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University of Nevada, Reno Conflicting Ideologies of Catholic University of Nevada, Reno Conflicting Ideologies of Catholic Service and Capitalism: An Archaeological Investigation of St. Mary’s Hospital in Virginia City, Nevada A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Anthropology by Lisa Machado Dr. Sarah E. Cowie/Thesis Advisor December, 2013 © by Lisa Machado 2013 All Rights Reserved THE GRADUATE SCHOOL We recommend that the thesis prepared under our supervision by LISA MACHADO entitled Conflicting Ideologies Of Catholic Service And Capitalism: An Archaeological Investigation Of St. Mary’s Hospital In Virginia City, Nevada be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Sarah E. Cowie, Ph.D., Advisor Carolyn L. White, Ph.D., Committee Member C. Elizabeth Raymond, Ph.D., Graduate School Representative Marsha H. Read, Ph. D., Dean, Graduate School December, 2013 i Abstract This thesis describes the results of the 2012 excavation performed by the University of Nevada, Reno Field School in Historic Archaeology at the St. Mary‟s Hospital site, 26-ST-446, in Virginia City, Nevada. The excavation was performed in hopes of shedding light upon two of the site‟s historic occupation periods, including a Beer or Pleasure Garden and St. Mary‟s Hospital, which was administered by the Daughters of Charity. Attempts were made to locate features associated with the Beer or Pleasure Garden and to determine what kinds of activities took place at the Garden. The majority of the excavation was used to locate features and artifacts potentially associated with St. Mary‟s Hospital and to answer questions relating to the religions, classes, ethnicities, health care, and gendered behaviors found at the hospital. The St. Mary‟s Hospital period was also analyzed through a theoretical lens of ideology. Historical documentation and material evidence support the conclusion that the Daughters of Charity adhered to an ideology of Catholic service; it is likely that this ideology furthered the agenda of the Catholic Church, the main institution that controlled the Daughters mission in Virginia City. The documentary and archaeological records also show that the hospital‟s patients were affected by, and responded to, the ideology of the Daughters, who held positions of influence as the hospital's administration. There is also evidence to suggest that the Daughters' ideology of Catholic service was in tension with an ideology of capitalism that was an integral part of running the business of a hospital in the United States. ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my Graduate Adviser, Dr. Sarah Cowie, for making this project possible and for her constant assistance and support through this process. I would also like to thank the other members of my Graduate Committee, Dr. Carolyn White and Dr. Elizabeth Raymond, for their support and assistance with this project. I would also like to thank Ron James, the retired Nevada State Historic Preservation Officer, for his relentless support during this entire project. His guidance and assistance throughout the process, from obtaining permissions to excavate the site to acquiring funding for the project, was invaluable. From the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, the author would also like to thank Rebecca L. Palmer, the Acting State Historic Preservation Office, Karyn de Dufour, the Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, Marty Williams, Michael A. “Bert” Bedeau, Elyse Jolly, and Jessica Axsom for their assistance with this project. The Nevada SHPO generously provided two grants that made this project possible: A Historic Preservation Fund Award from the National Park Service, as administered by the Nevada SHPO [Grant #32-12-41935(10)]; and a Nevada SHPO Award [Award #CHDGA-2011-03]. For permissions to study the St. Mary‟s Hospital site, I would like to thank Storey County, Hugh Roy Marshall of the Consolidated Virginia Mining Company, and the St. Mary‟s Art and Retreat Center Board of Directors. iii For their performance of ground-penetrating radar at the St. Mary‟s Hospital site prior to excavation, I would like to thank ASM Affiliates. I would also like to thank Jimmy Daniels for conducting the work and authoring the report of those results. The author would also like to express heartfelt thanks to all of the individuals from the University of Nevada, Reno for their help with this project. First, I would like to thank the students of the 2012 University of Nevada, Reno Field School in Historical Archaeology: Devin Blom, Jerri Ho, Katherine Kindorf, Dru McPherson, Dameon Meeks, Austin Offenbacher, Marcelle Powers, Samantha Redman, Alexia Sober, Zeb Stecker, Cavan Van Geem, and Heather Tiscareno. I would also like to thank the field school Teaching Assistants, Steven Holm and Elizabeth Bennett, and Chris LeBlanc for his assistance in field school preparations, GIS work, and field school excavations. Iwould also like to express thanks to the various volunteers that assisted in the field school excavations. Thanks also to the many volunteers who assisted in the cataloging and research of the artifacts after the field school These individuals included Robert Leavitt, who proved to be invaluable to this project, Zeb Stecker, Dru McPherson, Cavan Van Geem, Heather Tiscareno, Jessica Leonard, and Dania Jordan. Thanks to Elizabeth Bennett for her assistance, as well as a big thank you to Austin Offenbacher for all of his help with the figures in this thesis. I would also like to thank Evan Pellegrini for his amazing sketch of the flaked glass artifact discussed in this thesis. I would also like to thank the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul for their support of this project, for visiting the field school, and for providing insights into the results of the excavations. I would therefore like to thank Sister Patricia Smith for visiting iv the site and for here assistance in the historic research of the Daughters of Charity. I would also like to thank Sister Margaret Ann Gainey, the archivist for the Daughters of Charity Province of the West, for her help with the historic research and for visiting the field school; as well as Sisters Estela Morales and Betty Marie Dunkel for visiting the field school and providing insight into the research. I would also like to express gratitude to a wide number of people for their assistance in historic research of the site, including the staff of the University of Nevada, Reno Special Collections Department; Arline Laferry and Heidi Englund of the Nevada Historical Society; Elizabeth Huntington, Patrick Neylan, and Jacquie Obos of the St. Mary‟s in the Mountains Catholic Church in Virginia City, Nevada; Joe Curtis of Virginia City, Nevada; and Barbara Mackey of the Historic Fourth Ward School Museum in Virginia City, Nevada. I would also like to thank numerous people for their assistance in analyzing the results of the field school excavations. For their assistance in artifact identification, the author would like to thank Dr. Geoffrey Smith, Dr. Christopher Morgan, Dr. Gary Haynes, Dr. Jarod Hutson, and Scotty Strachan of the University of Nevada, Reno; Suzanne Hood of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; Bill Lockhart of the Bottle Research Group; Alain Pollock and Monique Kimball of Kautz Environmental Consultants, Inc., and Jan-Erik Nilsson and Joan K. Brand-Landkamer associated with Gotheberg.com. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my family and friends for their support throughout this process. To my parents, I would like to say thank you for always being there for me and for always loving me and supporting me in everything that I do. I v could not have done this without you. To my friends, thank you for providing the personal support that helped get me through this. And to Ian, I would like to thank you for your never-ending love and support and for being my rock through this process. I love you all and thank you. vi Table of Contents ABSTRACT I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II TABLE OF CONTENTS VI LIST OF TABLES XIII LIST OF FIGURES XIV I. INTRODUCTION 1 Project History 2 Site Description 2 Research Goals 7 Ideology 9 Introduction 9 Defining Ideology 10 Ideology and Historical Archaeology 15 A Marxist Archaeology of Ideology and the Constructed Landscape 16 Ideologies of Resistance in Capitalism 17 Ideology and the Archaeology of Institutions 19 The Ideology of Reform at the Magdalen Society 21 The Ideology of Millennialism and the Harmony Society 23 The Ideology of Communalism 25 Ideology and St. Mary‟s Hospital 27 II. ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND 29 vii Environmental Setting 29 Prehistoric Context 30 Historic Context: The Comstock Lode and Virginia City 31 III. METHODS 35 Historic Research Methods 35 Field Methods 38 Laboratory Analysis 46 Curation 49 Artifact Analysis 49 Historic Artifact Analysis 49 Nail Chronology 49 Analysis of Wood from Feature 2 50 IV: RESULTS OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH 52 Van Bokkelen’s Residence and the Beer or Pleasure Garden 52 St. Mary’s Hospital and the Daughters of Charity 55 Storey County Hospital 65 St. Mary’s Art and Retreat Center 65 V. RESULTS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELDWORK AND ARTIFACT ANALYSIS 67 Results of Fieldwork: Site Mapping 67 Results of Fieldwork: Shovel Test Pits 71 Shovel Test Pit (STP) 1 72 Shovel Test Pit 2 72 viii Shovel Test Pit 3 73 Shovel Test Pit 4 73 Shovel Test Pit 5 73 Shovel Test Pit 6 74 Shovel Test Pit 7 74 Shovel Test Pit 8 75 Shovel Test Pit 9 75 Results of Fieldwork: Test Units and Features 76 Test Unit (TU) 1 76 Test
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