New Digs for an Old Collection: A Case Study in Rehabilitating Legacy Collections
Author(s): Danielle Benden; Mara Taft
Year: 2018
Summary
Legacy collections—those typically generated decades ago that do not meet current professional curation standards and require a substantial resource investment for long-term preservation—are housed in nearly every archaeological repository across the country. Many are the result of under-funded university field schools or public archaeology projects that didn’t account for either the initial curation preparation or the long-term costs and maintenance of collections care. The deeply stratified and federally-owned Tillmont site, located on an island in the Upper Mississippi River, is one such collection that was recently rehabilitated to meet the federal curation regulations (36 CFR Part 79). This paper explores that rehab process, along with the challenges encountered and the solutions for overcoming them. The end result is a collection that is fully digitized, organized, indexed, and ready for a variety of uses, including research and education.
Cite this Record
New Digs for an Old Collection: A Case Study in Rehabilitating Legacy Collections. Danielle Benden, Mara Taft. Presented at The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC. 2018 ( tDAR id: 443924)
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Keywords
Spatial Coverage
min long: -103.975; min lat: 36.598 ; max long: -80.42; max lat: 48.922 ;
Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 18725