The exhibit "Sacred Ground: Excavating Black History at Ithaca's Freedom Church" has won a preservation award from Historic Ithaca for its public contribution to scholarship in local archaeology and community history, according to Historic Ithaca.
"The objects recovered from St. James are for the most part quite small," says co-curator Adam T. Smith. "But they can tell big stories."
The exhibit, which opened June 19, highlights findings from a four-year archaeological excavation of Ithaca's St. James A.M.E. Zion Church conducted by Cornell faculty, students and Ithaca school children from 2021-2024. The exhibit will remain on display until Dec. 31 at The History Center in Tompkins County, 110 N. Tioga St. in Ithaca.
Exhibit organizers will be recognized at Historic Ithaca's annual awards ceremony at 5:30 p.m., Sept. 18, at Argos Warehouse.
"To my mind, the excavations at St. James and the Sacred Ground exhibit are a way of bringing home to the Ithaca community all the history that lies beneath our feet," said Adam T. Smith, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Anthropology in the College of Arts & Sciences and co-curator of the exhibit, along with Cindy Kjellander-Cantu of the History Center and Arnav Tandon, masters student in archaeology.
Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.
