Collaborating with Carpenters: Historic House Care and Archaeology at Strawbery Banke Museum

Author(s): Alexandra Martin; Ana C. Opishinski

Year: 2017

Summary

Strawbery Banke Museum is an outdoor history museum in Portsmouth, NH with over 40 historic houses.  The majority of these buildings sit on their original foundations, enabling archaeological research into the daily lives of the historic neighborhood’s residents.  Recently, the primary motivation for museum excavations has been in preparation for construction work planned by the museum’s Heritage House Program.  This presentation will describe how the archaeology department works in collaboration with the museum's restoration carpentry team.  Additionally, we will illustrate how the experiences of field school students and museum visitors are enhanced by understanding different reasons archaeology is necessary.  We will discuss the ongoing work and recent field schools at two historic house sites (Penhallow c. 1750 and Yeaton-Walsh c. 1803).  Our work contributes to our important mission of historic house care while also helping connect people to the past in a unique and engaging manner.

Cite this Record

Collaborating with Carpenters: Historic House Care and Archaeology at Strawbery Banke Museum. Alexandra Martin, Ana C. Opishinski. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Fort Worth, TX. 2017 ( tDAR id: 435515)

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Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 647