‘Success to America.’ The Role of British Creamware in the Production of American National Identity.
Author(s): Diane F George
Year: 2016
Summary
Excavations at New York City’s South Street Seaport uncovered an early nineteenth century deposit within the foundation of a small building on the property of a wealthy merchant. Among the artifacts in the deposit was a creamware plate that paid homage to the "sacred" memory of George Washington. Along with this solemn memorial, the imagery on the plate included a neoclassic goddess waving an olive branch towards a mercantile ship on the horizon. Despite the irony, British potters produced many patriotic-themed designs for the American market. This paper examines the use of such imagery by elite merchants in New York to construct a national identity while simultaneously reproducing social divisions within the nation. It draws from Diana Wall’s extensive work on New York City and her groundbreaking examination of the role of consumer ceramic choices in forming multiple layers of identity.
Cite this Record
‘Success to America.’ The Role of British Creamware in the Production of American National Identity.. Diane F George. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Washington, D.C. 2016 ( tDAR id: 434544)
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Keywords
General
Creamware
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national identity
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New York City
Geographic Keywords
North America
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United States of America
Temporal Keywords
Early 19th Century
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): 697