Rebel Without a Provenience: When Bad Archaeology Makes for Great Public Outreach

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Meanwhile, In the NPS Lab: Discoveries from the Collections" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The year was 1968. Hawaii Five-O premiers, Richard Nixon wins the presidency, and excavations at the Casey House at Minute Man National Historical Park conclude. In the 52 years since the excavation, the collection has been largely ignored and completely unstudied despite containing outstanding examples of material culture, and having been rehoused to increase accessibility and accountability. The major reasons for this very common issue within National Park Service archaeological collections include a lack of accessibility to a collection, knowledge of the collection, and lack of workspace. The Northeast Museum Services Center (NMSC) archaeology staff have spent nearly a decade raising awareness of these collections through social media and community outreach. This paper explores the benefits of re-discovering The Casey House archaeology and bringing the artifacts to the attention of park staff and the general public through public archaeology and the constantly evolving world of social media.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Meanwhile, In the NPS Lab: Discoveries from the Collections   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 611