"The Time Has Come," the Walrus Said, "To Talk of Many Things: Of Shoes and Ships - and Sealing Wax - of Cabbages and Kings" and Twenty-five Years of the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery Project.

Patricia B. Richards

"The Time Has Come," the Walrus Said, "To Talk of Many Things: Of Shoes and Ships - and Sealing Wax - of Cabbages and Kings" and Twenty-five Years of the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery Project.

Year: 2017

Summary

This paper provides a retrospective look at the political, regulatory, methodological, and ethical conundrums that characterize ongoing research that emerged from an archeological recovery contract completed in 1992. Today, the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery (MCPFC) project has developed into a multifaceted research initiative focused on one of the largest systematically excavated and permanently curated collections of osteological and material culture remains in the United States. Since 2008 the UWM Archaeological Research Laboratory has curated all human remains, material culture, and documentation associated with the 1991 and 1992 excavations of 1649 individuals at the MCPFC. In 2013, UWM’s cultural resource management program conducted excavations of an additional 632 separate coffin burials representing over 800 individuals. While the goals of individual MCPFC analyses are diverse, all research is guided by the overarching goal of returning a voice and an identity to individuals robbed of both by burial in the MCPFC.

Cite this Record

"The Time Has Come," the Walrus Said, "To Talk of Many Things: Of Shoes and Ships - and Sealing Wax - of Cabbages and Kings" and Twenty-five Years of the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery Project.. Patricia B. Richards. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Fort Worth, TX. 2017 ( tDAR id: 435194)