The MSU library is currently showcasing a series of exhibits highlighting items related to the community outreach and field schools supervised by Dr. Elizabeth Sobel at the Berry, and Reeves sites in Ash Grove, Missouri as well as the McKinley site in Walnut Grove, Missouri. They are all connected to the history of African Americans in the Ozarks. The field schools were run with the cooperation of the relatives of the occupants of the sites. Fr. Moses Berry, Clarence Brewer and Princess Reeves, whose relationships to the project are explained in the exhibit’s posters, were each consulted during our research.
Initially, the project began last year when Andrea Gregory, Ashley Downs and I, with the help of Dr. Sobel, created a display using information and artifacts taken from the McKinley site for the Springfield History Museum’s Pioneer Exhibit. This information and an overview of historical archaeology for that exhibit have been transferred to the current exhibit along with the additional information and artifacts from the Berry and Reeves sites.
The exhibit includes eight posters: two are an introduction, and explanation of archaeology and the project goals; two were created for each of the three sites. The focus is the history of African Americans who lived at the sites, as well as how archaeology helped uncover that history. The display cases below the posters dedicated to each site contain artifacts, and printed cards explaining their history. You will also see a scattering of archaeological field tools such as a trowel, tape measure and field paper work.