Finding Aid, Mary Ann Cole Site (12CR1) 1979-1981

The Veterans Curation Program utilizes the standard archival practice of unique naming of collections. The purpose of this practice is to avoid redundant and confusing collection names commonly found with archaeological investigations. Therefore, this collection is referred to as "Mary Ann Cole Site (12CR1) 1979-1981.” This name is consistent throughout the finding aid, the file folders, and the box labels. The extent of this collection is one linear foot that has been divided into two curation boxes based on a 25-pound weight limit restriction. The folders for the Mary Ann Cole (12CR1) 1979-1981 are housed in two Glenn A. Black Laboratory curation boxes. Oversized and photographic materials were removed from this collection. The total extent is two linear feet. A few areas of confusion existed during the rehabilitation of the collection. The Mary Ann Cole Site was located at the mouth of the Ohio and Blue Rivers. Lock and Dam 44 existed near the same location but had been dismantled and plans for a boat ramp and large parking area to be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were postponed indefinitely. Because of this, the subject property was being referred to as “Blue and Ohio Rivers,” instead of “Lock and Dam 44.” Cathy Van Arsdale, an employee with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis, Missouri, contacted a Louisville District archaeologist and a decision was made to keep the subject property name as U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District, Lock and Dam 44.

Another area of confusion was determining the contractor for this project. The entire archaeological project was planned and excavated by Soil Systems, Inc. (SSI); however in 1980, the company was sold to Resource Analysts, Inc. (RAI) after the excavation phase of the Mary Ann Cole Site (12CR1) 1979-1981 project was completed. Resource Analysts, Inc. completed the draft and final reports for the project. It was decided that because Resource Analysts, Inc. produced the final report, RAI would be listed as the contractor throughout the document rehabilitation. The collection displayed much strength, such as the immaculate documentation and safekeeping by Soil Systems, Inc. of paperwork regarding the legal war that raged on between Mary Ann and Jim Cole and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, along with their attorneys. The administrative, background, analysis, report, and field records that were kept were overall consistent with a company adept at maintaining recorded accounts that needed to be maintained for several years. The downside or weaknesses that were noticed were Soil System, Inc.’s failure to properly date most of the photographs that were taken of the site, and the photograph logs that were recorded were poorly completed.

Quite a bit of interpretation had to go in to the assessing, preserving, and rehabilitation of the collection. Additional records, including oversized and photographic materials, were received at a later date and incorporated into the document collection. Some items were picked up at the Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology, while other materials were received through the mail. The Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology (GBL) artifact catalog and inventory for this investigation were sent to the VCP electronically, printed on acid free paper, and housed with the associated documentation. Scanned asset numbers were not assigned, because the files were uploaded into the digital imaging database directly from the file sent by GBL. There were several items removed from this collection.

Approximately 250 photographic items were removed from this document collection, including photographic prints, proof sheets, negatives, and slides. Some of the photographic materials were duplicates; therefore, only one scanned asset number was assigned to these items. A curation grade notebook was used to house all the photographic materials. A photo log was present in the collection; however, it could not be used to identify the photographic materials due to discrepancies in the photo numbers and the information contained in the log. There were 22 oversized items removed from this collection. These items included oversized topographic maps, trench column profiles, excavation maps, blueprints, and inventory sheets. There were also eight newspapers removed from this collection. One of the oversized maps, which was a line drawing of the Mary Ann Cole excavations, required special attention. Mending with archival tissue tape was required to repair tears. For more information on the Mary Ann Cole Site (12CR1) 1979-1981 investigation, please refer to Mary Ann Cole Site (12CR1) 1976 and Mary Ann Cole Site (12CR1) 1977.

退伍军人整理项目（Veterans Curation Program）采用藏品唯一命名这一标准档案规范。该规范旨在规避考古调查中常见的重复且易混淆的藏品命名问题。因此，本藏品被命名为“玛丽·安·科尔遗址（Mary Ann Cole Site, 12CR1）1979-1981”，这一命名在馆藏检索工具、文件卷宗及盒签上保持一致。
本藏品的原始馆藏规模为1线性英尺，根据25磅的重量限制被分装为2个整理箱。这批1979-1981年的玛丽·安·科尔遗址（12CR1）相关卷宗被存放于2个格伦·A·布莱克实验室（Glenn A. Black Laboratory）专用整理箱中。超大尺寸材料与影像资料已从本藏品中移除，调整后总馆藏规模为2线性英尺。
藏品整理过程中曾存在两处易混淆的问题。其一，玛丽·安·科尔遗址位于俄亥俄河与布卢河的汇流处，附近曾建有44号船闸大坝，但该大坝已被拆除，美国陆军工程兵团（U.S. Army Corps of Engineers）原计划在此修建游船码头与大型停车场的方案也被无限期搁置。因此，该地块曾被称为“布卢河与俄亥俄河地块”，而非“44号船闸大坝地块”。密苏里州圣路易斯美国陆军工程兵团的工作人员凯西·范·阿尔斯代尔（Cathy Van Arsdale）联系了路易斯维尔分区的考古学家，最终决定将该地块的正式名称保留为“美国陆军工程兵团路易斯维尔分区44号船闸大坝地块”。
其二是本项目承建方的确定问题。整个考古项目的规划与发掘工作由土壤系统公司（Soil Systems, Inc., SSI）完成，但在1980年，即玛丽·安·科尔遗址（12CR1）1979-1981项目发掘阶段结束后，该公司被出售给资源分析公司（Resource Analysts, Inc., RAI）。资源分析公司负责完成了项目的草案与最终报告。经研究决定，鉴于最终报告由资源分析公司出具，本次文档整理过程中将统一将承建方标注为RAI。
本藏品存在诸多亮点，例如土壤系统公司对相关文书的完整归档与妥善保管——这些文书涉及玛丽·安、吉姆·科尔与美国陆军工程兵团及其代理律师之间持续已久的法律纠纷。馆藏的行政文件、背景资料、分析报告、野外记录等整体符合专业机构的长期归档规范，能够满足多年留存的需求。但同时也存在明显不足：土壤系统公司未对绝大多数遗址现场拍摄的照片标注拍摄日期，且留存的照片登记日志填写极不规范。
本次藏品的评估、保存与整理工作需要大量的解读与修复工作。额外的档案材料（包括超大尺寸资料与影像资料）在后续被征集并入本文档藏品中。部分材料从格伦·A·布莱克考古实验室获取，其余则通过邮寄获得。格伦·A·布莱克考古实验室（Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, GBL）为本项目出具的文物目录与清单已通过电子方式发送，随后被打印为无酸纸文件，与相关文档一并归档。由于文件直接从GBL提供的源文件上传至数字成像数据库，因此未为扫描件分配资产编号。另有部分物品从本藏品中移除。
本次共从本文档藏品中移除约250件影像资料，包括照片、校样样张、底片与幻灯片。部分影像资料为复制品，因此仅为这些复制品分配了一个扫描资产编号。所有影像资料均存放于一本专用整理级笔记本中。藏品中原本存有一份照片日志，但由于照片编号与日志记录的信息存在出入，无法通过该日志识别对应的影像资料。此外，共移除22件超大尺寸物品，包括超大尺寸地形图、探方剖面图、发掘平面图、蓝图与清单表格，另有8份报纸被移除。其中一张描绘玛丽·安·科尔遗址发掘情况的线条画超大地图需要特殊处理，需使用档案棉纸胶带对其破损处进行修复。
如需了解玛丽·安·科尔遗址（12CR1）1979-1981发掘项目的更多详情，请参阅《玛丽·安·科尔遗址（12CR1）1976》与《玛丽·安·科尔遗址（12CR1）1977》两份文档。