This article was originally published in Maryland Today. Written by Laurie Robinson.
Deep inside a climate-controlled storage facility in Suitland, Md., hundreds of pieces of pottery, tools, beads and tobacco pipes once used by the Piscataway Conoy people sit tucked away in drawers and cabinets.
The artifacts were collected by researchers and institutions in the 19th and early 20th centuries and now reside in the Smithsonian’s Museum Support Center, joining nearly 150 million objects from around the world.
Most Piscataway community members have never had the chance to directly experience these parts of their heritage, but that will soon begin to change.
The collaboration between the University of Maryland, the Smithsonian and the Piscataway Conoy Tribe is working to reconnect some of those objects with the descendants of those who crafted and put them to use, as well as the broader public. Using advanced 3D scanning technology, the team is creating high-quality replicas of selected Piscataway artifacts, with the goal of distributing the reproductions to the community.
The project grew out of a partnership between Diana Marsh, associate professor in the College of Information, and Associate Professor Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner’s Indigenous Futures Lab. They connected Quint Gregory, director of the Michelle Smith Collaboratory for Visual Culture, with Mario Harley, a leader in the Piscataway Conoy Tribe.
Gregory’s primary method, photogrammetry, builds highly accurate 3D models from photographs taken at dozens of angles. From these models, replicas can be fabricated two ways: through additive 3D printing in wood or metal, or through CNC carving, where a cutting tool subtracts material from a block of native wood until it matches the scanned object exactly. The carved replicas are then hand-painted with natural pigments to match the original.
Eric Hollinger, a repatriation specialist and archaeologist at the Museum Support Center, has been a key Smithsonian partner throughout the effort. “We have seen an increased interest from tribes in 3D digitization and replication of objects for educational purposes,” he said.
[Project Embraces Tribal History With Modern Technology]
For Harley, the project’s purpose is clear: to help support creation of a cultural center where Piscataway community members can teach with objects that carry the same weight, appearance and tactile presence as the originals held by the Smithsonian. But before that vision could move forward, he needed to determine which objects mattered most.
Last summer, Harley and fellow Piscataway community member Zelda Proctor visited the Museum Support Center to walk through its storage bays and identify possible candidates. The visit quickly underscored a central truth of the project: Institutional knowledge and community knowledge are not the same.
When a curator pointed to a strand of beads, Harley immediately recognized what they revealed about historical trade relationships. When the team examined an ax, he noticed right away that only the blade was original; the handle had been replaced at some point.
Earlier this year, Gregory and a small team — including Marsh, Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) student Abby Hardy and Stefan Woehlke, an assistant clinical professor in UMD’s Historic Preservation Program — spent three days at the Museum Support Center scanning the selected objects. Christian Cloke, associate director of the Collaboratory, contributed significantly to the model-making work that followed.
For Hardy, a member of the Monacan Indian Nation in Virginia, the experience was more than academic. In the Smithsonian’s immense holdings, she encountered objects tied to her people. One scanned artifact that stood out to her was a pipe with intricate relief carving dating to the 17th or 18th century. “The amount of detail that went into it is outstanding,” she said.
Maria Vivar-Guzman, the other MLIS student involved in the project, described the significance of the work: “These aren’t just historical objects. These are living pieces of cultural heritage.”
Both students are clear-eyed about the project’s limits: Digitization is not a substitute for the original objects, nor for the ongoing work of repatriation. Hardy said, “It still shows how much more work needs to be done.”
The project has brought together what each partner hoped for: students gaining real skills through meaningful work, an institution working to act responsibly toward the communities represented in its collections, and a community leader with a concrete vision now closer to realized. “I want students to have great experiences,” Gregory said. “I want them to develop useful skills. And I want it to be meaningful work.”