14th Annual Art and Architecture Study Series
This lecture on January 8, 2025 is the third program in the Art & Architecture Series.

Registration Fee:

• Single lecture: $125 per person

Program and Lecture Information:

Wednesday, January 8, 2025 at 10:00 am
Archaeobotanical Studies in Above-Ground Spaces: The Nathaniel Russell Kitchen House and the Important Story It Reveals

Location: HCF Headquarters, 40 East Bay Street, Community Room
Please note, the elevator is currently out of order at this location and the Community Room is only accessible via stairs.

The Kitchen House at the Nathaniel Russell House Museum is a rare intact survivor in a city where almost all the spaces inhabited by enslaved people have been lost, altered, or fully renovated. Recent discoveries have revealed the survival of a tremendous amount of evidence about the lives of enslaved people who lived in the kitchen house, especially artifacts that reveal strong African foodways and traditions. Perhaps it was this level of cultural agency that assisted the survival of distinctive Gullah Geechee culture and the development of Lowcountry cuisine that we continue to enjoy today.

This third installment of the 2024-2025 Art & Architecture series will explore Dr. Chantel White’s archaeobotanical research and discoveries, and how enslaved people preserved their own African culinary traditions at the Nathaniel Russell House.

Dr. Chantel White is an archaeologist specializing in the study of preserved plant material. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania and the CAAM Teaching Specialist for Archaeobotany at the Penn Museum. Her research focuses on the analysis and interpretation of food remains from archaeological sites, and she has carried out fieldwork in Jordan, Greece, Italy, and Ethiopia, as well as in Charleston.