World War I Dog Tags from Camp Logan (41HR614), Houston, Texas: Making the Archaeological Personal

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

For many national armies the First World War marked the first large-scale use of identity discs, commonly referred to as dog tags. The U.S. Army was no exception, issuing standardized aluminum discs to its soldiers. Archaeological investigations at the former World War I training facility Camp Logan (41HR614) in Houston, Texas has resulted in the recovery of three such tags. In addition to valuable information gleaned from their archaeological context, by examining the historical record, each tag allows us to paint a fuller, more personal picture of specific individuals who trained at Camp Logan. In at least one instance we have been able to draw a picture of how a soldier’s life before the war directly impacted his time at Camp Logan and post-war experiences.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow