Bringing the Neighborhood Back to Life: Working-Class Consumption and Immigrant Identity in 19th-Century Roxbury, Massachusetts

Author(s): Janice A. Nosal

Year: 2015

Summary

Working with the past always presents a bevy of challenges for researchers, and when material collections fall into disuse, it can be especially difficult to appreciate their intrinsic value.  Incorporating new technological methods (GIS) and primary document research allows archaeologists to synthesize original excavation and background information in innovative ways.  The Southwest Corridor Project (Roxbury, Boston, MA), excavated in the 1970s, is a perfect collection for these purposes.  Roxbury experienced a significant transformation from an essentially rural community to a more strictly suburban neighborhood during the mid-to-late nineteenth century during which an influx of immigrants settled and worked in the area, often living in multi-family units.  Using archaeological material evidence, relevant historical advertisements, and GIS, this ongoing project reinvigorates an aging collection and investigates how residents negotiated immigrant identities and experienced "Americanization" through the material record they left behind at the Tremont Street and the Elmwood Court Housing areas. 

Cite this Record

Bringing the Neighborhood Back to Life: Working-Class Consumption and Immigrant Identity in 19th-Century Roxbury, Massachusetts. Janice A. Nosal. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Seattle, Washington. 2015 ( tDAR id: 433908)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 93