“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)," at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Mary C. Beaudry was a leading archaeologist, who worked creatively and diligently to “reinvent historical archaeology” and whose work has influenced our field on an international scale. During her career at Boston University, she also trained two generations of historical archaeologists who themselves are now transforming our practice. Embracing interpretive approaches to “ethnography in retrospect,” she modeled close and critical readings of diverse material culture and landscapes. Her fieldwork spanned the east coast of North America, the Caribbean, and the British Isles. Beaudry examined a remarkable range of topics, from colonialism and identity to agriculture and rural life, urbanization, and industrialization, and from households and health to mobility, poverty, and “shadow and intimate economies.” A persistent, outspoken advocate for ‘activating’ those voices silenced or ignored in the past and in the present, Beaudry spoke to the challenges facing archaeology and the ethics of our practice.

Other Keywords
Mary Beaudry • Beaudry • Historical Archaeology • Material Culture • Storytelling • Household Archaeology • Museum • Tools • Climate • Curation

Geographic Keywords
New England • Northeast US • United States of America (Country) • United Mexican States (Country) • Cayman Islands (Country) • Turks and Caicos Islands (Country) • Bermuda (Country) • Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre (Country) • Republic of Cuba (Country) • Canada (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-23 of 23)

  • Documents (23)
Documents
  • Archaeology in a Time of Climate Change, a Challenge for the This Generation and the Next: An Essay in Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lauren J. Cook.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. During her career and life as a scholar, educator, mentor, colleague and friend, Mary Beaudry inspired us. To her, objects were not mere tools, but elements in discourse, products and conveyors of culture. She encouraged us to think as archaeologists, seeking solution of problems...

  • Artifacts and Personal Identity: Reflecting on MCB (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Carolyn White.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 2008 I co-authored an article with Mary Beaudry entitled “Artifacts and Personal Identity” published in the International Handbook of Historical Archaeology. Mary was my teacher, mentor, and colleague, and each of these roles is contained within the work. Our collaboration was...

  • Biographies and the Beaudry Legacy (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christina J. Hodge. Jessica S. MacLean. Carolyn L. White.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Co-presenter Carolyn’s White’s 2009 edited volume The Materiality of Individuality is a capsule of Mary’s influence, in which we and several others of her circle appear. That volume and this session inspire us to reflect on how Mary entangled object and individual biography with...

  • Conceptualizing Historic Households and Domestic Site Structure: My Early Conversations with Mary Beaudry (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Marley R. Brown III.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In the spring of 1975, Mary Beaudry offered to accompany me to the annual meeting of the Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology held in those days at Bear Mountain State Park on the Hudson. I had been asked to give the plenary address on my dissertation project - The Mott...

  • Cooking with Mary: How Household Archaeology, Sensory Engagement, and Food Come Together (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Karen B. Metheny.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Mary Beaudry’s contributions to historical archaeology were diverse and, in many ways, foundational. Over the course of her career, Mary explored the ways historical cultures conceptualized their world and themselves, from the linguistic evidence of probate inventories, to...

  • Digging Beantown: Mary Beaudry's Boston (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Joseph M. Bagley.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Dr. Mary Beaudry spent decades digging, working, and eating in Boston. This paper celebrates Mary's contributions to the city, from some of the first historical archaeological excavations in Boston, to her mentorship of many working archaeologists in the region, and to her love...

  • Dining with M. — How Mary C. Beaudry Brought Seeds, Bones and Sherds Back to Life (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Konrad A. (1,2) Antczak.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Like no other, Mary looked beyond sherds to whole plates, cups, mugs, and jugs — and beyond these — to the vibrant assemblage of practice they were part and parcel of in everyday life. Her emphasis on mealtimes as “embodied experiences” and “total events”, where people and things...

  • The Dynamics of Small Things Remembered: Giving Voice to A Silenced Past (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen A Brighton.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Mary Beaudry’s impact on archaeology is immense and reaches all corners of the discipline. More than anything, it was her commitment to the individual and their ability to make meaningful choices throughout the course of everyday life. Ultimately, she created a dynamic landscape...

  • From One Mary to Another: An Archaeological Biography (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mary K Praetzellis. Adrian C Praetzellis.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. I met Mary B. at the 1985 Boston SHA meeting. She was the conference organizer, but nevertheless womaning the registration table when I picked up our packets just before the free reception. Mary recognized my name—which made me feel important—and proceeded to tell me what was...

  • An Intellectual Genealogy of Plymouth Colony Archaeology (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only David B Landon. Christa M Beranek.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. One of Dr. Mary Beaudry’s long-term research interests was in the archaeology of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. This paper traces some of the history and legacies of that interest, including Mary’s research on Deetz’s archaeological collections in the 1980s, her...

  • "It Is the Devil’s Business": Acceptable Labor, Clandestine Labor, and Sex Work (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jade Luiz.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Slowly, twenty-first century Americans are beginning to accept the reality that sex work is real work. As a component of this, scholars exploring historical sex work in Boston explore this reality within the context of nineteenth century concepts of labor, acceptable versus...

  • A Journey Without Maps: Following the path of the archaeological genealogy of Mary Beaudry (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Luke Pecoraro.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The scope and nature of Mary Beaudry’s contextual approach towards the archaeology of households is a significant legacy of her contribution to historical archaeology both in the United States and abroad. As a student and friend of Mary’s, overtime I came to recognize that the...

  • Mary Beaudry’s Legacy: A View from Historic St. Mary’s City (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Travis G. Parno.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. This paper traces Mary Beaudry’s legacy in two intertwined narratives: one that follows Mary’s time (1997-2005) as a commissioner of the Historic St. Mary’s City Commission (HSMCC) and one that examines the current research trajectory of the Historic St. Mary’s City Department of...

  • Mary C. Beaudry: Life, Career, and Contributions to Historical Archaeology (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sara Mascia. Karen B. Metheny. Lu Ann De Cunzo.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Mary C. Beaudry was one of the most dominant and outspoken leaders in the field of Historical Archaeology. During her career she had an exemplary record of scholarship, mentoring, and service and her wide-ranging interests in so many different approaches to studying the past was...

  • Mary C. Beaudry: The Missing Virginia Years, 1972 to 1980 (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Patricia Samford. Julia A. King.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Biographies of Mary Beaudry's career usually begin in Virginia, where Mary was an undergraduate at the College of William and Mary. There, Mary's interest in archaeology was born when she volunteered on a project for the late Norman Barka at Maycock's Point. Mary left...

  • Memories of Mary Beaudry: Creating an Interdisciplinary Historical Archaeology (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen A. Mrozowski.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. I first met Mary Beaudry in 1977 when she was a graduate student at Brown University, and I was a staff archaeologist for the Public Archaeology Laboratory at Brown. We would later share responsibility for the Lowell Archaeological Survey – she has the Boston University of...

  • My Collegial Interactions With Mary Beaudry (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Suzanne Spencer-Wood.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Mary Beaudry was hired at Boston University in 1980, shortly after I was hired at University of Massachusetts/Boston in 1978. We became friendly colleagues, shared drives to conferences and worked together in several professional capacities, including as founding members of the...

  • Objects, Collections, Texts, Time: A Close Reading of a 19th-century "Pilgrim Box" (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth S. Pena.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 1868, a Presbyterian minister from upstate New York traveled to the “Holy Land,” where he acquired some 28 objects. These objects became a collection, and individual items became compound objects when linked to meaning-making Biblical texts. Since the pilgrim box traveled so...

  • A Propitious Influence: Mary Beaudry’s Contributions to Historical and Contemporary Archaeology in the Caribbean (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Krysta Ryzewski.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Mary Beaudry never promoted herself as an island archaeologist, but throughout the course of her accomplished career she conducted or participated on research projects on several islands, including in the Boston Harbor, the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and Nevis and Montserrat in...

  • Reflecting on Point of View: Telling Stories with Archaeology (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Laura E Masur.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Mary Beaudry pioneered the art of telling first-person narratives that enable artifacts to come alive. She taught us that although there are many mediums for archaeological writing, the primary goal of an archaeologist is to tell stories. Stories enable us to connect places and...

  • The shadow of Mary Beaudry in Antarctic Archeology (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Andres Zarankin. María Jimena Cruz.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The ideas and proposals of Mary Beaudry have left their mark, on Historical Archaeology and of course on the way we approach the works on the first human occupations, at the beginning of the 19th century, of the Antarctic continent. Groups of marine mammal hunters came to these...

  • Stitched in Time: Mary Beaudry’s influence on the study of small finds (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Diana Loren.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. From her work on Spencer-Peirce-Little House to her groundbreaking publication Findings, Mary Beaudry’s focus on small finds has influenced a generation of scholars. Because small finds, such as artifacts of clothing and needlework, are relatively uncommon in most archaeological...

  • "Subversive Poetics": Mary Beaudry's Archaeology of Language (2022)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dan Hicks.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Mary Beaudry practiced the kind of historical archaeology defined not merely by the presence of texts, but by the excavation of language. Departing from the cognitive archaeology of Jim Deetz, but retaining his sense for spinning a good yarn, her interest was more in using words...