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- Strange Windows from Early Maryland
Authors: Henry Miller
PubDate: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 11:04:27 PDT
- A Bone to Pick: An Unusual Tableware from the Victorian Era
Authors: Patricia M. Samford
PubDate: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 11:04:24 PDT
- The Private Side of Victorian Mourning Practices in Nineteenth-Century New
England: The Cole’s Hill Memorial Cache
Authors: Victoria Anne Cacchione et al.
Abstract: Excavated in downtown Plymouth, Massachusetts, a cache of 19th-century personal-adornment artifacts, daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and organic materials provides an alternative view of mourning and memorialization practices in Victorian-era New England. The associated artifacts possess characteristics indicative of Victorian mourning symbols and material types. However, no other current examples of this mourning practice exist in the historical and archaeological records. Thus, this article will attempt to understand this discovery as an aspect of the private side of the traditionally public mourning practices and women’s efforts to create mourning customs that served in creating a feminine historical memory in the Victorian era.
PubDate: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 11:04:20 PDT
- Historical Accounts of Forgotten Stone-Heaping Practices on
Nineteenth-Century Hill Farms
Authors: Timothy Ives
Abstract: This article offers a modest contribution to the ongoing debate among archaeologists, Native American cultural authorities, and avocational researchers concerning the historical origins of the stone-heap sites commonly found in New England’s forested hills. The author’s recent review of historical periodicals, mainly newspapers and agricultural journals, yielded many previously unknown references to farmers constructing stone heaps by hand in working fields and pastures. Popular perceptions of this apparently widespread phenomenon varied. While stone heaping provided opportunities for both young and old family members to prove their worth, some ideologically progressive farmers expressed a strong distain for the practice. By the late 19th century, the region’s abundant stone heaps discovered a new value as raw material for large roadbuilding projects and came to symbolize a simpler way of life that had slipped away as the industrial age gained strength. These findings underscore the possibility that some proportion of the stone-heap sites that contemporary stakeholders identify as elements of ceremonial stone landscapes were created by 19th-century farmers for practical reasons.
PubDate: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 11:04:17 PDT
- Commentary on the History of Public Archaeology at Strawbery Banke,
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Authors: Marley R. Brown III
Abstract: This commentary reflects on the ways Strawbery Banke Museum archaeology was affected by, and in turn, influenced the field of historical archaeology. It can be argued that in the late 1960s urban historical archaeology got its start in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The stories and narrative histories told in these articles are essential to the success of the Strawbery Banke archaeology program, as they reach to the heart of the importance the Portsmouth community attaches to this place. The process of community building has always been at work in Portsmouth and has been what makes Strawbery Banke the museum that it is today. The story of public archaeology and its development at Strawbery Banke discussed in these articles has been a key part of its institutional history.
PubDate: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 11:04:13 PDT
- Intern to Interpretation: A Take on Public Archaeology at Strawbery Banke
Authors: Elizabeth Donison
Abstract: Interning at Strawbery Banke Museum offers a unique and important experience. While providing insight into museum archaeology, public archaeology also plays an important role in interpreting sites. Planned work at the Penhallow House through the Heritage House Program was the reason for excavating and holding a field school in 2016 and 2017. The intern acts as the teaching assistant for the field-school students, a position that offers an advanced research and leadership opportunity for students with prior experience. Field-school participants are of various ages and backgrounds, making it pertinent to emphasize the archaeology department’s role in transmitting Portsmouth and New Hampshire history. The field school and an additional archaeology camp run by the education department help to inform museum visitors about ongoing research and discoveries in the Puddle Dock neighborhood. This article highlights the role that the archaeology department and its ongoing internship program hold relative to public archaeology’s importance at Strawbery Banke.
PubDate: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 11:04:10 PDT
- #SBMArch: Museum Archaeology in the 2010
Authors: Alexandra G. Martin
Abstract: The Strawbery Banke Museum archaeology department moved in with the collections department after the construction of a new Collections Center building in 2007. The department has made new use of tools, such as an online artifact database; electromagnetometry, which helped locate a turn of the 20th-century mikveh excavated in 2014; and GIS, which offers a new approach to site-wide analysis of the many excavations across the campus. Recent archaeological efforts have concentrated on work related to the museum’s Heritage House Program, intended to rehabilitate buildings for interpretive and rental spaces. Ongoing work at historical house sites has meant that the boundaries of excavation have been determined primarily by construction impacts rather than research questions. However, archaeology department research and excavations have continued to uncover significant new information supported by close collaboration with the curatorial and restoration carpentry staff. The museum’s ongoing commitment to public archaeology has offered field-school students, interns, and visitors alike a valuable opportunity to observe the importance of archaeological research in this context, both onsite and on social media platforms.
PubDate: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 11:04:06 PDT
- Archaeological Research Opportunities and Contributions at the Chase House
Site
Authors: Sheila Charles et al.
Abstract: Between 2008 and 2014, Strawbery Banke’s excavation efforts were focused on the south and east yards of the Chase House (SB26). Although the extant 1762 Chase House was the first restored building opened at Strawbery Banke, no archaeological research had previously been done there. Possible relocation of an historical barn to the site drew attention to the need to investigate the Chase House property in order to gather information about a former kitchen ell, outbuilding, and privy on the site. Analysis of the standing structure, historical documents, and archaeological features, deposits, and recovered artifacts expand the museum’s interpretation of the 18th-, 19th-, and early 20th-century Chase House proprietors and occupants.
PubDate: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 11:04:03 PDT
- Tides of Public Archaeology: Reseeding the Banke, 1985–2006
Authors: Martha Pinello
Abstract: In the late 20th century, archaeological botanical and ethnobotanical studies supported Strawbery Banke Museum’s interpretations of reconstructed landscapes. Curatorial and archaeological research expanded the comparative study collections of ceramics, glass, and personal-adornment artifacts, and encouraged decorative- arts scholars and archaeologists to use the collections for their research, publication, and programming. Field schools, study groups, and rotating archaeological exhibits were created annually to communicate current research. Internships, summer camps, and school programs introduced the public to archaeology and the diverse history of members of the waterfront community. With the commitment of the curators and the museum director, the program was staffed with archaeologists, interns, and community volunteers. The program adapted to its current role as a 21st-century historic-sites museum as institutional goals changed
PubDate: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 11:03:59 PDT
- Death and Rebirth of Public Archaeology at Strawbery Banke,
1970–1985
Authors: Steven R. Pendery
Abstract: For nearly a half-century, Strawbery Banke’s archaeology program has contributed to and benefited from major trends in American urban archaeology. During the 1960s this outdoor museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was a focal point for radically different approaches to the study of urban landfill by Roland Robbins and Daniel Ingersoll, at a time when landfill was largely neglected. Strawbery Banke also explored the variable practices of contracted and academic archaeology and realized early on that neither approach produced an enduring legacy of public engagement. In 1975 the museum experimented with retaining a resident archaeologist and soon committed to construction of the Jones House Archaeology Center and the hosting of an ongoing public archaeology program. This article reviews the genesis and evolution of this program during the period 1970–1985.
PubDate: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 11:03:56 PDT
- Early Urban Archaeology at Strawbery Banke Museum
Authors: Daniel Ingersoll
Abstract: This article describes my personal experiences of doing archaeological field work and documentary research in 1968 and 1969 at Strawbery Banke, building on the 1966 work of Roland Robbins. Discussed are the sources of grant support, the field crew, the research team, how the excavations of the waterway were conducted, and how data types as diverse as, to name a few artifacts, architecture, deeds, maps, photographs, and floral, faunal, and soil samples were handled. The end results included archaeological collections for Strawbery Banke from Puddle Dock, a Ph.D. dissertation, and several meeting papers and articles.
PubDate: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 11:03:52 PDT
- Introduction
Authors: Alexandra G. Martin
Abstract: The articles in this issue were originally presented at the annual Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology meeting held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in November 2017. Professional archaeologists from each decade of Strawbery Banke’s institutional history reflected on their experiences. Since the 1960s, the museum has made archaeology an important part of efforts to interpret history, educate visitors, and engage the public. Strawbery Banke is considered “one of the best urban archaeological sites in America” (Starbuck 2006: 109), and the many professional archaeologists employed by the museum have contributed to Portsmouth’s recognition as “one of the richest resources for historical archaeology in northern New England” (Garvin 1974: 7). These articles reflect on the museum archaeologists’ challenges and successes, their contributions to both the academy and to the public, and discuss the future of the program.
PubDate: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 11:03:49 PDT
- Editor's Introduction V49
PubDate: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 11:03:46 PDT
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