Lecture Series: The Heyward-Washington House Revealed Through Archaeology

Event Details

The Charleston Museum is proud to announce its 2017 Fall Lecture Series, The Historian's Craft, featuring Museum staff members who are also published authors. Each lecturer will choose aspects to discuss from one of their books such as their inspirations for writing about their chosen topic, the research that went into the process, special discoveries they made as they were working on these projects, and other insight into the writing of history.

Excavations at the Museum's Heyward-Washington house by Dr. Elaine Herold in the 1970s and by Museum archaeologists in 1991 and 2002 produced an artifact assemblage unparalleled in size and diversity. The remarkable materials span nearly three centuries, and provide details on the many people that lived and worked on the property before, during, and after Thomas Heyward's ownership of the house and grounds. Artifacts from the Heyward-Washington property fill the Museum's Lowcountry History Hall, but many more remain in storage. Curator of Historical Archaeology Martha Zierden will share the wide range of materials, from Chinese porcelain tea wares to pottery made by Native Americans from coastal groups and the interior Southeast to those that reflect the lives and activities of enslaved Africans who lived and worked in the kitchen and laundry building behind the big house. Artifacts and archaeology from the Heyward-Washington House figure prominently in her new book Charleston: An Archaeology of Life in a Coastal Community, published in 2016 by University Press of Florida. Come learn how Zierden's work at the Heyward-Washington House and other sites in the city spanning over three decades contributed to this important new study.

The 2017 Fall Lecture Series will be presented in the Museum's Arthur M. Wilcox Auditorium at 6:00 pm and is free and open to the public. Each lecture will be followed by a brief Q&A segment. Attendees are welcome to bring their books to be signed by the author. If you'd like to purchase your own copy, you may do so online or in-person before or after each lecture at the Museum.