The Orphanage at Schuyler Mansion Lois Feister
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Northeast Historical Archaeology Volume 20 Article 3 1991 The Orphanage at Schuyler Mansion Lois Feister Follow this and additional works at: http://orb.binghamton.edu/neha Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Feister, Lois (1991) "The Orphanage at Schuyler Mansion," Northeast Historical Archaeology: Vol. 20 20, Article 3. https://doi.org/10.22191/neha/vol20/iss1/3 Available at: http://orb.binghamton.edu/neha/vol20/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in Northeast Historical Archaeology by an authorized editor of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Orphanage at Schuyler Mansion Cover Page Footnote I would especially like to thank Sister Elaine Wheeler, archivist, for the attention she gave me while doing research on this topic at the St. Vincent de Paul Provincial House, Menands, New York. In addition, acknowledgements go to Joe McEvoy for photographing the artifacts for this article; to Paul Huey for his helpful suggestions; and to Mary Valek for her patience at the computer while correcting various versions of the text. In addition, I would like to thank the staff ta Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site for their interest in this topic which is somewhat outside their primary interpretative mission. This article is available in Northeast Historical Archaeology: http://orb.binghamton.edu/neha/vol20/iss1/3 Northeast Historical Archaeology!Vol. 20, 1991 27 THE ORPHANAGE AT SCHUYLER MANSION Lois M. Feister Doll parts, toy tea set fragments, and other toys were excavated from the late 19th-century through early 20th-century occupation layers at the Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site in Albany, New York. Their Occurrence raised questions about the orphans housed there during that time period. Archival re search and archaeological analysis resulted in increased understanding of the care received by home less children during that period. Des morceaux de poupees, des ensembles ii the pour les enfants et d'autres jouets ont lite recuperes de contextes d'occupation datant du tournant du siecle au Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site ii Albany dans I 'etat de New York. Leur presence a souleve des questions concernant les orphelins qui y vivaient durant celte periode. Les recherches en archives et l' analyse archeologique ont permis une meilleure comprehension des soins alors apportes aux enfants sans foyer. Introduction Mansion. Included in the collection of artifacts that resulted were playthings excavated from Schuyler Mansion was built by strata dating to the late 19th and early 20th Revolutionary War general Philip Schuyler in centuries. These objects represent what Schiffer 1761 on the outskirts of Albany, New York. It has called "child play refuse" (Schiffer 1987: remained in the Schuyler family until 1806, 75). The clustering of all of the above doll and and then passed to a series of owners. By the tea set fragments outdoors along the south side late 19th century, growth of the city had cre of the Mansion suggests an area where the lit ated an urban environment around the house. tle girls congregated and played with their When it again went on the market in 1886, the toys. One of the pictures of the orphans shows Mansion was purchased by St. Vincent's them gathered together on the south side of the Orphanage on Elm Street in Albany for use dur house for a group photograph (FIG. 1). ing a measles epidemic and was operated by However, it is difficult to discern much detail the Daughters of Charity. from the photograph except that some of them Sixty-six orphans were placed in quaran appear to be holding dolls. tine at the Mansion on May 24, 1886 (Bowers This study of toys excavated from strata as 1987: 14-15). Following the epidemic, most of sociated with the orphanage period at these children were returned to the orphanage Schuyler Mansion was conducted by researching on Elm Street, but infants from St. Ann's the archives of the Daughters of Charity, ex Orphanage in Troy were then transferred to amining photographs taken during the orphan Schuyler Mansion together with Catholic age years, and studying the archaeological col children from St. Margaret's Home in Albany, a lection. This has resulted in some better under non-Catholic facility. More room was needed standing of the daily functioning of this institu by 1905, and a new three-story addition was tion. built on the back of the Mansion. By 1914, be In the modern world where care of the cause more space was needed, the orphans were homeless is an issue and where the care of moved to a new building in Albany and the AIDS and crack babies is an emerging problem, Mansion sold to the State of New York for op it is instructive to look to the past for tested eration as a state historic site. methodologies. Orphanages have received Starting in the late 1960s, a series of ar different ratings as to their success, images gen chaeological projects were conducted in response erated by Charles Dickens' novels being partic to various phases of restoration work at the ularly strong in the public mind. 28 Orphanage at Schuyler Mansion/Feister Figure 1. Schuyler Mansion after 1905 showing the addition built for the orphans on the back of the building and showing a group of orphans posed near the southeast comer of the house. The addition has since been removed. (New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Division for Historic Preservation, Bureau of Historic Sites.) Orphanages, poor houses, and other such edged that today's problems require trained, charitable organizations associated with vari highly specialized care (Anne Marie Hayes, ous churches have a long history reaching back personal communication, 1992). to the Middle Ages. A member of the Daughters of Charity who has spent most of her adult life caring for orphans in various ci Background ties notes that one of the reasons her order took on such problems was because of the abuse suf A romantic description of the Schuyler fered by children placed in foster homes, a Mansion orphanage in Catholic Albany uses problem which receives publicity today but did terms such as "simplicity," and "little ging not in the past. A safe, strong religious upbring ham aproned figures" (Bowers 1987: 15), but lit ing seemed preferable to that of foster home tle is known about the realities of life in the in care. Then, too, she notes that many Daughters stitution. Research in the archives of the of Charity orphanages were established as the Daughters of Charity revealed some interest result of the epidemics that occurred in the ing information, however. "Infants" were re past. These events left many orphans in their garded as boys and girls newborn to about the wake. With single parents not able to enter the age of six. These children were kept together marketplace for jobs as they can today, with at the Mansion. After age six, boys were sent to the large number of poor immigrants entering the Hillside Home for Boys in Troy, also oper the country, and because relatives were often ated by the Roman Catholic Church. Girls unable to take in more children, orphanages for were sent to the Elm Street facility in Albany "normal" kids were essential. It is acknowl- until they finished elementary school. Some Northeast Historical Archaeology/Vol. 20, 1991 29 Figure 2. A group photograph of some of the orphans gathered in an interior room at Schuyler Mansion. Note that some of the girls are holding dolls and that other dolls are placed in chairs. (New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Division for Historic Preservation, Bureau of Historic Sites.) then went to high school; others were sent to an often was forced to place the children in the or industrial school in Albany where they were phanage (Wheeler 1992). Cunningham remem taught domestic skills such as sewing, child bered that one of the Sisters in the Community care, and cooking so that they could support was the cook and that the seamstress was one of themselves once they left. After age 18, most of his own relatives who had heen taken in by the the girls went to live with relatives. Those Sisters in return for her sewing skills. who had no family were allowed to live in Troy at Seton Home for Working Girls. Since this home was across the street from a shirt Funding and Expenses: Sources factory, some of the women went to work there for Toys (Archives 1886-1914: History Folder 2[1]; Sister Elaine Wheeler, personal communication, Some of the funding for the care of the 1992). children came from government sources. On Christopher Cunningham, an altar boy who May 28, 1884, the Sisters were receiving $4.00 a visited Schuyler Mansion every Thursday with week for each baby and $1.50 for each of the the priest to celebrate mass with the children, others (Archives 1886-1914: Correspondence, recalled that 30 to 40 of the children (the ma Folder 3 [1]). By January 1908, this had in jority) were Italian immigrants (Archives creased to $4.00 a week for each baby under one 1886-1914: History Folder 2[1] and taped in year old and $2.00 a week for infants ages one to terview). Many of these children came by boat two. With this increase, the Sisters could af to Albany from Ellis Island and, if one of the ford more help. Account books, kept on a parents became ill or died, the other parent monthly basis (Archives 1886-1914), indicate 30 Orphallage at Schuyler Mallsioll/Feister wages of $12.00 were being paid for outside the Montgomery Ward and the Sears cata help beginning in January 1889.