Presentation at Roland Park Place/Call for Volunteers

Earlier today Dave and I gave a presentation for the Lunch & Learn speakers’ series at Roland Park Place. We had a large crowd, and they seemed to enjoy our presentation quite a bit. Dave began by giving a Powerpoint presentation recapping the history of Hampden and discussing the results of our excavations last summer. He then passed the baton on to me, and I discussed at length the research I did last fall into representations of Hampden’s heritage, and specifically what those representations can tell us about class consciousness in Hampden during the 20th century (the specifics of which are detailed in my blog posts from last October through early this year).

We then fielded questions for about 20 minutes. We had a number of really interesting questions and comments on various topics, including class consciousness, the history of the mills, social institutions in Hampden, and Hampden’s reputation as a racist enclave. After the presentation was over, we continued to discuss our project with a number of people informally. We had a great time, and found our conversations with people to be most enlightening.

We were pleasantly surprised to have several attendees volunteer their services to help us clean artifacts and perform other lab activities this summer. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to put out a general call for volunteers, both in the field and in the lab. Come one, come all! Archaeologists are not usually known for turning down free labor, and we would really appreciate any help you can give. If you would like more details on how to volunteer (and what you can do to help), contact us at hampdenarchy@yahoo.com or rchidest@umich.edu.