Early 19Th Century Planting Pots from Gore Place, Waltham, Massachusetts Rita A

Early 19Th Century Planting Pots from Gore Place, Waltham, Massachusetts Rita A

University of Massachusetts Boston ScholarWorks at UMass Boston Graduate Masters Theses Doctoral Dissertations and Masters Theses 8-2010 "A Good Sized Pot": Early 19th Century Planting Pots from Gore Place, Waltham, Massachusetts Rita A. DeForest University of Massachusetts Boston Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/masters_theses Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation DeForest, Rita A., ""A Good Sized Pot": Early 19th Century Planting Pots from Gore Place, Waltham, Massachusetts" (2010). Graduate Masters Theses. Paper 16. This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Doctoral Dissertations and Masters Theses at ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “A GOOD SIZED POT”: EARLY 19TH CENTURY PLANTING POTS FROM GORE PLACE, WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS A Thesis Presented by RITA A. DEFOREST Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2010 Historical Archaeology Program © 2010 by Rita A. DeForest All rights reserved “A GOOD SIZED POT”: EARLY 19TH CENTURY PLANTING POTS FROM GORE PLACE, WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS A Thesis Presented by RITA A. DEFOREST Approved as to style and content by: ____________________________________________ Christa Beranek, Project Archaeologist Chairperson of Committee ____________________________________________ Stephen Mrozowski, Professor Member ____________________________________________ Heather Trigg, Senior Scientist Member __________________________________________ Stephen Silliman, Program Director Historical Archaeology Program __________________________________________ Stephen Mrozowski, Chairperson Anthropology Department ABSTRACT “A GOOD SIZED POT”: EARLY 19TH CENTURY PLANTING POTS FROM GORE PLACE, WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS August 2010 Rita A. DeForest, B.S., Bridgewater State College M.A., University of Massachusetts Boston Directed by Christa Beranek This thesis looked at the elite status of cultivating gentlemen at the site of the Gore Place greenhouse through the medium of planting pots. The goal of this thesis was to analyze the planting pot remains and to subsequently answer three questions: what kinds of activities were performed in the greenhouse, who was conducting those activities, and most importantly, how they played in to Christopher Gore’s self presentation as having elite status. This project analyzed over 2,000 pot sherds found during the excavation of the 1806 Gore Place greenhouse. The outcome of a minimum vessel count of the planting pots resulted in 150 distinct vessels exhibiting six different rim styles, in a wide range of sizes, shapes and decoration. The results of the research show that while gentlemen farmers applied their agricultural ideals on their fields, they iv also extended those principles to the activities within the greenhouse. The intensive horticultural activities conducted within the greenhouse are reflected archaeologically by the presence of specific pot styles associated with propagation. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people whom I would like to thank for helping me, first of all Dr. Christa Beranek, my thesis advisor, for having endless patience, conducting crash courses in Excel, Photoshop, Illustrator, assisting me with the move from PC to Mac, and for answering all of my miscellaneous questions. She is an excellent teacher and mentor. Heartfelt thanks go to my two readers, Dr. Stephen Mrozowski and Dr. Heather Trigg. Thank you both for taking the time to read this at a busy time of the year, I appreciate it and all of your support. Thank you to Stephen Silliman for always following through with and resolving all of my last minute crises as well as your support. Thanks to Melody Henkel for painstakingly photographing all the little bits of planting pots. I am also much obliged to the Fiske Center for Archeological Research, its kind staff and for allowing me to use their resources. I’d like to thank the Gore Place Society for providing me the opportunity to work with the collection. I’m appreciative of the Weston Historical Society for showing me their Hews Pottery collection, in particular Pam Fox and Mary Gregory. I’m thankful for the assistance I received from the research librarian at Old Sturbridge Village, and especially for helping me find a hidden gem. I am also very grateful to the Arnold Arboretum research library, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Golden Ball Tavern. I would also like to thank Vivian Sinder-Brown, research historian, for her helpful correspondence and research hints and tidbits. vi I would never have been able to complete this thesis without the support of my family. A huge thank you to my husband Brian for supporting my decision to take a year off of work to have dedicated time to work on this thesis without cutting in to my time with my daughter, Olivia Mai. Thank you to my mother and mother-in-law for watching Olivia while I was late at school or the library, and sometimes on short notice. Many thanks to my brother Karl for editing parts of my “book.” Thank you to my mother and father for always being supportive in whatever I choose to do, even when it sounds far- fetched. To my sister and brother who inspire me to be a better scholar, its really hard “keeping up” with them. Perekonale, ma armastan teid. I’d also like to give thanks for great classmates, past and present, and not limited to those I mention specifically. Lindsay Randall for all the helpful tips on formatting and the emergency signatory page questions. For Ciana Meyers for the emergency cut and paste tutorial. For Kate Descoteaux for agreeing to defend with me. Also for my two “school friends” Susan Jacobucci and Adrienne Edwards, whom I met in my first archaeology class at Bridgewater State College and have since become very dear friends. Lastly, I would like to thank all my family and friends for understanding when I couldn’t do anything fun because of deadlines and especially for believing in me when I didn’t. It’s done! vii DEDICATION I dedicate this work to two little ones, to my daughter Olivia Mai who is my love and my happiness and to my sweet nephew Madis Eero who lives so far away and I dearly miss. Ma armastan teid. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................... vi DEDICATION............................................................................................... viii LIST OF TABLES......................................................................................... xii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER Page 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 1 Chapter Outline...................................................................... 5 2. BACKGROUND INFORMATION ............................................ 8 Cultivating Gentlemen........................................................... 8 Horticultural Endeavors................................................... 10 Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture .......... 11 Brief Summery of Gore Place.......................................... 13 The Greenhouse ..................................................................... 14 Terminology..................................................................... 14 A Brief Greenhouse History up to the Early 19th Century............................................................................. 20 The Archaeology of the Gore Place Greenhouse............. 23 Comparison to other Sites .................................................... 26 3. POTTERY PRODUCTION AND SOURCING.......................... 28 Production.............................................................................. 28 Handmade vs. Pottery Molding Machine ........................ 28 The Pot Shop.................................................................... 30 Forming the Vessel .......................................................... 30 Decoration........................................................................ 31 The Kiln ........................................................................... 33 Sourcing................................................................................. 34 Dating Redware ............................................................... 34 Source of the Planting Pots.............................................. 34 4. METHODS AND RESULTS ...................................................... 38 Methods ................................................................................. 38 Results.................................................................................... 40 Rim Styles........................................................................ 43 ix CHAPTER Page Flanged Rim............................................................... 43 Rolled Rim................................................................. 44 Square or Collared Rim ............................................. 45 Straight Rim............................................................... 47 Double Rim................................................................ 48 Ruffled Rim ..............................................................

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