Looking Back to Move Forward: Urban Renewal, Salvage Archaeology, and Historical Reckoning in Alexandria, Virginia

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology of Urban Dissonance: Violence, Friction, and Change" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Dissent over what merits preservation and what constitutes progress undergird Alexandria Archaeology’s establishment. Our program is rooted in the urban renewal movement of the 1960s and 1970s. In demolishing several blocks and removing people of color and poor whites from the City’s downtown, officials hoped to reinvent this area as a haven for white, middle-class residents and tourists drawn to Alexandria by its historic character. During demolition, a group of concerned citizens noted that the bulldozers were removing archaeological resources as well as “blight” in the name of progress. They established an archaeology program dedicated to mitigating these effects. However, these early archaeological projects privileged some histories over others, focusing on 18th century, elite, white history instead of on the diverse 19th century community that existed on these blocks. This paper will explore how new analyses of older collections may help give voice to some of these lesser known histories.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology of Urban Dissonance: Violence, Friction, and Change   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology