Under the Corset: Health, Hygiene, and Maternity in Boston’s North End

Summary

The body of the nineteenth century woman was at once eroticized and forbidden to the public mind. Sculpting of the ideal feminine and disguising the body’s true form has been the subject of some theoretical discussion, however, the ways in which women interacted with their own bodies through personal health and hygiene has still remained a largely underexplored topic. This paper intends to examine the relationship of the nineteenth century woman with her body through artifacts related to health, prevention of disease, sanitation, and maternity recovered from the mid-nineteenth century privy at 27/29 Endicott Street in Boston’s North End.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Behind Closed Doors: Exploring Taboo Subjects in Historical Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-46,05