Ceramics in the City, the Countryside, and the Sea: Pottery, Politics, and Archaeology
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2018
This session will cover a range of topics concerning the effects of political events on the production and distribution of pottery, the political activities of potters past and present, and how ceramics excavated at sites connected to historically important figures can be used to tell contemporary stories. The people who made and decorated pots, the householders who bought them, and the archaeologists and curators who excavate and interpret them are subject to political circumstances that can be studied in a number of ways. Topics to be discussed include messages conveyed through the medium of household ceramics, potters in Tammany Hall politics and excavations at City Hall in New York City, the Delaware wreck of the DeBraak, vessels excavated at the boyhood home of George Washington, and early-nineteenth century engine-turned teawares made in Philadelphia.
Other Keywords
Ceramics •
Politics •
symbolism •
Technology •
Archaeology •
Potters •
George Washington •
Stoneware •
Shipwreck •
Revolution
Temporal Keywords
Nineteenth Century •
Early 19th Century •
Revolutionary War •
18th-Century •
1600-1900 •
late 18th - turn of the 19th century
Geographic Keywords
North America •
Coahuila (State / Territory) •
New Mexico (State / Territory) •
Oklahoma (State / Territory) •
Arizona (State / Territory) •
Texas (State / Territory) •
Sonora (State / Territory) •
United States of America (Country) •
Chihuahua (State / Territory) •
Nuevo Leon (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-6 of 6)
- Documents (6)
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Anglo-American Ceramics As Social Medium (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Long before the age of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, household ceramics have been enlisted to carry messages of religious inspiration, political engagement, historical commemoration, social mores, and personal sentiments. With the advent of mass production, these messages could quickly appear on tea tables, in dinning rooms, and tavern barrooms throughout the Anglo-American world. This beautifully illustrated will review some of the most significant ceramic campaigns in America's historic...
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George Toasts George? (It’s Complicated): 'G.R.' Mugs and the Changing Identity of the Washington Family from Loyal Brits to Revolutionaries (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The presence of ‘G.R.’ drinking vessels on mid-eighteenth century archaeological sites in Virginia is typically nothing to write home about… unless the sites in question are associated with individuals who were to become significant figures in the American Revolution. ‘G.R.’ vessels have been recovered from George Washington’s boyhood home at Ferry Farm, and Kenmore, his sister Betty’s home with her husband Fielding Lewis, a financier of the Revolution. Like most colonists, they viewed...
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Ornamental Origins: Philadelphia Manufactured Ceramics With Engine-Turned Decoration (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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....
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Potter Politicians (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The early years of the 19th century were a time of change and innovation for United States potters. Some tried to continue their earlier methods of making and selling pottery, with varying degrees of success, while others expanded their workshops into factories or developed new ways of forming and decorating pots. In New York City, some members of the Crolius and Remmey potting families went into politics while they continued to manufacture salt glazed stoneware vessels. Clarkson Crolius became...
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Significant Clay: Iconography and the Heroes Beneath Our Streets (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
First blood of the American Revolution was spilled in New York City, a place long known for its diversity and strong political opinions. Past, present, and future New Yorkers have advertised their allegiances in various forms from development and architecture to consumer choices. The advertisement of socio-political beliefs and national allegiance can be found in New York’s City Hall Park and South Street Seaport. Following the Revolution potters in both Britain and China quickly helped to...
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"A Sudden Flaw of Wind" -The Politics, Prize, and Pottery of the British Sloop of War DeBraak (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
On May 25th, 1798 the British brig-sloop DeBraak was struck by a sudden squall and sank while attempting to put into harbor at Lewes, Delaware. The unpredictable winds of the Delaware Cape may have spelled her demise, but it was the shifting political winds of war between Revolutionary France and England, coupled with the vulnerability of American shipping and a new nation’s demand for manufactured goods, that brought this warship to Delaware’s shores. This paper examines the ceramics...