Archaeology, History, and Accessibility with the Eckley Miners' Village Cell Phone Tour

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Established to document, preserve, and share the rich heritage of the miners and mining families that once populated Eckley Miners’ Village in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Eckley Miners’ Village Museum currently plays a pivotal role in the commemoration of anthracite mining heritage. A cell phone tour is one method the museum uses to educate the public about anthracite mining and Eckley’s former residents. A recent research effort in collaboration with the museum administration determined that the cell phone tour inadequately contributed to this effort, determining the tour failed to adequately address the histories of marginalized communities at Eckley and required greater attention to visitor disability and engagement. Led by the author, this project sought to rectify these issues through an overhaul of the existing cell phone tour to ensure a more complete history is told in a more easily accessible manner. Adjustments to the tour called on data from archaeological excavations and textual analyses as well as museum engagement studies and disability studies. The incorporations of archaeological data, taken primarily from several excavations of the site in the 2010s, make this project an exemplar for public and applied archaeology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35538.0