August 23, 2015
Unearthing the past
Students uncovered many historical artifacts during this summer's Archaeological Field School.
New professor brings urban dig—and more—to Lake Forest College.
Rebecca Graff was a visiting professor at another institution when she learned Lake Forest College was looking for a full-time archaeologist to broaden its sociology and anthropology faculty. 
Having worked with some Lake Forest students in 2008 and with faculty as part of the College’s Virtual Burnham Initiative, a National Endowment for the Humanities grant connected to the 2009 Chicagoland celebration of the Plan of Chicago, Graff jumped at the call for applicants.
“To have a job at a place that was doing some interesting things, with good students and good faculty, and that was looking for someone like me—where I could do what I trained to do—was perfect,” Graff said.
The College agreed. Graff started as assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in the fall of 2014. Graff brought with her a lot of baggage. Good baggage. Almost 30 boxes of artifacts she and former students unearthed during her urban archaeological dig on Chicago’s Gold Coast at the famed Charnley-Persky House on Astor Street, now headquarters for the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH).
This summer, Lake Forest College students had the opportunity to dig for more artifacts behind the late 19th-century home designed by Louis Sullivan and his junior draftsman, Frank Lloyd Wright. The home, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, was the site of this summer’s SOAN 205 Archaeological Field School, one of the classes Graff designed.
Urban dig creates media buzz