The inspiration and much of the website infrastructure for the Interactive Digital St. Augustine (iDigStAug) database stems from the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS; daacs.org), developed by archaeologists with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, Virginia. DAACS was established in 2000 with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to create a comparative database of archaeological data related to slavery in the Atlantic World. This web-based initiative has since grown to encompass numerous sites through the Chesapeake region, the southeastern United States, and the Caribbean.
In 2021 archaeologists with the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH), University of Florida, received a National Endowment and Humanities Collections and Reference Resources grant to develop iDigStAug (PW-277334-21). The original vision for iDigStAug was to create a comparative database of St. Augustine colonial household lot sites. Historical archaeologists at the FLMNH have a long history of conducting research on such sites and the Museum is a repository for a large number of St. Augustine household lot site collections. The NEH project was initiated with FLMNH St. Augustine collections from three households (the Fatio, de la Cruz, and de León sites).
In recognition of the complex history of the multi-cultural colonial experience of St. Augustine, iDigStAug will continue to add archaeological, mapping, and documentary data from St. Augustine colonial household site collections curated at FLMNH. This effort will help researchers and the general public better understand how the interactions between the European, Native American, and African people during the colonial period of Florida helped shape its history.
Those unfamiliar with the DAACS system will benefit from perusing the “About the Database” (see banner at top of this webpage). This will lead to manuals and guidelines that explain the structure of the database and how to explore its contents.
