The Heritage Research and Resource Management Lab

The best source of scholarship on the social history and cultural heritage of Spring Hill and Sulphur Springs is the work of Dr. Antoinette Jackson and research associates at the Heritage Research and Resource Management Lab, housed in the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Florida.

Dr. Jackson offers a graduate seminar on Issues in Heritage Tourism every fall semester at USF. During the fall of 2006, Dr. Jackson and her heritage tourism students developed the Sulphur Springs Heritage Project in collaboration with the Sulphur Springs Museum. Some of the results of this project include an Oral History Database and an Ethnographic/Ethnohistorical Profile of Sulphur Springs. Dr. Jackson also mentors undergraduate students who have contributed to the Sulphur Springs and Spring Hill heritage research projects through a Research Experience for Undergraduates course taught each summer by Dr. Jackson.

Part of the Heritage Research Lab’s mission is to recover and preserve the social history and cultural heritage of diverse groups of people who have been, and continue to be, excluded from mainstream historical accounts and representation in present-day heritage preservation efforts. The Lab has been working collaboratively with local community members to research and preserve the history and heritage of African Americans in Spring Hill and Sulphur Springs. Dr. Jackson has written about this ongoing research in an article entitled “Conducting Heritage Research and Practicing Heritage Resource Management on a Community Level—Negotiating Contested Historicity,” which was published in the Summer 2009 issue of Practicing Anthropology (Vol. 31, No. 3). This article also includes a short chronology of important historical events in the Sulphur Springs and Spring Hill communities.

More results of the many research projects on Spring Hill and Sulphur Springs that have been conducted by Dr. Jackson and her students will be made available on the Heritage Research Lab’s soon-to-be-launched website and the Sulphur Springs Museum website (see below). The Lab also publishes its own newsletter, The Heritage Researcher. The inaugural issue (Summer/Fall 2007) reports on the above history and heritage research projects and is available for download here. The Moses House’s very own Taft and Harold Richardson appear on page 11 of this issue of the newsletter (see image above). More about the partnership between the Heritage Research and Resource Management Lab and the Moses House can be found here.

Sulphur Springs Museum

The Sulphur Springs Museum is working to preserve and celebrate the history of Sulphur Springs, primarily the history surrounding its community landmarks, historic structures, and natural resources. The Sulphur Springs Museum is partnered with the Heritage Research and Resource Management Lab (see above) and the Sulphur Springs Neighborhood Association Action League. To visit the Museum’s website, click here.