Before our meeting with Mrs. Essie Gregory last week I was unsure of what to expect of what a United Order of Tents member would be like. I thought whoever we would be meeting would be much less open about their experience inside the organization. This was based on what I have learned about the organization, being a more secretive and exclusive…[Read more]

Each article from this week gives us an understanding of how graffiti can provide us with cultural information in certain areas when viewed through an archaeological lens. When reading this week I couldn’t help but to think about my encounters with graffiti growing up in my neighborhood or in school, on the train, etc. When thinking about graffiti…[Read more]

This weeks articles show us what can be discovered about a society based solely the garbage left behind. In Jessica Leigh Hester’s “Exploring a Hidden Archive of New York City’s Historic Trash” she explores the history of the garbage items found in in the city that are now artifacts. Items from a specific time period can show a lot about the ways…[Read more]

I visited the Stonewall Inn on Tuesday during the afternoon around 3 pm. It was pretty quiet around that time which was expected. The Stonewall Inn is definitely a place that I have learned about in history class and even passed by many times while walking around the village. Something that immediately struck me about the place was the old feel…[Read more]

“Sacred Dinners and Secular Teas: Constructing Domesticity in Mid- 19th- Century New York” by  Diana Di Zerega Wall explores some findings from Greenwich Village homes dating back to around the mid 1800s. It is very fascinating to learn about the process of discovering some of the history of the pieces like the ones discussed in the article. The…[Read more]

Thursday’s lecture given by Jaskiran Dhillon coincided well with one main theme that we have been discussing as a class over the past few weeks that being, displacement. Dhillon shared some of the work she had done as well as her experience involving the protests at the Standing Rock Reservation. After talking about her interactions and time spent…[Read more]

Both Kathryn Kuranda’s chapter in A Companion to Cultural Resource Management and Michael Allen’s “What Historic Preservation Can Learn From Ferguson” focus on the goals and intentions behind Cultural Resource Management and the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Kuranda presents us with the a more concrete and fact based understanding of…[Read more]

In Paul Mullins’ “Race and Prosaic Materiality: The Archaeology of Contemporary Urban Space and the Invisible Color Line” and Craig N. Cipolla’s “Native American Historical Archaeology and the Trope of Authenticity” both authors shed light on some issues in regard to race culture that have been overlooked throughout history and deserve more attent…[Read more]