Archaeology in the Arboretum: Exploring the Evidence of the Arboretum Chinese Labor Quarters Site on Stanford University’s Campus

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Revolutionizing Approaches to Campus History - Campus Archaeology's Role in Telling Their Institutions' Stories" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Stanford’s Arboretum Chinese Labor Quarters (ACLQ) Project seeks to use archaeological evidence, alongside documentary and oral historical data, to better understand the daily lives of the Chinese workers at Leland Stanford’s Palo Alto Stock Farm and, later, at Stanford University. These laborers planted every Palm on Palm Drive, dug the Oval and Lake Lagunita, and planted the Arizona Garden, Arboretum, and the gardens of the Main Quadrangle. The ACLQ site was occupied from the early 1880s through 1925 and represents one of at least four residences for Chinese workers on Stanford lands. In excavating the location where these historic workers spent their non-working hours, this research can speak to their daily activities more completely. The ACLQ Project acknowledges the contributions that Chinese workers have made to Stanford University, especially in creating its now-iconic landscape, while recognizing them as individuals whose lives consisted of more than the labor that they performed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Revolutionizing Approaches to Campus History - Campus Archaeology's Role in Telling Their Institutions' Stories   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 891