John Hay & the Archaeology of Cape Cod

The pioneering work of our co-founder, John Hay, to protect Cape Cod’s native heritage is being revealed in a special presentation at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History by one of his closest colleagues on March 26 at 1pm.
Dr Fred Dunford’s “Inseparable from Nature: John Hay and the Archaeology of Cape Cod” will also support the fundraising campaign to build a permanent memorial to Hay on the Museum’s grounds, expected to be unveiled in September.
John Hay started the Museum’s Archaeology Program in the 1980s, hiring Dr Dunford to lead teams recovering evidence of native peoples and others who lived on lands including Wing Island, behind the Museum’s building in Brewster, thousands of years ago.
“When John and others gathered to establish the museum in 1954, Hay saw a landscape that was rapidly changing, both environments and local histories were being lost,” said Dr Dunford. “Hay initiated and supported the development of archaeology at the museum in 1982, and for the next 21 years students and volunteers sought to recover and preserve evidence of those who have occupied this fragile land from time immemorial.”
The work was published in the 1997 book “Secrets in the Sand,” written by Dr Dunford and local journalist Greg O’Brien with a foreword by John Hay who wrote: “Changing geography and changing patterns of living are revealed during the course of an archaeological dig. We also come closer to understanding the values of native people whose lives were inseparable from nature itself”.
The 45-minute presentation will include rarely seen photographs and items from the Museum’s archive and be followed by a Q&A session. There will also be an opportunity to view designs by Cape Cod artist Steve Kemp for the John Hay Memorial, which is inspired by his classic nature book ‘The Run’, published in 1959 and still on sale today.
 
The presentation is part of the Museum’s Silver Science Series, which offers discounts to those aged 60+. A portion of proceeds from the event will go towards the Hay Memorial Fund.