June 2016 Data Coordinator Spotlight with Joe Bagley (City Archaeologist)

Digitizing Boston’s Archaeological Heritage

A 17th century pig skull excavated by archaeologists from the outhouse of puritan woman, Katherine Nanny Naylor, ahead of the Big Dig tunnel excavations (Image/Caption by City Archaeologist Joe Bagley)

This Data Coordinator Spotlight is the first in a monthly series featured in the Boston Open Data newsletter. Each month, we work to highlight the important work of one of the City of Boston’s Data Coordinators.

What is your name and official role for the City of Boston?

I’m Joe Bagley, the City’s Archaeologist since 2011, and I manage the City’s Archaeology Program & Lab. I also conduct archaeological surveys and assist NGOs and private entities address archaeological concerns within Boston.

If you had to choose one project to highlight, what would it be and why?

The 1859 Industrial School For Girls in Dorchester because it has one of the most interesting and complete assemblages of artifacts we’ve ever recovered from a unique and interesting archaeological site. That said, all of our data is unique. I hope the Open Data portal will allow me to transform collections, which are currently stored in boxes and on shelves at the West Roxbury Archives, into digital data that can be used by researchers around the world.

We will be producing spreadsheet databases of our collections as well as digital images of the artifacts we hold. We currently have 1 million artifacts from excavations that took place prior to 1990, a period of time when digital data was almost non-existent. By digitizing these holdings researchers, for the first time, will be able to view and use our data without having to travel to our laboratory.

When did you first hear about the Boston Open Data Program and what is your opinion of what we are trying to achieve for the city?

I first heard about the program this past Spring and I think the project is fantastic. It will provide developers and analysts with the raw data necessary to interpret the City’s direction.

A gunflint from a musket found by archaeologists at a Revolutionary War-era British encampment in the Boston Common (Image/caption by City Archaeologist Joe Bagley)

Here is some recent news about Joe and if you’d like to learn more about his work please check out his recently published book A History of Boston in 50 Artifacts.

Joe, we’d like to thank you for participating in the inaugural Data Coordinator spotlight. If you are a Data Coordinator and have an interesting story to tell, we’d like to know about it! Please send us your ideas at Boston Open Data.