the bottom of the marina, this season’s work consisted of further excavation and documentation of the site by...

  • Community Involvement in the Management of Submerged Cultural Resources on Lake Champlain (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Sabick.

    This is an abstract from the "Shipwrecks and the Public: Getting People Engaged with their Maritime History" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. During the summer of 2018 the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (LCMM) began an initiative to involve the local avocational dive community in the management of the cultural resources of Lake Champlain.  Through the support of a National Maritime Heritage Grant, LCMM archaeologists began the process of training...

  • Construction of the CityPlace Schooner (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Julia M. Herbst.

    This is an abstract from the "Shipwrecks and the Public: Getting People Engaged with their Maritime History" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 2015, the remains of an early 19th-century schooner were discovered below Bathurst Street and Fort York Boulevard in downtown Toronto, during the construction of the CityPlace neighborhood. The wreck, located alongside the remains of the Queen’s Wharf, was excavated and relocated to Fort York National...

  • Improved Accessibility of Submerged Cultural Materials through ArcGIS StoryMapping (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Rebecca A Hunt.

    This is an abstract from the "Shipwrecks and the Public: Getting People Engaged with their Maritime History" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The purpose of this research paper is to address the issue of limited public access to submerged cultural material and history at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, and other similar institutions. This analysis aims to improve how the public connects and interacts with historical and regional remains...

  • Public Engagement at the Conservation Research Laboratory (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Dostal.

    This is an abstract from the "Shipwrecks and the Public: Getting People Engaged with their Maritime History" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. At any given point, there are multiple large-scale archaeological conservation projects underway at the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University from all over the United States or abroad. Because the artifacts being conserved are often hundreds or thousands of miles removed from the location...

  • Public Nautical Archaeology of the Phoenix (II) and City Place Schooner Projects (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Carolyn Kennedy.

    This is an abstract from the "Shipwrecks and the Public: Getting People Engaged with their Maritime History" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Two recent shipwreck projects, the Phoenix (II) steamboat project in Lake Champlain and the City Place Schooner project in Toronto, focused on the research and reconstruction of these two 1820s-built wrecks, but additionally placed strong emphasis on public archaeology. The outreach initiatives utilized...

  • Shipboard Life aboard Phoenix II: Conserving and Interpreting the Artifacts from Lake Champlain’s Fifth Steamboat (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Amelia J Hammond.

    This is an abstract from the "Shipwrecks and the Public: Getting People Engaged with their Maritime History" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. From 2014 to 2016, researchers from Texas A&M University carried out an investigation of a submerged archaeological site in Lake Champlain, Vermont. The site, Shelburne Shipyard, contained four steamboat wrecks from the nineteenth century. The study of the earliest of these steamboats, Phoenix II, yielded...

  • The Spread of Cholera Throughout North America in 1832 via Inland Waterways (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicole Deere.

    This is an abstract from the "Shipwrecks and the Public: Getting People Engaged with their Maritime History" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Steamboats and other watercraft were largely responsible for the rapid spread of cholera throughout North America in 1832 via inland waterways. The recent archaeological excavation of Phoenix II in Lake Champlain led to the rediscovery of the steamer’s role in this tragic historic event, and prompted further...

  • The State of the Inland Sea: a primer to the submerged cultural resources of Lake Ontario and the Upper St. Lawrence River and the state of studies in Great Lakes Shipbuilding (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Benjamin M Ioset.

    This is an abstract from the "Shipwrecks and the Public: Getting People Engaged with their Maritime History" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Lower Great Lakes and Upper Saint Lawrence River has served as a natural corridor of transportation, its intensification increasing exponentially with the lifting of restrictions on commercial shipping and shipbuilding in 1785. These restrictions coincided with a shift from military shipbuilding that had...