Bella Birch
Writing 101: Archaeology of Durham
Instructor: Andrew Tharler
Biography
Growing up, I loved history class, but I noticed that local history was often overlooked. I grew up in Los Angeles, a city full of transplants, and it seemed like most people I spoke to had very little knowledge of the city they lived in. I became intrigued with local history for this exact reason- I wanted to understand how the physical environment and cultural landscape I interacted with every day came to be. I became obsessed with the buried parts of history: the Battle of Chavez Ravine, the Rape of the Owens Valley, the Watts Riots. I savored the challenge of digging up the past in a city that constantly reinvents itself. When I started at Duke, I had the privilege of beginning this process all over again. The majority of Duke students are not even from North Carolina, let alone Durham, and there seems to be a general lack of knowledge about the history of the city and the university. Eager to discover Durham’s past, I signed up for Archaeology of Durham for my writing 101 course. I have always been interested in archaeology because I find it fascinating how simple material objects can give us a glimpse of what life was like long ago. The course made me look at Duke and Durham in a completely different way: I better understand the origins of many of the physical and cultural structures that we take for granted in this city. When Professor Tharler told us we would be doing research on cemeteries in Durham, I was especially excited. I am not spooked by graveyards or lonely in them; on the contrary, I find them to be peaceful and reflective places where I can feel the presence of the departed around me. I felt like I finally had my chance to get to know the people of Durham, even the ones who were never written about in history books. I know they lived, loved, and made memories. I hope they can feel me remembering them. “The cemetery is an open space among the ruins, covered in winter with violets and daisies. It might make one in love with death, to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place.” - Percy Bysshe Shelley
I would like to acknowledge my incredible professor, Andrew Tharler, for inspiring my classmates and I to dive deeper into Durham’s history and for incorporating this unique research project into our course curriculum. Additionally, I would like to
thank Dr. Sheryl Welte Emch and the entire Deliberations editorial board for providing insightful revisions for this paper. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents for always encouraging my love of history.