SUMMER CAMP: Investigating a Shotgun House

Join the City of Florence Department of Arts and Museums and Project Archaeology for two consecutive weeks (June 1-5 and June 8-12, 2026) of a Junior Archaeology Camp at Pope’s Tavern Museum in Florence, Alabama. Participants (age 13-18) are invited to think like an archaeologist with hands-on learning as they investigate a shotgun house.   Junior Archaeologists will also apply their skills and knowledge while excavating at Pope’s Tavern. Pope’s Tavern, a two-room brick house built in the 1830s, served as a boarding house in the 1850s and may have been used as a field hospital for Union and Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. Pope’s Tavern later became a private residence until becoming a museum in 1968.  

On camp days from 9 -11:30 AM,   Junior Archaeologists will:

• Use authentic data form a real archaeological site to investigate a shelter like an archaeologist
• Explore and understand concepts relating to reading, history, mathematics, social science, and more
• Have hands-on excavation experience at an archaeological site with guidance from professional archaeologists
• Experience a cultural presentation by a descendant community member

Applications are available at Pope’s Tavern Museum, the Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts, and online at www.florencealmuseums.com starting April 14, 2026. 
Museum contact, Ana Peeples, apeeples@florenceal.org

Camp instructors are Jennifer Knutson (University of South Alabama Archaeology Museum), Sarah Bennett (Stetson University), and Lianne Bennett (Volusia County Schools).

This program is free, and sponsored by the City of Florence Department of Arts and Museums, in collaboration with Project Archaeology and the University of South Alabama Archaeology Museum with support through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.