Praxis Course: Praxis Independant Study
Semester: Spring 2026
Faculty Advisor/Professor: Rocco Palermo
Community Partner: Colonial Pennsylvania Farmstead
Praxis Site Supervisor: Sarah Lerch
Praxis Poster:
PIS Macey _Ellis_Praxis Poster 2026- Macey Ellis_compressed
Further Context:
My praxis this semester was at Colonial Pennsylvania Farmstead, a Revolutionary era living history site in Ridely Creek State Park. I stumbled upon this site last fall when I was visiting a bunch of historic sites in the state for fun. I attended their Harvest Home event which had many different interpretive activities, my favorites being textile dyeing and cider making. I love living history and historical interpretation and reached out to the director to see if there were any openings which I how I became their intern! The site was actively lived in from 1690s until the late 1950s or 60s when it then became a historic site. What is unique about the site, is in the 1970s a series of archeological excavations were undertaken around the house and the farm. The site was rebuilt using colonial techniques and with the architecture being based on the arkeological evidence found during excavations.
The materials that were excavated in the 1970s were numerous and has never been formally studied or organized and digitized. My goal for this internship was threefold:
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- Assessing the expanse collection to aid in acquiring funding and creating a basic catalog.
- Organizing the artifacts based on material, photographing the artifacts, and creating a database.
- Help to create summer archeology programming for children, using the archeological material found at the site in addition to supplemental materials suitable for kids.
All goals were accomplished in one way or another. It has been estimated by me and others that the collection could contain upwards of 10,000 artifacts, which is not including all the archival written materials and maps from the excavations. One of my goals was to help the site by examining and cataloguing what is in the collection and I very quickly realized that my expectations of finishing everything in one semester was not possible.
What I was able to accomplish was to begin digitizing archival materials like excavation diaries and inventory logs from the first trench CPA. I was also able to create a collections database for the archeological materials that were excavated using FileMakerPro, however, I was only able to get through the buttons, of which there are 523 entered into the database currently. While working my way through CPA, I noticed that a good chunk of the collection was missing from our storage. So, a new goal of my internship was to reach out to other institutions around the greater Philadelphia area to see if they had parts of our collection (they did not, but they did supply helpful next steps).
Another facet of my internship was to help add archeology to education program which I was able to see in action at the site’s Easter event where I ran a table with teaching materials I created and a hands-on activity for the kids.
Overall, I have learned so much from this internship! I was the expert coming in, and helping create a database which not only allowed me to advance my data entry skills but also allowed me to lead in a professional setting. I also chose to do this internship for selfish reasons as I absolutely LOVE living history sites and working with the wonderful staff and working on site with guests has solidified my love and filled my cup! I also learned that plans change and goals can change with them, at the end of the day a database filled with 523 buttons is a lot and a good foundation for future projects. (PS. Go visit a historic site!)