Boxed but not Forgotten Redux or: The Importance and Usefulness of Exploring Old or Forgotten Collections
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2022
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Boxed but not Forgotten Redux or: The Importance and Usefulness of Exploring Old or Forgotten Collections," at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
While collections-based research is increasingly promoted as a sustainable and ethical method for pursuing research, it does not yet outpace, nor even equal, the number of investigations that include fieldwork as their primary methodology. This trend continues despite the thousands of existing collections in repositories across the nation that are brimming with potential for new investigation, or for connecting the dots between other projects, sites, and cultures. These collections sit forgotten or ignored on shelves and in storage, their secrets unexplored and their data excluded from our larger understanding of historical archaeology. In recognition of this continuing problem, the SHA Collections and Curation Committee sponsors this session devoted to exploring the importance of existing collections to the future of archaeological research; papers included highlight collections in need of research, new projects on old collections, and other exciting avenues for collections-based research in the field of historical archaeology.
Other Keywords
Collections •
Curation •
Collections Management •
Conservation •
Historical Archaeology •
Research •
Tobacco •
Survey •
Artifacts •
Thesis
Geographic Keywords
California •
Southeast •
Florida •
Pacific Northwest •
Eastern United States •
MIDDLE ATLANTIC •
Rhode Island •
West Africa
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)
- Documents (10)
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'Business Carried them Far from Home': The Object Itinerary of a 19th-Century Antiquarian Collection (2022)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Boxed but not Forgotten Redux or: The Importance and Usefulness of Exploring Old or Forgotten Collections" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. This paper examines nineteenth-century artifact collecting practices through analysis of legacy, orphaned, and curated collections at Woodville Plantation (36AL29), a historic house museum in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania. From the 1830s to 1920s, the Wrenshall family...
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Craft and Commerce: Identifying Trade networks and Aesthetic Connections Using Local Pipes (2022)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Boxed but not Forgotten Redux or: The Importance and Usefulness of Exploring Old or Forgotten Collections" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Within a half century of contact with the Americas, tobacco became a mainstay of West African life. Regional artisans began producing pipes giving rise to a new craft specialization. Archaeologists have created detailed typologies of these objects noting regional styles...
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An Historical Survey of Chinese Diaspora Archaeology in California as Told by a 53-Year Old Collection (2022)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Boxed but not Forgotten Redux or: The Importance and Usefulness of Exploring Old or Forgotten Collections" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The 1969 excavation of Yreka, California’s third Chinatown is one the earliest archaeological investigations of a Chinese community in California and one of the first large-scale historical archaeological salvage projects in the State. The Yreka excavations took place at...
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It’s in the Bag: An Analysis of the Skiffes Creek Archaeological Collections Assessment Project (2022)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Boxed but not Forgotten Redux or: The Importance and Usefulness of Exploring Old or Forgotten Collections" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Even a small collection survey can be a daunting prospect. Multiply that by 5 collections stores, 4 stake holding institutions, 42 archaeological sites, and more than 100,000 artifacts and that generally describes the Skiffes Creek Archaeological Collections Curation and...
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Making Museum Collections More Accessible: Digital Archives and Data at the Florida Museum of Natural History (2022)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Boxed but not Forgotten Redux or: The Importance and Usefulness of Exploring Old or Forgotten Collections" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Florida Museum of Natural History’s (FLMNH) Historical Archaeology division began a collaboration with the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS) over five years ago to digitize museum collections. Funding from a NEH Humanities Collections and...
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Olive Jars, Chimney Tiles, and Smoking Pipes, oh my! The Excavation of Dusty File Cabinets and Bags of Artifacts Can Breathe New Life into the Collections of Colonial Brunswick Town (2022)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Boxed but not Forgotten Redux or: The Importance and Usefulness of Exploring Old or Forgotten Collections" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Between 1958 and 1968, archaeological pioneer Stanley South excavated a total of 13 colonial era primary households and associated structures at the ruins of 18th century Brunswick Town. Catalogs of the hundred thousands of artifacts South completed, and the remainder...
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Privy to the Details: Reanalysis of a Curated Cultural Resource Mitigation Assemblage (2022)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Boxed but not Forgotten Redux or: The Importance and Usefulness of Exploring Old or Forgotten Collections" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Cultural Resource Protection (CRP) work produces many assemblages of material that have varying levels of analysis conducted within the scope of the contract. These collections provide numerous opportunities for methodological testing and verification and reanalysis with...
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The Snowtown Project: Remembering Providence’s Past (2022)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Boxed but not Forgotten Redux or: The Importance and Usefulness of Exploring Old or Forgotten Collections" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In the early 1980s, archaeological excavations in downtown Providence, Rhode Island located the remains of early 19th century Snowtown, a mixed-race neighborhood most notable for a riot in 1831 between free African Americans and working-class whites. Recent collections...
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The Temple On The Hill: Reviving the Patapsco Female Institute (2022)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Boxed but not Forgotten Redux or: The Importance and Usefulness of Exploring Old or Forgotten Collections" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Patapsco Female Institute (18HO143) in Ellicott City, Maryland, once stood as a beacon for female education throughout the nineteenth century. By the late 1960s, the “temple on the Hill” had fallen into complete ruin, and Howard County purchased the property in the...
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USACE National Regionalization Effort: Recovering the Bygone Collections (2022)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Boxed but not Forgotten Redux or: The Importance and Usefulness of Exploring Old or Forgotten Collections" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Existing collections have long been the forgotten byproducts of archaeological research. Federal collections were generally analyzed and then delivered to repositories for long-term curation, where they remained, overlooked, “in perpetuity”. For decades, curation-minded...