Grant awarded to Mashantucket Pequot Libraries and Archives

Thanks to a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center (MPMRC) will begin to reorganize, make more searchable, and provide better documentation for thousands of digital images of the Pequot community and about one hundred hours of audio-visual oral histories and interviews. This project will be the first step in the process of improving the management of our audio-visual and digital collections.

Although not all of our resources are accessible to the public, this project will lead the way to providing better access to all of our holdings in Archives & Special Collections – for all researchers.

CAN YOU DIG IT?

A Paleoindian site, dating back 10,000 years, at Ohomowauke Swamp currently under excavation.   

They can – and do.

Archaeologists dig down into the earth to discover the many layers of history upon which we walk and build. Digging into the Museum Archives reveals how archaeology continues to inform our understanding about how Native people lived and provides context for the Museum’s exhibits and the ongoing story of the Mashantucket Pequot Community.

Kevin McBride, an archaeologist and the Director of Research at the Museum, has been conducting research and excavations on the reservation and elsewhere in New England since the 1980’s.

Information from the site below was used to create the 18th century farmstead exhibit in the Museum.

1996 excavation of a Pequot homestead on the reservation

         

Program from a 1999 Conference

American Society for Ethnohistory

Meet the Editor

Meet the Editor: Dawn Dove (Narragansett)

 Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012, 1-2 pm

We have a new program in our popular series featuring local Native writers. This session is a little different –we get to meet an editor! Dawn Dove, Narragansett elder, is coming to the library to talk about Through Our Eyes, An Indigenous View of Mashapaug Pond, a book she co-edited with Holly Ewald, founder of Urban Pond Procession. This beautiful book is the product of a year-long project to help people imagine what life would have been like for indigenous people living by Mashapaug Pond, in Providence, RI, before European contact. Narragansett community members ages 6 to 92 created collages about Mashapaug using photography, stamping, natural items, and hand-printed papers. The stories and poems illuminate their history, culture, and artistic expression. As an added bonus, Loren Spears (Narragansett), Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum director and educator, speaks about the significance of connecting art and culture to science and environmental curriculum. Please call the Research Library at (860) 396-6897 for more information.