Site Seeing: Historical Archaeology in Oregon opened at the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History on January 18, 2013, end date TBD.
This exhibit featured work of UO archaeologists and related projects around the state of Oregon, spotlighting five sites around the state.
I participated in conceptual design and research, selected artifacts in consultation with archaeological staff, wrote most exhibition copy, developed and designed an interactive station and procured touchable objects.
While curating objects for display, I identified a bag of metal bits as corset boning tips rather than safety pin parts as labeled (boning tips are symmetrical!). We featured this story of misidentification and discovery as an example of the breadth of knowledge and experience needed to identify and interpret archaeological objects. This set the scene for a "Mystery Object" section where visitors were invited to speculate on an object that had UO archaeologists genuinely stumped.
