Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology
The Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology (GBL) was an archaeology research center and museum located in Bloomington, Indiana. In 2020 the GBL was merged with the Mathers Museum of World Culture to become the new Indiana University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The GBL was dedicated in honor of Indiana's first professional archaeologist Glenn A. Black. Black's adulthood was devoted to studying the people of Angel Mounds, a site that is still being worked with today.
Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology
Glenn Albert Black was an American archaeologist, author, and part-time university lecturer who was among the first professional archaeologists to study prehistoric sites in Indiana continuously. Black, a pioneer and innovator in developing archaeology field research techniques, is best known for his excavation of Angel Mounds, a Mississippian community near present-day Evansville, Indiana, that he brought to national attention. Angel Mounds was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964. Black was largely self-taught and began serious work on archaeological sites in Indiana in the 1930s, before there were many training opportunities in archaeology in the United States. He is considered to have been the first full-time professional archaeologist focusing on Indiana's ancient history, and the only professional archaeologist in the state until the 1960s. During his thirty-five-year career as an archaeologist in Indiana, Black also worked as a part-time lecturer at Indiana University Bloomington from 1944 to 1960 and conducted a field school at the Angel site during the summer months.
Black in the late 1930s. (Photo is part of collection donated to the Glenn A. Black Laboratory by the Glenn A. and Ida Black family.)
Glenn Black with Eli Lilly. Photo part of a collection donated by the Glenn A. and Ida Black family.