20th Century Black History of Strawbery Banke Museum: Creating a Furnishing Plan

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Hundreds of Black Americans moved to Portsmouth, NH in the Great Migration, many finding jobs at the local Naval Shipyard. Today the neighborhood where some of those shipyard employees and their families lived is an outdoor history museum called Strawbery Banke. Archaeological research in advance of rehabilitation at the museum’s ca. 1750 Penhallow House uncovered a variety of belongings related to members of four generations of a Black family who lived there from 1916 until 1949. The material record provides evidence of a family engaged with the local economy, their neighbors, and Black beauty trends. In addition to conversations with Geraldine (Cousins) Palmer who lived in the house as a child from 1937 to 1943 and with the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, the archaeological research has shaped the current interpretation and furnishing plans for the house, which will be discussed and shared here.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow