"Unwritten: Archaeology & Oral History of Jim Crow Mobile"
On Exhibit Now
"WPA Cemeteries in Florida"
Alabama Archaeological Society, Southwest Chapter Monthly Lecture
3:30 PM, Tues., Mar. 12
Free & open to the public!
Summary: In the 1930s under President Franklin D. Roosevelt the Work Progress Administration
took on a wide variety of projects to employ Americans through the Great Depression.
One of the later projects was an effort to locate the resting place for all American
Veterans, from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and World War I. This project relied
on a variety of veteran organizations and military branches to located cemeteries
in each state and then determine if there were any veterans buried in those cemeteries
and develop a list. Some states have used this list in various ways and many have
made it available publicly through a variety of means. However, Florida has not followed
suit and several years ago an unmarked cemetery was accidentally excavated and dumped
on the side of I-10 as roadway fill for construction. For the last two years Maranda,
along with co-workers, have been reviewing the WPA records for Florida in order to
map out the various cemetery locations. Many are still known cemeteries, however many
have been forgotten over time. This talk will review some of the methods used to locate
these cemeteries and review a few examples of directions that were recorded in the
1940s leading directly to a cemetery that was forgotten and later found. It is hoped
that this work will help the state protect more of these forgotten cemeteries from
unintentional destruction.
About: Maranda Kles, Ph.D. is a bioarchaeologist and forensic anthropologist. She
earned her PhD from the University of Florida and focused on an examination of the
biological relationship of past Native American peoples in relation to their material
culture. Dr. Kles taught at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for several years
and the University of Florida. She is currently the President of Archaeological Consultants,
Inc. a Florida-based Cultural Resource Management firm. While at ACI she has focused
on helping clients evaluate and protect cultural resources throughout Florida. This
work lead to her interest in locating unmarked or forgotten cemeteries
For more information, please contact the USA Archaeology Museum
Email: ArchaeologyMuseum@jinguangyuan.net
Phone: (251) 460-6106
The USA Archaeology Museum showcases artifacts from the Gulf Coast and covers over 12,000 years of prehistory and history. Artifacts are contextualized using a series of life-size scenic representations depicting archaeologists at work and glimpses into the ways of life of ancient Woodland cultures, mound-building Mississippian peoples, early French settlers, and an African American family after the Civil War. FREE ADMISSION!