Wednesday, October 19, 2022, 4-6 PM

Performing Arts & Humanities Building : 216

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Ruffians, Rowdies, & the Sainted Dead

Identifying Remains at the First Baptist Church Cemetery

Dr. Nicholas Bonneau

Department of History & the Human Context of Science and Technology Program, UMBC

Are the living responsible for the care of the dead, and how far may this responsibility extend? These questions lay at the heart of archaeological and historical research conducted by the Arch Street Project. Our team of volunteer archaeologists, historians, and students have rescued the remains of approximately 500 individuals since construction crews uncovered the burial ground of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia in 2016. As principal historian for the project, I have spent the last five years conducting and leading research revealing much about this site and the individuals interred within in the hope of identifying these remains and reconnecting deceased individuals with their descendants and descendant communities. As of late, we have combined my archival and data-based historical investigations with modern technologies of skeletal, DNA, and isotopic analysis to great success. But where do we go from here? The law and our professional codes of ethics provide little clear direction. Join me as I present a history of this community of the dead and our efforts to honor their memory and their desired peaceful rest.

Nicholas E. Bonneau is a historian of science, religion, and the environment, with a particular interest in the demographic and cultural legacies of epidemics. He earned his Ph.D. in History at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Bonneau is also the creator of the Death Records of the Early America Database (the DREAD), linking hundreds of thousands of vital records from across Europe, Africa, and the Americas. He has received fellowships from a wide range of institutions, including the National Science Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania, the American Antiquarian Society, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and the Congregational Library and Archives. He was the 2016-17 Carpenter Fellow in Early American Religious Studies at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies and remains a Research Associate at the University of Pennsylvania and consulting scholar at the Mutter Research Institute of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

Sponsored by the Human Context of Science and Technology Program