LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The work isn’t finished for an archeological dig that unearthed hundreds of artifacts at the site of a former segregated school on the Kentucky School for the Blind’s (KSB) campus in Louisville.
What You Need To Know
- KSB & UofL students conducted an archeological dig at the site of a former segregated school on the KSB campus
- The former school was built in the 1880s and closed in the 1950s
- Students worked together to process and clean the items found during the dig
- KSB summer students also visited UofL’s Center of Archeology and Cultural Heritage
The tools needed for this project were as simple as they come, including toothbrushes, tap water, and drying racks. It’s a simple method that will help researchers piece together a giant puzzle.
“As far as Louisville history, it’s a huge part of it,” Shaylee Scott said. Scott is a Master’s student at UofL’s Center for Archeology and Cultural Heritage.
Scott was guiding a team of young anthropologists, eager to unlock the history of the Kentucky School for the Blind.
“It was a shame that it was just torn down and, you know, wasn’t preserved well.”
Scott was speaking of a former school that stood on the campus of the Kentucky School for the Blind. It was a segregated school built in the 1880s for African American students. It was closed down in the 1950s and ultimately torn down.
In May, both UofL and KSB students carried out an archeological dig at the site of a former school. The pieces unearthed were cataloged and stored until Tuesday, when KSB summer students returned to clean and further process them.
That’s where summer student Cameron Jones comes in. His favorite piece of the day was a chuck of brick.
“The brick piece to the building, it gives you an idea of what the old building looked like,” Jones said.
He worked on one piece at a time, scrubbing each thoroughly with a toothbrush and water. His friend Peyton Peskoe was seated beside him.
“It’s really cool to see how far we’ve come,” Peskoe said of the modern school campus.
Once cleared of debris, the fragments were easier to identify and date.
“You can learn a lot from that area just by looking at how buildings were built, floors, and objects they used, and I think it’s a good chance for people to find what they are truly passionate about,” fellow summer student Xavier Morgan explained.
The former school was a single building, far removed from the sophisticated classrooms of today, yet its unceremonious demolition has created quite the complex puzzle—one of the toughest these young students have ever attempted to solve.