Please join us for our next meeting!
June 3, 2026, 7pm, Bridgewater, Virginia
Speakers: Dr. Alison Bell and Kevin Rice
Everything We Thought We Knew: How Artifact Analysis and Allied Research are Challenging Received Wisdom about Life in a Nineteenth-Century Iron-Making Community
In this presentation we share our ongoing research on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artifact collections that W&L field schools excavated (ca. 1991-2004) at domestic and industrial sites in the Longdale Iron-Making area of Alleghany County, George Washington and Jefferson National Forest. Rich and varied sources including oral histories and archival research complement archaeological analysis in creating a picture of life in Longdale that differs in many ways from “received wisdom” about turn-of-the-twentieth-century mining communities. There’s clear evidence, for example that – unlike many well-known (indeed infamous) mining companies in West Virginia and beyond – Longdale workers were paid in cash rather than scrip, and that they and their families had appreciable consumer choice and physical mobility. We’re beginning to see Longdale as an example of a company town where industry could succeed without keeping laborers under its heel.
Alison Bell is Professor of Anthropology at Washington and Lee University. She teaches courses such as Collective Memory, the Anthropology of Death, the Anthropology of American History, and Introduction to Anthropology. She specializes in historical archaeology and has enjoyed work with materials from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries.
Keven Rice is an Alleghany County native and retired business and finance professional with a life-long passion for history and archaeology. His core focus is on the iron industry of the Alleghany Highlands region and, in particular, the Longdale Iron Company complex for which he possesses extensive “boots on the ground” knowledge of the mining, manufacturing, and residential sites contained therein.
MEETINGS: Our chapter meetings are normally held the first Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. in Arey Hall, at the Bridgewater Municipal Building, which is located at 201 Green Street, Bridgewater. View map here.
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We encourage everyone to consider joining the Archeological Society of Virginia.
The purposes of the ASV are:
- To promote the study of archeology and anthropology, especially but not limited to the prehistoric and historic periods in Virginia
- To work for the proper conservation and exploration of archeological sites and materials
- To encourage the scientific study of archeological sites and materials and to discourage careless, misdirected, or commercial collecting of artifacts
- To promote the spread of archeological knowledge through the media of publications, meetings, lectures, exhibits, etc.
- To collaborate with other organizations and agencies that serve the same purposes as those of this society
- To serve as a bond between individual members and as a link with similar organizations in other states