Contradictory Food: Dining in a New York Brothel c. 1840s

Summary

The faunal assemblages excavated from New York City’s Five Points neighborhood provided an opportunity to examine the foodways of the city’s 19th century working class.  One distinct Orange Street deposit was associated with a brothel which operated in the early 1840s and seemed to reflect the contradictory nature of this occupation.  While some food choices reflected the working class nature of the neighborhood, other finer foods, were selected for fancy feasts, to entertain guests or for public consumption.     In the 20 years since the Five Points excavation, brothel assemblages have been identified in other major North American cities. This opportunity to reexamine the food remains from the Orange Street brothel in context with other brothel assemblages may provide a pattern recognizable in other brothel or boarding house assemblages.  

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Streetwalkers, Fallen Doves, and Houses of Ill Fame: A Historical and Archaeological Discussion on Prostitution   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 479