Photo of Claire Ross with ceramics from Sylvester Manor Another member of NEAAAL has successfully defended their master’s thesis work. Join us in congratulating Claire Ross on her excellent defense and thesis on the dairying labor of black women at Sylvester Manor! Watercolor painting of the dairy in the North Lawn of Sylvester Manor Claire defended her thesis, “Gendered Labor and Dairying at a Northern Plantation”, on May 14. As mentioned, her thesis looks at the dairying la

Left image is of Kristen Delatour and right image is of Samantha "Sam" Side Join us in congratulating two of our NEAAAL members and grad students Kristen Delatour and Sam Side! Both Kristen and Sam recently gave their master’s theses defense on Sylvester Manor earlier this month and will be graduating this May. Image of Sylvester Manor Sylvester Manor is a northern provisioning plantation located in Long Island, New York. It was established in 1652 and until 1693 sent foodstu

When handling artifacts, it is important to know what they are, where they were found, and where they will be located prior to their future interpretation for research. Due to this, after being washed, all artifacts undergo inventory and/or cataloging. Within this, artifacts are sorted based on material type, object type or what the artifact is, and sometimes into further categories such as decoration type, vessel type, and completeness of the artifact. Once sorted, artifacts

On October 30, 2025, the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at UMass Boston welcomed our partners Alice Clark and Donnamarie Barnes from the Sylvester Manor Educational Farm , along with Drs. Cleve Scott and Henderson Carter and several students from the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus , for a day of collaboration, exchange, and celebration. The visit marked an important step in strengthening our ongoing partnership dedicated to advancing resear

Though 2025 field season at Sylvester Manor ended in the summer, our work at the New England African American Archeology Lab is far from over. First-year graduate students Alex and Micaela are currently busy in the lab, washing and processing the materials excavated this summer—part of the essential (if less glamorous) post-field phase of archaeological research. The artifacts they're handling were recovered from the North Lawn area of Sylvester Manor, an area with an intr

During the 2025 summer field excavations at Sylvester Manor, soil samples were taken from the site of the 19 th century dairy. While excavating units placed inside the dairy, the oldest layers of soil were found to have well preserved organic materials such as fish scales and fish bones in them. Soil samples were taken for flotation , an archaeological method used to recover small botanical and animal remains. While this process can be done by hand, in NEAAAL, we used the f

This summer’s field season at Sylvester Manor continued our multi-year effort to understand how people shaped, lived, and labored across this historic landscape. While much of our previous work has focused on the Manor house and its surrounding areas, this season placed special emphasis on locating the homesite of David Hempstead Sr., a free Black man who served as the farm manager at Sylvester Manor. Another goal of this season’s work was to study the Afro-Indigenous Burial

From the 17th to 21st century, the Afro-Indigenous Burial Ground at Sylvester Manor has been a sacred space for the people of color...

Pierced thimble from the Sylvester Manor collection A pierced thimble, an etched ferrule, and rolled copper cones are present in the...