Tennessee Archaeology Awareness Month

Poster details information related to Tennessee Archaeology Awareness Month in September 2018, which promoted Tennessee’s Rosenwald School Survey. Schools and counties featured on the poster include: Vincent Grove (Weakley County), Pasquo School (Davidson County), and Dandridge School (Jefferson County). From poster: "The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Rosenwald Initiative spurred interest in research of surviving Rosenwald Schools across the south. The Tennessee Division of Archaeology, in conjunction with the Tennessee Historical Commission, began an archaeological survey of Tennessee’s Rosenwald sites in 2012, the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Rosenwald building program. The goal of the survey was to locate and assess each site for its archaeological integrity, regardless of whether or not there was a standing building. Researchers located the sites of all but 14 of the 373 Rosenwald schools, shops, and teacher homes constructed in Tennessee. While many of the buildings were gone or in ruins, more standing structures were found than anticipated. They include 62 standing schools, one shop, and one teacher’s home equaling about 17% of the total buildings constructed in Tennessee. The National Trust estimates that 10% to 12% of 3,537 schools, shops, and homes built between 1917 and 1932 are still standing. A report on this survey is forthcoming and will be available in 2019 through the TDOA website." Funding was provided in part by a 2017 Historic Preservation Fund grant to the Middle Tennessee State University, Department of Sociology and Anthropology (project TN-17-021) and administered by the Tennessee Historical Commission (grant number P17AF00055) and the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Tennessee Archaeology Awareness Month

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