bolton

One hundred years ago, a band of amateur archaeologists roamed across Northern
Manhattan hoping to salvage history before the modern metropolis expanded northward
and obliterated all remnants of a fascinating past. They discovered thousands of objects,
many of them dating to the Revolutionary War, a key period in the neighborhood's history.

Many of these intriguing objects, including cannon balls, pottery shards, bayonet points and
grapeshot were donated to the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum in 1916 by a key figure in
the digs, Reginald Pelham Bolton, an engineer by profession but an archaeologist through
his passion for history. With Bashford Dean, one of the creators of the Dyckman Farmhouse
Museum, he created an exhibit on the first floor of the farmhouse. The exhibit was known
as The Reginald Pelham Bolton Collection, and soon became affectionately known as the
Relic Room.

Recently we have been working to fully document this fascinating collection of objects.

Originally estimated to be a collection of up to 2,000 objects, the work has uncovered over
5,000 objects. In addition to archaeological objects, the collection includes materials
relating to the work of the archaeologists, including notes, boxes used to carry artifacts and
labels from the original exhibit.

We are working to digitize the collection, research objects and raise funds to ultimately
reinstall an exhibit.

Reginald Pelham Bolton also left the farmhouse a wonderful scrapbook of photographs
which we have digitized - many of these images are on display at the farmhouse.