SAH to Collaborate with Lake Forest College on Archaeological Dig

In summer 2015, SAH will collaborate with Lake Forest College on an urban archaeological dig at our headquarters, Charnley-Persky House in Chicago. The dig, which has been underwritten by a four-year grant of $800,000 to the Lake Forest College Center for Chicago Programs from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is designed to involve the College’s students and faculty in three urban archaeological digs in a variety of Chicago neighborhoods. Lake Forest College faculty and students will use newly unearthed artifacts to make connections to 19th-century Chicago history, literature, music, art, and social and political events. In addition, the project will use digital humanities tools to document, preserve, and disseminate the resulting research and educational materials for use by both the Lake Forest College community and the public at large. Read more about SAH’s collaboration with the Lake Forest College Center for Chicago Programs here. 

As part of the collaboration, SAH will invite local high school and community college students who are interested in architecture and history to join in the lectures and field trips associated with the dig. In addition, Lake Forest College will invite the students to participate in part of the dig and to visit the labs at the College where the artifacts will be processed. These activities will be a key part of the American Architecture and Landscapes Field Trip program that SAH has recently announced. 

This will be the second dig that Anthropologist Dr. Rebecca Graff and her students will conduct at the house. The first was in 2010, when Graff directed 20 students from DePaul University in a summer field school. Objects unearthed during the 2010 dig included a wide array of household and personal items that would have been used by the well-heeled residents of this Gold Coast neighborhood. View a slideshow of objects unearthed in 2010 here.