University of Massachusetts Boston ScholarWorks at UMass Boston Anthropology, Historical Archaeology Masters Anthropology Theses Collection 8-1-2011 Urban Consumption in Late 19th-Century Dorchester Jennifer Poulsen University of Massachusetts Boston, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/anthro_histarch_theses Part of the American Studies Commons, Archaeological Anthropology Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Poulsen, Jennifer, "Urban Consumption in Late 19th-Century Dorchester" (2011). Anthropology, Historical Archaeology Masters Theses Collection. Paper 1. This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Anthropology at ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology, Historical Archaeology Masters Theses Collection by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. For more information, please contact [email protected]. URBAN CONSUMPTION IN LATE 19TH-CENTURY DORCHESTER A Thesis Presented by JENNIFER POULSEN Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTERS OF ARTS August 2011 Historical Archaeology Program © 2011 by Jennifer Poulsen All rights reserved URBAN CONSUMPTION IN LATE 19TH-CENTURY DORCHESTER A Thesis Presented by JENNIFER POULSEN Approved as to style and content by: ___________________________________________ Christa M. Beranek, Research Archaeologist Chairperson of Committee ___________________________________________ Stephen Mrozowski, Professor Member ___________________________________________ Ellen Berkland, Senior Archaeologist, DCR Member _______________________________________ Stephen Silliman, Program Director Historical Archaeology Program _______________________________________ Judith Zeitlin, Chairperson Department of Anthropology ABSTRACT URBAN CONSUMPTION IN LATE 19TH-CENTURY DORCHESTER August 2011 Jennifer Poulsen, B.A., Boston University M.A., University of Massachusetts Boston Directed by Research Archaeologist Christa M. Beranek This thesis examines the bottles recovered from an 1895 fill deposit at the Blake House site in Dorchester, MA, to determine what inconspicuous consumption reveals about the anonymous consumers of Dorchester in the late 19th century. The assemblage is composed of 1,892 pieces of bottle glass, representing food, alcohol, medicine, and household products, 73 with original paper labels. The analysis presented here demonstrates the consumers were from several households and included men, women and children from immigrant populations. Despite evidence for intensive recycling of bottles, indicating that these individuals were under economic stress, they had some amount of discretionary money to purchase non-essential goods, and their health was stable. The bottles indicate that these consumers were literate, influenced by advertisements and connections to downtown Boston. Understanding consumption patterns of these residents helps to gain insight into who they were, how they perceived themselves, and their experiences in their new urban environment. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my friends and family for their support throughout this process. Thanks also for the guidance of my committee: Christa Beranek, Steve Mrozowski, and Ellen Berkland. I could not have done this project without the kindness of Ellen Berkland, who generously opened up her house and archaeological collection to give me the chance to work on this project. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................................x CHAPTER Page 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................1 2. BACKGROUND ..............................................................................................8 The James Blake House ...............................................................................8 A New Home for the Blake House ............................................................10 Changes in Dorchester ...............................................................................13 Richardson Park .........................................................................................15 The Filling of Great Pond ..........................................................................21 The Assemblage .........................................................................................27 3. HISTORIC TRENDS IN URBAN CONSUMER PREFERENCE ................29 A Shift to Bottled Food ..............................................................................29 Alcohol Consumption ................................................................................30 Proprietary Medicine and Its Advertising ..................................................32 The Impact of Proprietary Medicine on Bottle Diversification .................36 4. METHODS .....................................................................................................39 Documentary and Locational Evidence for Origin of Fill .........................39 Bottle Manufacturing Techniques ..............................................................41 Blake House Bottle Cataloging, Identification, and Documentation .........44 vi CHAPTER Page 5. ANALYSIS .....................................................................................................53 Descriptive Statistics ..................................................................................53 The Blake House Bottle Collection Dating ...............................................56 Bottle Locational Information ....................................................................59 Manufacture-Deposition Lag Analysis ......................................................66 Bottle Function, Recycling, and Reuse ......................................................69 Patterns of Medicine Use from the Blake House Bottle Collection ..........73 6. DISCUSSION OF URBAN CONSUMPTION PATTERNS AT THE BLAKE HOUSE SITE .................................................................................76 Consumer Behavior as the Study of Material Culture ...............................76 Advertising Self Perception .......................................................................81 Multiple Interpretations of Value ...............................................................89 Consumers’ Reasons for Choosing ............................................................90 7. THE INTEGRATION OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN MODERN ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDIES ................................................................94 The Blake House Site Consumer ...............................................................95 APPENDIX 1. BLAKE HOUSE BOTTLE CATALOG………………………………... ....103 2. PHOTODOCUMENTATION FOR PRESERVED PAPER LABELS……. 126 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………... .160 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Blake House as seen by Google Street View in 2007. Note Blake House in background and covered Trench 1 excavations in front yard ......................3 2. The Blake House as it appeared on its original site just prior to being moved in 1895 .........................................................................................................9 3. Reconstruction of 17th Century Dorchester Map based on Zurawski and Whitney 1979 .............................................................................................17 4. Approximate boundary of proposed "Cradle of American Freedom" area .......19 5. Oxen moving a home in Portland, ME circa 1892. Copyright Maine Historical Society .......................................................................................20 6. GPR survey results with pond outline and location of Trench 1 (Gontz, 2007) .............................................................................................21 7. Volunteers excavating Trench 1 at the Blake House site ..................................22 8. South wall profile of Trench 1 ...........................................................................24 9. Exceptional preservation examples including (clockwise from upper left) peanut shells, a womans wallet, dominoe, burnt match, and leather and cloth clothing fragments ............................................................................28 10. Bottle diagram (Jones et Al. 1989) ..................................................................42 11. Bovine Bottle (#0432) showing enhanced (left) and unenhanced paper label (right).................................................................................................49 12. Bovine Bottle (#0432) showing enhanced (left) and unenhanced paper label (right).................................................................................................50 13. BG#0057 with embossed "John F. Neill" ........................................................58 14. GIS map depicting known apothecaries in Boston, and locations that occur in the bottle collection ................................................................................60 viii Figure Page 15. Apothecaries in the vacinity of the Blake House .............................................61