What’s in a grave?: a preliminary analysis of material culture from the Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Cemetery

Summary

The Milwaukee County Institution Grounds (MCIG) Cemetery is located in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. This historic cemetery was in use from 1878 to 1974 and interred Milwaukee County’s indigent. The individuals represented consist mostly of poor European immigrants, subsequent generations, institutionalized residents, and the unclaimed deceased. The material culture associated with the 2013 MCIG cemetery excavations recovered from 685 individual graves, was stabilized, inventoried and accessioned. Conservation techniques were implemented for various material and artifact types, including the use of electrolysis on metal objects. A general chronology based on artifact variation firmly anchors the population within the social and historical context of the cemetery. Moreover, material culture associated with the spatial interpretation represented by individual burials and variation within burial treatment when supplemented with historical documentation can provide temporally sensitive data that can be used to identify individual burials.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• People that no one had use for, had nothing to give to, no place to offer: The Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Poor Farm Cemetery

Keywords

Spatial Coverage