Legacy Collections and Photographs in the National Parks Service: A Look into WPA and CCC Era Archeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Hidden In The Hollinger: What We Can Learn From Archeological Legacy Collections In The National Park Service", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The National Parks Service has numerous legacy collections from archeological excavations put in place by programs under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The two that are most prevalent in the National Parks museum collections are from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Both programs employed workers on federal public projects and early excavations of National Parks. Included in the National Parks Service collection are photographs–many of these photographs depict citizen workers conducting archeological fieldwork.

This paper explores the National Parks Service’s collections of Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps era photographs of archeological fieldwork, shedding light on this period of early archeological fieldwork for the National Parks Service, specifically, people of color and women will be focused on. The question of how such photos can be used for future archeological research and interpretation to the public will be raised and discussed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Hidden In The Hollinger: What We Can Learn From Archeological Legacy Collections In The National Park Service

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow