Welcome to our excavation website!

The Wellesley College Hall Archaeology Project started in Fall 2017 with the goals of giving students the opportunity to try out excavation close to home, and to give the whole Wellesley community a space to think through their connections to the past and create their own narratives about our shared and multi-faceted history.

The WCHAP excavation closed permanently as of June 2024 - check back for information about future exhibitions and publications.

Fall 2022 Excavation was a big success!

We excavated in two locations in Tower Courtyard to learn more about daily life at Wellesley more than 100 years ago

We enjoyed speaking with everyone who came to ask us any questions while we were digging!

Public Outreach Projects:

• Community excavation volunteer sessions - Weekend and afternoon sessions offered students, staff, and other Wellesley community members the chance to try out excavation for themselves.

• The WCHAP Virtual Scavenger Hunt - Posters around campus started Nov. 7th and led students on a search for more information about the layers of past underneath us!

• The Community Time Capsule Project - was buried by the sundial on December 2nd, and included notes and mementos gathered by the Class of 2023, the Tower Court Historian, and other community members! We asked contributors to reflect on how Wellesley is rebuilding today, and set their thoughts directly on the foundations of College Hall. When will people dig it up? At a meter deep, maybe in 100 years someone will be motivated to reach it!

• Mini Dig Kit - tabling at the Lulu Student Center throughout November, students tried out excavation on their own! What story do the objects you find tell you about the people who lost them? Watch in Spring 2023 for more opportunities to try out excavation in mini form, and contact us if you have K-12 students who would like a visit from our team!

Hands Across College Hall and Leaf Art Installation

College Hall Hop scrapbooking Mini Dig Kit tabling event at Lulu

• Hands Across Wellesley / Leaf Art Installation - we met up for a creative visualization of how large College Hall was on November 7th, despite the strong winds, students laid out flame colored Fall leaves along the outline of the original building. We held hands along the length of the courtyard to feel how the building remains below us even today.

• We Didn't Start the Fire - Friday Nov. 11th - students held a 1914 themed dance party and archaeology celebration! Sponsored in collaboration with the Student Organization Funding Committee Recreation Grant, students experienced how dance cards were a major social event a hundred years ago - along with scrapbooking, embroidery, and lots of snacks!

• Course Browser from 1914 - What classes would you want to take more than a hundred years ago? Are you surprised about the variety of course offerings from that time? How do they compare and differ from today?

• Roxy the Archaeologist! - Kids love the idea of being an Archaeologist! Follow along with Roxy as she helps her mother run an excavation field school, searching for the super important shovel to get work done.

Time Capsule burial before back filling the excavation unit, shoveling featured on the 2022-23 Wellesley video Holiday card!

Time Capsule Call for Contributions!

The class of 2023 have had a unique 4 years. What do you want future

students to know about what the pandemic was like for the 2023

seniors? Come and memorialize your time at Wellesley by archiving your

memories and experiences, good or bad. Submission examples include

internship cancellation letters, anonymous scans of journal

entries/notes app from March 2020 onwards, official College

communication emails, party/org spam, etc.

We welcome your insights, thoughts, perspectives, questions, and input on this research endeavor. Every page has questions built into the narrative - your answers will come back to us and become part of the future of the project.

We want to hear from you - do you see an important topic or aspect that is not represented here? Please let us know, this is a constantly evolving and growing project and we want to include your input!