A Queer Afterlife: Re-excavating the Halcyon House Collection

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Storeroom Taphonomies: Site Formation in the Archaeological Archive" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

A rumored tie to LGBTQ history has drawn people to the Halcyon House archaeological collection across several decades. In this talk, I draw on Sara Ahmed’s concept of queer phenomenology that conceptualizes queerness as an “orientation” toward certain objects and bodies. What does it mean to seek resonance in the past through queer ancestry? How does the tangibility of material culture prompt a queerly tactile relationship to the past? Located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, the Halcyon House mansion’s grounds were excavated in 1985 but the project became embroiled in funding disputes and was never completed. Archaeologists had found many more artifacts than initially expected, many dating from the early twentieth century when the property was owned by Albert Adsit Clemons who was rumored to have lived with a male carpenter. The artifacts include makeup remains, alcohol bottles, and lingerie items marketed to women at the time. In 2018, after learning about the collection, I was drawn to study it through my own queer identity in relation to queer pasts. Drawing on engagement with LGBTQ-identified community members, I think through the meaning of “queer heritage” to frame the collection’s connection to various actors throughout its tumultuous existence.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Storeroom Taphonomies: Site Formation in the Archaeological Archive   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38220.0