Presence of Pathological Tuberculosis in Relation to Perimortem Institutionalization at the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery

Summary

The goal of this study is to integrate three types of data from the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery: (1) bioarchaeological signs of tuberculosis, both gross anatomical changes to the skeletal remains and DNA evidence of the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, (2) material culture, including the distribution of artifacts associated with Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery burials, and (3) historic documents that elucidate practice within these institutional contexts, particularly the tuberculosis sanitarium. Integrating bioarchaeological data with material evidence will illuminate social context during a period of increasing number of burials related to the tuberculosis disease. Specifically, we aim to elucidate the nature of life and death within Milwaukee County and how individuals dying from tuberculosis were treated in both life and death. Without integrative analyses such as these, bioarchaeological data alone can reduce the life experiences of individuals to their presumed disease status.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018   •
• The Red Shoes: Toward a Materialized Relationship Between the Living and the Dead

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 473