Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Outreach follows Fieldwork

Once the fieldwork is done, drawing, photo editing, and writing ensue. Often furiously, to make a deadline (hopefully). Then I spend time distributing the products around the state and region, in hardcopy and electonically. Then, I find, after awhile, opportunities arise to share the new knowledge gained in a more personal way. Slowly, as people read my products, they learn and show appreciation. I get phone calls from descendents of Reuben Cuff, and Marshalltown folks or from ghost hunters wanting access to a (hopefully) haunted building. I get invited to speak, to share the findings "live." Or I propose a conference paper. It's important to get the findings out there, to share the knowledge learned.

This year alone, I will have given three paper presentations. The first was on Marshalltown at the VAF conference in May. The editors of VAF's journal, Buildings & Landscapes, want an article from me based upon this paper. The Marshalltown research began with a survey grant in 2009, followed by a grant to support the National Register listing in 2011, both from the NJ Historical Commission.


I had given a version of this at the 2012 NJ Historic Preservation Conference:



This month, I was honored to be the 11th John Rock Lecturer for the Salem County Historical Society in Salem. I talked on Reuben Cuff, whose house was the subject of  my first NJ Historical Commission grant in 2008. 


It was an expanded, updated version of a presentation I gave at the 2012 New Jersey Forum.


   
Next month I will again share the story of Marshalltown to the Council of Northeast Historical Archaeology at their annual conference in Long Branch, NJ.



That one will culminate in a chapter in a proposed book called Seated at the Same Table: Archaeologies of African American Life in the Upper Mid-Atlantic, edited by Michael J. Gall and Dr. Richard F. Veit, and published by the University of Alabama Press.

Slowly, the doors open.

My farmstead study of 2013-2014 will be the next outreach effort. In the meantime, I'll figure out my next fieldwork project...

Postscript: Speaking of fieldwork, I neglected to mention another presentation I gave in June. With my associate Maria Cerda-Moreno, I gave a workship on recording buildings at the New Jersey Historic Preservation Conference. We are hoping to do more of this!



Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Fieldwork Past Presented to the Public

On Sunday, October 19 I will be honored to be the 11th John Rock Lecturer. Please attend! 

This research was initiated in 2008 and funded by my first grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission.