Digging up the dirt from things people leave behind, patient archeologists re-create and share stories from long ago. Archeology is the study of artifacts, or objects and parts of objects, plus context, or the places in which they are found.
In the 1980s, the Port Huron Museum, the City of Port Huron, Oakland University, and St. Clair Community College worked together to excavate the site of Thomas Edison’s boyhood home. Archeologists filled 1,500 notebook pages with field notes, shot more than 1,700 photographs, and collected and catalogued more than 128,000 artifacts.
Case one (starting from the upper left
clockwise)
Charred floorboard, lock, key, fireplace brick, and a hinge.
Case two (starting from the upper left
clockwise)
Buttons, eyeglass lens, buckle, marbles, scissors, clay pipes, and harmonica
part
Case three
Chamber pot
The Search for the House in the Grove is the complete story of the Edison archeology project and is available from the Port Huron Museum Shop.