Alison Bell

Analysis of Artifacts from Nineteenth-Century Iron Miners' Communities in Western Virginia:  Social, Economic, and Cultural Dimensions

Alison Bell will lead W&L students in cataloging and analyzing artifacts recovered from excavations at 14 sites at Longdale, Virginia, a small rural mining town.  This research will ultimately identify cultural and temporal patterns among these sites, as well as yield greater understanding of the ways African, German, Irish, and Italian immigrants working in the Longdale mines used objects to express social identities.