Retrospective: 50 Years Of Research And Changing Narratives At Catoctin Furnace, Maryland
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2023
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Retrospective: 50 Years Of Research And Changing Narratives At Catoctin Furnace, Maryland," at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
Fifty years ago, Catoctin Furnace was inscribed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and the Catoctin Furnace Historical Society was chartered. A cultural resources study undertaken in 1971, as well as the National Register nomination form, are remarkable in the omission of any mention of enslaved workers. In fact, the majority of furnace workers between 1776 and 1830 were enslaved Africans, and furnace owners were the largest slaveholders in the county. During the past 50 years, archaeological, architectural, cultural landscape, forensic anthropological, aDNA, geomorphological, and related studies have focused attention on the role of enslaved and freed African American workers, fueled by the discovery of an African American cemetery in 1977. This session provides an overview of memory activism, archaeology, historic preservation, and reparative heritage at Catoctin Furnace, demonstrating the power of reanalysis, interdisciplinary collaboration, community involvement, heritage tourism, economic development, and human rights in a heritage community.
Other Keywords
African American cemetery •
Iron •
Forest Fires •
Cemetery •
African American •
Heritage Tourism •
Charcoal •
Community engagement •
African Diaspora •
Invisibility
Geographic Keywords
Mid-Atlantic, USA •
Maryland, USA •
Mid-Atlantic North America
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-5 of 5)
- Documents (5)
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Facing the Past: Forensic Facial Reconstruction at Catoctin Furnace and its Role in Public Outreach (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Retrospective: 50 Years Of Research And Changing Narratives At Catoctin Furnace, Maryland", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Forensic facial reconstructions are an effective tool for communicating historical narratives and information gleaned from human skeletal remains. The method relies on the relationship between the underlying architecture of the skull and the tissues of the face. Facial reconstructions...
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Fires in the Mountains: forest fires, charcoal, and lumber at Catoctin Furnace (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Retrospective: 50 Years Of Research And Changing Narratives At Catoctin Furnace, Maryland", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Recent studies of fire history and dendroecology, charcoal production, and vernacular architecture around Catoctin Furnace, correlated with new palaeobotanical analysis and analysis of company store ledgers, have provided unprecedented information about the ecological history of the...
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Forgotten Families of the Furnace: Ancestral Origins and Genetic Relationships Reflected in Death (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Retrospective: 50 Years Of Research And Changing Narratives At Catoctin Furnace, Maryland", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 2015, funding was awarded to the Catoctin Furnace Historical Society to provide data-grounded interpretation of a cemetery and its skeletal remains (circa 1790-1840) previously impacted by development. Phase I involved updated analysis, including assessments of demography, bone and...
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Memory Activism, Archaeology, Reparative Heritage, and Human Rights at Catoctin Furnace - 1972 to 2023 (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Retrospective: 50 Years Of Research And Changing Narratives At Catoctin Furnace, Maryland", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. On February 11, 1972, Catoctin Furnace was inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Catoctin Furnace Historical Society, Inc., was chartered on February 8, 1973. An initial cultural resources study undertaken by Contract Archaeology, Inc., of Alexandria, Virginia,...
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Reexamining Invisibility: Memories of Catoctin Furnace African American Cemetery Archaeology (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Retrospective: 50 Years Of Research And Changing Narratives At Catoctin Furnace, Maryland", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. During the 1979/1980 Phase III excavation of the Catoctin Furnace African American cemetery, Sharon Ann Burnston served as field supervisor under the direction of the late Ron Thomas, Principal Investigator of Mid-Atlantic Archaeological Research, Inc. Her memories of the data recovery...