Finding the Children in Communities of Labor – Initial Results from the Coal Heritage Archaeology Project

Summary

This paper reviews recent archaeological research at Tams, WV – a former coal company town – which revealed a significant number of children's toys such as marbles and dolls/figurines. Artifacts such as these can offer important insights into the lives of children in company towns, an aspect that is often overlooked in labor archaeology. In terms of community involvement, these artifacts are both important as well as interesting. Most former residents interested in the project only lived in Tams as children, and these artifacts can speak directly to their experiences.

This research was carried out as part of the Coal Heritage Archaeology Project, a collaborative multi-institutional effort aimed at using community archaeology to construct positive alternate narratives of Appalachian heritage to replace common negative stereotypes of the region. This paper contributes to these goals through the examination of children in former coal company towns.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

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