Poverty, Motherhood, and Childhood in 19th-Century San Francisco

Summary

Popular images of the maritime industry in places like San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Cove often focus on men — whether working on docks or ships, or on land at iron works and carpenter’s shops. Less visible in the historical record of these spaces are the women and children also living, and often working, along the waterfront. Historical research on the neighborhood that bordered Yerba Buena Cove in the late-19th-century suggests that most residences were occupied by families, rather than by single men. This paper will examine the experiences of mothers and children within households along the 19th-century shoreline of Yerba Buena Cove where poverty, hard work, and poor living conditions were the reality of everyday life. Domestic assemblages from William Self Associates’ 2013 excavations at Block 6 and 201 Folsom Street will be used to address these questions.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Spanish to the Silicon: The Diversity of San Francisco Historical Archaeology

Keywords

Spatial Coverage