Beer Bottles and Helmet Plumes: Military Consumerism at Fort Davis, Texas
Author(s): Kaitlyn Eldredge; Katrina C. L. Eichner
Year: 2020
Summary
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
This paper investigates consumption patterns in the context of a 19th century U.S. military fort. Specifically, the authors discuss an assemblage recovered during a surface survey conducted on private property in Fort Davis, Texas. The sheet midden materials we are discussing were deposited by military personnel from the mid-1880s through the fort’s official abandonment in 1891. Consideration of domestically and institutionally produced refuse offers a unique perspective into the construction of an American presence on the Western American frontier. Ceramics are used to consider how daily practice reinforced ethno-racial, gendered, and national identities amongst residents at the fort. Of particular interest to the project are the experiences of Black enlisted soldiers, women, and Hispanic civilians, and the changing ways in which these communities related to one another and the White, Euro-American community on a shifting frontier landscape.
Cite this Record
Beer Bottles and Helmet Plumes: Military Consumerism at Fort Davis, Texas. Kaitlyn Eldredge, Katrina C. L. Eichner. 2020 ( tDAR id: 457425)
This Resource is Part of the Following Collections
Keywords
General
consumerism
•
Frontier forts
•
U.S. Army
Geographic Keywords
United States of America
Temporal Keywords
19th Century
Spatial Coverage
min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 747