Exhibit Opening Sunday, September 16: Digging up Stamford

OPENING, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2:00 PM

Digging up Stamford
An Archaeological History of Stamford, Connecticut

Festivities will commence with a talk given by Guest Curator Ernest Wiegand of Norwalk  Community College, who is the resident expert on the Native American periods of the region.  He will   present a discussion of many of the sites featured in the exhibit. The exhibit will remain open until 4:30 that afternoon.

The exhibit features material recovered from archaeological sites excavated within the bounds of Stamford, with both prehistoric and historic components.  The goal of the exhibit is to show how much can be learned of the past through items of material culture or artifacts (any item made or used by humans) in conjunction with the study of written materials where they are available.  In many cases no historic materials are available and the past must be reconstructed solely through archaeological evidence.

The hallway is dedicated to a presentation of the Native American materials recovered in   Stamford along the shore and from area rockshelters. The Society is indebted to Ernest Wiegand of Norwalk Community College for serving as Guest Curator and for making available to show much of this material.  He was the principle investigator at many of the sites mentioned. The Society is also fortunate to have arranged loans of material from the Stamford Museum and Nature Center for this part of the exhibit as well.

The Red Gallery covers the historic period and includes material excavated from the Society’s own Hoyt-Barnum House as well as from other sites around Stamford. Whenever possible, materials from the Society’s collections have been integrated into the exhibit so as to show what the pieces found in a dig would have looked like complete.