Museums and Sites Interpretation
Los Adaes
Los Adaes was the capital of Spanish Tejas on the northeastern frontier of New Spain from 1729 to 1770. It included a mission, San Miguel de Linares de los Adaes, and a presidio, Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Los Adaes.
As part of a previous summer internship with the Cane River National Heritage Area, I performed personal on-site interpretation at the visitors center and on the grounds of this National Historic Landmark site. I am in the process of creating a web portal to consolidate existing electronic resources on Los Adaes.
Above, right: extemporaneous interpretation at Los Adaes visitors center during geophysical investigations, Summer 2010
Williamson Museum
The Williamson Museum, located on Northwestern State University campus, includes a large collection of colonial and prehistoric pottery from northern and central Louisiana. Most notably, the museum houses the artifact collection for the Los Adaes archaeological site and the Clarence H. Webb collection of prehistoric Caddoan archaeological sequence in Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. It is also a state and federal repository for archaeological collections for the region. The ethnological collection efforts have concentrated on baskets and other crafts of the southeastern tribes.
I currently serve as docent under the direction of Hiram F. “Pete” Gregory on an as-needed basis. In addition to welcoming visitors, I participate in interpretive planning and exhibition development, cataloging collections and curating artifacts.
New Orleans Neighborhoods
As a former resident of the Bywater, Marigny, and Mid City communities, and a student at the University of New Orleans, I am familiar with the history and geomorphology of the Greater New Orleans Region. I have led numerous informal walking tours to all downtown neighborhoods and cemeteries using the Preservation Resource Center’s neighborhood brochures:
French Quarter
St. Roch
Ethnography & Oral History
My project-thesis “Choctaw-Apache Foodways” depends on ethnographic fieldwork and oral history among the Choctaw-Apache of Ebarb community.
Gourds drying
Pepper Soup and Biscuits
Mr. Dick Sepulvado making tamales
I have written short, unpublished ethnographic papers on the following:
– Czech Cowboy culture
-Archaeologists and their relationship to the descendants of the people they study
-Native born American Buddhists
-Islamophobia in France, U.K., and Germany: What about the Czech Republic?
-French Market of New Orleans: A case of Continuity or Adaptive Reuse?
-Theravada Buddhism and Ethnic Identity in Texas
My hope is to continue researching the intersections of food and culture. I plan on writing a short article on the Zwolle Tamale Fiesta and ethnic identity in Sabine Parish. I have a research plan on a book on the relationship between grits and culture in the U.S. South, tentatively entitled, “How d’ you take your grits?”
I follow the ethical standards of the American Anthropology Association requiring informed consent, and the practices embodied in the Principles and Best Practices of the Oral History Association and the follow University requirements for Oral History under Human Subjects Institutional Review Board.
Robert B. Caldwell 