To the ends of the Earth: European Tablewares in El Progreso, Galápagos (1880-1904)

Summary

In 1878 Manuel J. Cobos founded a large-scale agricultural operation on the island of San Cristóbal, Galápagos. A merchant from the Ecuadorian coast, Cobos’ El Progreso operation, with 300 labourers at its peak, produced sugar, cane alcohol, leather, and a variety of other agricultural products exported to the city of Guayaquil on the Ecuadorian mainland. His home was several days sailing from Guayaquil to San Cristóbal, and 8 km uphill by oxcart or on horseback to the interior of the island. Despite being in one of the more remote locations from Europe on the planet, excavation of Cobos’ 1880s or 1890s household midden revealed a wide variety of luxury goods from Europe and the United States. His reputation as a brutal hacendado, living in a house of little architectural distinction, seemingly contradicts his ceramic tablewares, in the latest fashions from France, Belgium, and England.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• British Ceramics in Indigenous, Colonial, and Post-Independence Latin America   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 311