Black, a pioneer and innovator in developing archaeology field research techniques, is best known for his excavation of Angel Mounds, a Mississippian (A.D. 1050–1450) community near present-day Evansville, Indiana, that he brought to national attention.

[2][9] Although he never attended college and did not earn a degree in archaeology, Black is considered to have been the first full-time professional archaeologist focusing on Indiana's ancient history.

In June 1931, Lilly and the Indiana Historical Society hired Black to continue archaeological work in the state.

[2] In the fall of 1931, Moorehead recommended sending Black to Greene County, Indiana, to begin surveys in the area.

"[7] In the 1930s, Black participated in a controversial multidisciplinary investigation of the Walam Olum, a disputed account of the creation of the Delaware (Lenape) tribe.

Black contributed a chapter to Walam Olum or Red Score: The Migration Legend of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians: A New Translation, Interpreted by Linguistic, Historical, Archaeological, and Physical Anthropological Studies (1954).

His analysis of archaeological data supported the assertion that the Delaware might have been the prehistoric group responsible for the Hopewell culture in the Ohio River valley.

To support his claim, Black used early historic documents and maps from the Midwest and the East, much of it unpublished, and without any knowledge of radiocarbon dating for the archaeological sites.

James B. Griffin, who reviewed the book in the Indiana Magazine of History, did not believe the archaeological evidence supported the Walam Olum's migration account.

Historians now consider the Walum Olum to be a hoax and believe that Constantine Samuel Rafinesque created the materials to support his assertion that North America's natives had European origins.

[6][15][18] In 1936, Black began excavation of documented villages that were believed to have been inhabited by the Miami, Shawnee, and Potawatomi people during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries before he turned most of his attention to Angel Mounds.

[10] The archaeological site, which was in danger of being incorporated into the City of Evansville, was acquired to protect and preserve it for future research and education.

[6][21] Black thought that Angel Mounds would provide an opportunity to conduct a long-term study of a single archaeological site.

[4] From 1939 to 1964, Black devoted more than two decades of study at the Angel site, beginning with a large crew of Works Projects Administration workers prior to World War II.

[7] Black was responsible for the identification of Native American archaeological sites in Indiana, but his primary effort was at Angel Mounds, which he brought to national attention.

[6][22] Black also operated a field training for student archaeologists at Angel Mounds from 1945 through the summer of 1962, although World War II temporarily halted excavation from 1941 to 1945.

[6][24] Between 1958 and 1962, two National Science Foundation grants provided financial support to Black's efforts to apply geophysical applications to archaeological sites.

[6][25] This project made Black among the first prehistorians to make "comprehensive tests in the Americas" to assess the proton magnetometer's potential on a New World site.

[6][28] Black was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Wabash College in 1951,[2][6] and retired from lecturing at IU in 1960.

[30] Black died on September 2, 1964, at Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, Indiana, after suffering a heart attack while excavating at Angel Mounds.

[4][6][31] According to James H. Kellar, Black was "the first professional archaeologist continuously involved in the study of Indiana's prehistoric past.

The laboratory, its collections, library, and museum continue to encourage academic research, as well as preservating and exhibiting Indiana's archaeological history.