Nantucket, Massachusetts

Constructed in the 1820s as the African Baptist Society Meeting House, the property served as a church and community center for the New Guinea community until the final decade of the 19th-century. The care of the Nantucket African Meeting House collection was conveyed to the NEAAAL in 2018. The site was excavated by archaeologists from Boston University under the direction of the late Dr. Mary Beaudry and Ellen Berkland in 1993 and 1996. The excavations of the site documented several phases of architectural and landscape changes at the African Meeting House. Archaeologists also uncovered several educational items such as writing utensils that were associated with the use of the property as a school for Black and other non-White children.