Last March, work began on re-fitting two labs on the first floor of McCormack Hall to create headquarters for the Center for Cultural and Environmental History. In one lab, glazed pottery, beautiful blue and white porcelain china, and old glass bottles, cups and goblets now line high, glass-doored cabinets. Upon inspection, all of the items are chipped or broken, and some of them have missing pieces. All these objects have been unearthed at urban, archaeological sites, and are examples of the kinds of ceramics and glass that would be found in an American colonial city.
In the other room, an artifact from the Big Dig collection&emdash;the bowl of a spoon, hard to identify right away because of its corroded condition&emdash;sits on a counter, where Archaeological Conservator Dennis Piechota has been examining its condition. The lab is fitted with several new pieces of equipment&emdash;a freeze-dryer, used to vaccum and freeze waterlogged wood, ovens to treat glass objects being repaired, and an electrolysis machine for removing corrosion from metal objects.
"When objects come out of the field," explains Anthropology Prof. Steven Mrozowski, director of the Center, "they begin disintegrating, because they come in contact with oxygen. So first, we need to remove the oxygen and then treat them with chemicals to preserve them." This kind of preservation work is done at the Center. But conservation is only one aspect of its work.
The Center was established in 1996 in order to promote research that explores the relationship between human culture and the environment. It is developing initiatives in three main areas. The first is promoting the cultural heritage of the Commonwealth by serving as curator and conservator of major archaeological collections, including the 250,000 artifacts uncovered during Boston's "Big Dig" project. These items, which reside at the Massachusetts Archives Building, are presently being catalogued.
The second objective is research in environmental archaeology. A number of projects have already been developed, including a dig at the "Old Manse" in Concord, a site connected with Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Transcendentalist Movement, which was sponsored by Massachusetts' Trustees of Reservation. The Center is also involved with a botanical analysis for the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Connecticut, as part of a Pequot Tribal ethnohistory project. An archaeological dig on Shelter Island in New York has been uncovering information about a colonial site there, in collaboration with the Museum of Colonial Williamsburg and the College of William and Mary in Virginia.
As an added plus, each of these projects supports a number of graduate students with stipends, as well as providing many more with opportunities for field and lab studies.
"Tonight, I'll come in here with my class, and we'll talk about material culture. So the Center is not only for research, but also for teaching. For students, nothing beats the "hands-on" opportunities they'll get here," says Mrozowski.
Finally, the Center promotes interdiscipinary collaboration in studying cultural and environmental history, so that its research can play a role in debates concerning environmental issues. "All environmental issues have a strong cultural side, which is seldom addressed&emdash;and that's an ultimate goal of the Center," says Mrozowski.