Anne Arundel County has issued an executive proclamation designating this April as Archaeology Month in the county! Join in the celebration by participating in the upcoming Archaeology Field Session at Whitehall Plantation. or another of our upcoming events.
April is Maryland Archaeology Month! In celebration, here are some upcoming events hosted by the Lost Towns Project and/or Anne Arundel County Cultural Resources Section. Learn more and find events throughout the state at marylandarcheologymonth.org. This page will be updated throughout April.
Hosted by Discoveries: The Library at the Mall
2250 Annapolis Mall Road
Annapolis, MD
2:00-3:00 pm
Come learn about fossils and artifacts from the experts! Make a fossil print, dig for “bones” and see real artifacts found in Maryland. Children under age 8 must be accompanied by an adult.
Virtual
6:00 pm
Join us for Archaeology Month with this free virtual presentation! Take a virtual journey along the Patuxent River with archaeologists from Howard, Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties. Learn about the various archaeological resources found throughout this watershed.
This is a FREE Virtual presentation for all ages. Please email [email protected] for the zoom link.
Anne Arundel County Archaeology Lab
839 Londontown Road
Edgewater, MD
6:00-7:00 pm
Are you a new or returning archaeology volunteer, or considering volunteering with us?
Join us for a preview of spring and summer field and lab opportunities, and learn or refresh the basics of fieldwork! This is a great time to meet other volunteers and prepare for the summer season.
Plus, we will have pizza! RSVP here.
Whitehall
1915 Whitehall Rd
Annapolis, MD
8:00 am – 3:00 pm each day.
Join us for excavations at historic Whitehall, a former plantation outside of Annapolis. We will be excavating an area that could yield new information about those who worked and lived on the plantation in the late 18th and 19th century and whose stories have yet to be told.
Volunteers must register here in advance and should be able to commit to an entire day (8:00-3:00). Volunteers new to fieldwork are strongly encouraged to attend the Volunteer Orientation on April 12th at 6:00 pm (see above) For more information, email Drew Webster at [email protected]
Bacon Ridge Natural Area
Farm Rd Entrance
Crownsville, MD
7:00 am – 3:00 pm
We will be leading an archaeology hike and showcasing our travelling archaeology exhibit at Scenic Rivers Land Trust’s “Walk for the Woods.” Walk for the Woods is a day of guided hikes, including bird watching, amphibian searches, history/archaeology, naturalist hikes, and educational programs. Attendees are also invited to explore the permanently protected Bacon Ridge Natural Area’s 1000+ acres of woodlands, wetlands, streams, and meadows on their own. It is always a beautiful, relaxing day in our local woods!
Experts in wildlife, native plants, birds, and more will be on-site and available to attendees. Plus, self-guided hike options will be offered, complete with trail maps and educational signage posted along the trails.
The event is scheduled for Saturday, April 30, 2022, at Bacon Ridge Natural Area in Crownsville (rain date is May 1). Access to the event will be via the Farm Road entry. Registration for guided hikes will open approximately three weeks before the event date. The hike schedule and registration link will be announced via email and social media and will be accessible via this page. This is FREE community and family event, but registration is required for guided hikes and spaces will be limited.
For a full listing of upcoming events, check out our event calendar:
This past weekend, March 24-27, Anne Arundel County Archaeological Sites Planner Stacy Poulos and consultant Drew Webster participated in the Middle Atlantic Archaeology Conference in Ocean City, MD.
Stacy was featured as a panelist on “The Sea is Rising and the Mountains are Sliding: A Discussion of Climate Change, Middle Atlantic Cultural Heritage, and Actions We Must Take.” The panel discussion brought together our colleagues who are engaged in site discovery, documentation, and mitigation with those who are creating programs to prioritize and preserve cultural heritage.
Drew presented a poster entitled, “55,555 Artifacts from the Swann Site, Calvert County, Maryland.” The poster summarizes the findings from the Swann Site, the largest site assemblage in the Ogle Collection. You can view the poster here.
Crownsville Hospital was founded in 1911 by the State of Maryland to house and care for African Americans with mental health problems. By mid-century, it became known for being understaffed and overcrowded.
Until 1948, all staff members at the hospital were white. By 1959, African Americans made up 45% of the hospital staff, and in 1963, the hospital was integrated.
Dorothea McCullers spent 38 years working for the hospital, beginning in 1964 as a seamstress and later as the supervisor of the clothing department. She still remembers all 21 pieces that stitched together to form uniforms for the hospital employees.
Hear what she has to say at Stop 16 on Anne Arundel County’s Civil Rights Era virtual tour.
SOURCES:
Oral history interview with Dorothea McCullers conducted on May 30, 2018, by Lyndra Marshall (née Pratt), oral historian, and filmed and edited by Anthony Smoot of Anthony A. Smoot Productions.
“Tragic Chapter of Crownsville State Hospital’s Legacy.” Capital Gazette. June 5, 2013.
For the summer of 2022, The Lost Towns Project and Anne Arundel County Cultural Resources Section are offering four internship positions: two paid positions and two positions for college credit. Applications are due April 1st, 2022. Please click on the links below for full internship descriptions and more information.
The intern will assist staff working on the MHT Non-Capital Grant Project “Slavery, resistance, and freedom: recording Anne Arundel County’s past”. The goal of this project is to create a more inclusive history by researching, documenting, and sharing the diversity of Black households in nineteenth-century Anne Arundel County, including sites inhabited by both enslaved and free African-Americans, before and after emancipation. The intern will be required to:
See the full listing for this internship here.
The intern will assist the Cultural Resources Section with updates to the Anne Arundel County Cemetery Database, data creation, completion of inventory forms, and with development of a summer public workshop for the County’s Preservation Stewardship Program. This project will enhance and verify existing documentation in the County’s cemetery database, as well as develop additional databases or resources for research analysis. The intern will be required to:
See the full listing for this internship here.
Interns will learn the basics of archaeological field and labwork by participating alongside professional archaeologists and volunteers in excavation, recording, and artifact processing in the field and lab. The intern will be required to: