Preserving history

Chucalissa welcomes volunteers to process site’s artifacts

Feature news story for The Memphis Daily News

Aug. 19, 2010

Each month volunteers get a chance to work alongside professional archaeologists by processing and cataloging artifacts at Chucalissa, the site of Native American burial mounds discovered in the 1930s as workers prepared T.O. Fuller State Park in South Memphis.

Volunteers help staff at the site’s C.H. Nash Museum bring Chucalissa artifacts into compliance with the updated collections management policies used for exhibits, an important component of this historic and cultural gem.

“Because we’re so short-staffed, we depend very much on our dedicated volunteers, so we like to give volunteers the ability to decide where they would best fit,” said Rachael South, administrative associate for the museum and graduate student at the University of Memphis, which operates the facility … (read more)