Philadelphia (Other Keyword)
1-23 (23 Records)
This is a poster submission presented at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 2015 and 2016 AECOM conducted archaeological investigations at the site of the Centennial Exposition Japanese Bazaar in West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. These investigations both revealed the presence of intact features associated with the 1876 Japanese Bazaar structure and recovered artifacts associated with the operation of the bazaar during the exhibition. The bazaar was sponsored...
Archaeology Of The I-95/Girard Avenue Interchange Improvement Project: The Big Picture (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "The Archaeology of the Delaware River Waterfront Symposium of Philadelphia Neighborhoods" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The I-95/Girard Avenue Interchange Improvement Project is one of the largest transportation related undertakings in Pennsylvania, and the project area winds its way through some of the most historically significant neighborhoods along the city’s Delaware River waterfront. Archaeological...
"The Clear Grit of the Old District": Fire Company-Related Artifacts from Fishtown, Philadelphia (2016)
Recent archaeological excavations conducted for PennDOT under Interstate 95 in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia have produced a number of artifacts related to the volunteer fire companies that once existed in the neighborhood. Between 1736 and 1857, over 150 volunteer companies came into existence across the city, and two of those were once situated within the current project area. With the creation of the paid Philadelphia Fire Department in 1871, the era of the volunteer companies passed...
The Continental Gunboat Philadelphia (1776): Update (2023)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Continental Gunboat Philadelphia was built by Gen. Benedict Arnold in the summer of 1776 and was sunk that October by the British during the Battle of Valcour Island in Lake Champlain. It was raised by local salvor Lorenzo Hagglund in 1935, came to the Smithsonian in 1963 and has been on continuous exhibition since 1964. This...
The Dyottville Glass Works, 1816 - 1901 (2016)
Dyottville has a strong association with its colorful founder, Dr. Thomas W. Dyott, but glassmaking began on the site before him and continued for much longer after him. This presentation will trace the history of the Dyottville Glass Works as it grew from John Hewson Jr.'s single furnace to the large factory complex of Henry B. Benners and his brothers.
"Equal to a Little Gold Mine": A Preliminary Study of the Grocers of Early Port Richmond, 1842-1865 (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "The Archaeology of the Delaware River Waterfront Symposium of Philadelphia Neighborhoods" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia arose around a crossroads village along the Delaware River, several miles north of Old City Philadelphia. With the opening of the Reading Railroad’s Port Richmond terminal in 1842, the village was transformed into a boom town with blocks of...
From Perfume to Poison: A Reflection of Women in the Archaeological Assemblage of Philadelphia (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Although material used by women and girls is undoubtedly part of almost all archaeological assemblages, specific interpretations of their daily lives can be difficult to parse out. However, archaeologists can turn to material culture that specifically speaks to the lives of women to better understand their experiences. During excavations of the I-95/Girard Avenue Interchange Project...
A Grim Tale: Nutrition and Childhood Mortality in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "The Archaeology of the Delaware River Waterfront Symposium of Philadelphia Neighborhoods" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Childhood mortality was a fact of life in the nineteenth century, with children succumbing to illnesses and issues at rates far greater than those seen today. The historical research done in conjunction with the archaeology for the I-95/Girard Avenue Interchange Project has identified...
The I-95/Girard Avenue Improvement Project in Philadelphia: An Overview (2016)
The I-95 GIR Improvement Project is one of the largest transportation related undertakings in Pennsylvania, and the project area winds its way through some of the most historically significant neighborhoods along the city’s Delaware River waterfront. From an archaeological standpoint, the project area encompasses an extremely complex series of sub-surface environments and developmental contexts, within which an astonishing quantity and variety of cultural deposits and features continue to...
More Than Just a Garden: An Explanation of the Archaeological Investigations at Historic Bartram’s Garden (2022)
This is a poster submission presented at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Historic Bartram’s Garden, located in the Kingsessing neighborhood of Southwest Philadelphia, has a rich and multilayered history that reaches back into the distant past. Over the past decade AECOM – on behalf of the City of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation and John Bartram Association – has undertaken several archaeological projects on this property. These projects range from simple...
"…Much improved in fashion, neatness and utility": The Development of the Philadelphia Ceramic Industry, 1700-1800 (2016)
The potting industry of Philadelphia has a long and storied past, beginning in the late 17th century with William Crews, the first documented potter in the city. More than fifty years of archaeological research has provided incredible insight into the ceramics industry of Philadelphia, not only in terms of available wares, but also the role Philadelphia ceramics played in the early American marketplace. This presentation explores the 18th century development and diversity of the Philadelphia...
Not Your Average Pine Box: A Glimpse Into 19th Century Coffin Wood From The First Presbyterian Church In Kensington (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "“We the People”: Historical Cemetery Archaeology in Philadelphia" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 1816, the First Presbyterian Church in Kensington purchased lots along Montgomery Avenue for use as a cemetery. The burial ground was active from 1818 to 1841, but the church obtained a relocation permit in 1857 and sold the land to the City of Philadelphia in 1861. Today, a section of the former cemetery...
On the Waterfront: Archaeological Investigations along the Delaware River in Philadelphia (2016)
Since the late 1960s multiple archaeological investigations have been conducted along the city’s Delaware River waterfront – the area that forms the heart of Philadelphia’s historical social and economic center. These excavations have succeeded in documenting sites associated with the growth and development of the city’s port facilities, the foundation of the early ship building industry, 19th and 20th century industrial expansion, as well as the working class people and families who made the...
Ornamental Origins: Philadelphia Manufactured Ceramics With Engine-Turned Decoration (2018)
The disruption of foreign trade brought on by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the subsequent War of 1812 led American artisans and mechanics to produce locally made goods in imitation of the primarily British imports no longer available to American consumers. In Philadelphia, some potters began experimenting with white bodied refined ceramics while others continued to work in red clay with manganese and iron glazes, yet exchanged traditional utilitarian forms for sophisticated table- and teawares....
Osteobiographies of Mrs. Ann (née Crusoe) and Reverend Stephen H. Gloucester, Abolitionists of Philadelphia (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "“We the People”: Historical Cemetery Archaeology in Philadelphia" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Not all figures who sustain social or political movements are obvious or celebrated. For instance, in 1923 Rosetta Douglass Sprague published a short biography of her mother Anna Murray-Douglass, the first wife of Frederick Douglass. No such biography of Ann (Crusoe) Gloucester exists despite her husband...
Picking Up the Pieces: An Analysis of the Bottles from the Former Blockley Almshouse Cemetery Site, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "“We the People”: Historical Cemetery Archaeology in Philadelphia" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Artifacts from places of confinement, excavated by archaeologists from institutions occupied long ago, provide unique insights into the people who lived, worked, and died there. Between 1835 and 1905, the Blockley Almshouse in Philadelphia housed the sick poor, mentally ill, unwed mothers, and children. In...
Rediscovering the Early 19th-Century Flint Glass Industry on Philadelphia’s Waterfront (2016)
Today as you walk beside the Delaware River in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood, you will find no evidence of the glass furnaces that stood along its banks from the 1770s to the 1920s. However, excavations are yielding an extraordinary assemblage of flint (lead) glass tableware, lighting devices, and other objects like those made at Union Cut and Plain Flint Glass Works, a little-known factory located between the project area and the Delaware River. Between 1826 and 1842 Union successfully...
Sixty Years of Archeology in Independence National Historical Park: Learning from the Past, Digging for the Future (2016)
Beginning in the early 1950’s archeologists began sifting the soil beneath Independence National Historical Park in an effort to help inform and guide the development of a new national park. Over the course of subsequent decades the formative work of Paul Schumacher, Barbara Liggett, and John Cotter, among others, shaped the park’s physical appearance, as well as the interpretive experience, for generations of visitors. In the process, these pioneers and their work played a key role in the birth...
Slipware Philadelphia Style: Case Study from Recent Excavations at the Museum of the American Revolution Site (2016)
Slipware ceramics have been unearthed in large quantities at archaeological sites around Philadelphia, most recently, at the site of the future Museum of the American Revolution at the corner of 3rd and Chesnut Streets in Old City. What is known as the Philadelphia style was a mixing of two European traditions of slip decoration brought across the Atlantic with the earliest settlers: first English and then German. While many of the slip trailed designs appear similar, they vary in simple ways...
Sustenance & Style: A Holistic Interpretation of Archaeobotanicals & Artifacts in 19th Century Philadelphia (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Archaeobotanical assemblages can provide a rich and varied perspective on how past communities interacted with plants, their surrounding environment, and each other. As with other artifact types, however, the interpretation of archaeobotanicals is inherently limited due to the specific depositional behaviors and environments necessary for the survival of botanical material....
Uncovering the Covered Path: An Explanation of the Excavations of the Servant’s Pathway and Cryptoporticus at The Woodlands, West Philadelphia, PA. (2022)
This is a poster submission presented at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Landscapes are one aspect of a property that can be expanded, broken up, and altogether changed to suit the intended use. However, they can also be manipulated in such a way as to block, hide, and oppress those who move around that space. It is all too common a theme seen on historic properties where the enslaved, servants, and the workers are forced to move around behind the scenes in...
A Wealth Of Data From The Lives Of The Poor – Wringing All The Information Out Of A Historic Archaeological Site (2016)
When presented with the opportunity to fully excavate a site or feature, especially in an area of such historic importance as Philadelphia, there is an obligation to maximize the amount of information you can extract from the dirt. Preservation conditions within a privy associated with the First Philadelphia City Almshouse were excellent, warranting a careful methodological approach to recover as much data as possible. The anaerobic contexts within the water-logged feature yielded thousands of...
What Comes In, Must Come Out: A Look Into Botanical Assemblages From Historical Philadelphia Privies. (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "The Archaeology of the Delaware River Waterfront Symposium of Philadelphia Neighborhoods" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Privies were a necessary part of daily life for the inhabitants of nineteenth century Philadelphia. Home to everything from human excrement to trash, the contents within privies unveil the history of the people who lived there. Archaeobotanical assemblages discovered in privy samples...