The Creation of the New York City Archaeological Repository

Summary

Dozens of archaeological excavations have made important discoveries about the almost four-hundred year history of New York City and the people who have inhabited the area for thousands of years.  In 2014, a climate controlled archaeological repository was established in Midtown Manhattan to appropriately curate the city’s collections. Previously, they were dispersed, often inaccessible, and kept in non-ideal conditions which meant they were often at risk and rarely used for research.  Many people worked over a period of years to create a repository and this talk will outline how it finally happened and what we hope to achieve. It will also focus on the collections management issues that were revealed when the collections were united, what we are doing now to ensure that the legacy collections will be fully accessible for researchers, how new significant collections will be incorporated, and discuss the issues that we must still address.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New York City Archaeological Repository- Past, Present, and Future   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 214