Local collections can be a big source of information. Many of these collections reside in Museums, Historical Societies, and in the hands of private collectors and finders. Here we detail some of the local collections and finds that have helped add to our understanding of the past use of the landscape that we now call Chicago. We use this information to help us predict where additional sites that merit attention or preservation may be located.
Darwin DeCamp Collection
Darwin DeCamp- 50 years of avocational archaeology
Mr. DeCamp recently donated several boxes of precontact material to ISAS. The donated material represents a small portion of the vast amount of material Mr. DeCamp collected from the late 1950’s through at least the 1980’s, mainly from northeastern Illinois. In addition to lithics and pottery, ISAS received copies of field maps, notes and artifact drawings. His detailed notes and maps make this collection a valuable archival resource as many of his site locations are now destroyed by modern development. Artifact locations represent both unreported and known sites, potentially adding significant information to the archaeological record. ISAS staff is currently engaged in inventorying and mapping site locations for the donated material. Through the First Peoples Project, we are currently utilizing Mr. DeCamps information on Early Archaic and Paleo projectile points to help refine the high probability model to predict landscapes favored by early people in northeastern Illinois. ISAS received material from 44 areas collected by Mr. DeCamp, with some areas representing multiple site locations. Of the 44 areas, 14 have Early Archaic components, 4 have Early Archaic and Paleo artifacts and one has Paleo but no Early Archaic. The information gleaned from Mr. DeCamps collections will ultimately be added to both the existing sites already documented on the Illinois Inventory of Archaeological Site files, many of which contain little information, as well as adding in many new sites resulting in a major contribution to our knowledge of Chicago area archaeology.
