Our March lecture has been cancelled. We hope to hold a lecture on this topic later this year. Thank you for understanding.
Topic: On the Centennial of his Passing: San Diego County Pioneer Nathan ‘Nate’ Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend.
Speaker: Dr. Seth Mallios
Nathan “Nate” Harrison (1833-1920), San Diego County's first permanent African-American, is a local legend whose popular biography brims with enticing exaggerations and far-fetched fabrications. Harrison's actual life story included enslavement in the Antebellum South, boom-and-bust cycles in the California Gold Rush, and lawless adventures in the Old West. It was a microcosm of the diverse cultural heritages and volatile histories of the 19th-century United States. This talk and book-signing will offer insights from ongoing archaeological excavations at Harrison's original mountain homestead. It includes discussions of Harrison's daily life, cottage industries, landscape use, crafted identities, and continuing legacies. Since the existing documentary records concerning Harrison are rife with contradiction, invention, and revision, these analyses endeavor to contextualize the mythmaking and identity politics of the last two centuries with scientifically determined spatial, temporal, and formal realities in the ground. Books will be sold at the event (Born a Slave, Died a Pioneer: Nathan Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend, $24.95).
Dr. Seth Mallios is Professor of Anthropology, University History Curator, and Director of the South Coastal Information Center at San Diego State University. An archaeologist, anthropologist, and historian, Professor Mallios received his BA from the University of California, Berkeley and his MA and PhD from the University of Virginia. Dr. Mallios previously served as Site Supervisor at the 1607 James Fort archaeological site in Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Since moving to San Diego in 2001, Professor Mallios has spearheaded six local research projects, the San Diego Gravestone Project, the Lost Murals of San Diego State Project, the Nathan “Nate” Harrison Historical Archaeology Project, the Whaley House Historical Archaeology Project, the San Diego Archaeological Geographic Information System, and the Historical Archaeology of Local Rock 'n' Roll. Dr. Mallios has published ten books, dozens of articles, and garnered nearly $2 million in over 90 extramural grants, contracts, and awards.