The Text and the Body: The Case of the Reverend Henry G. Ludlow and the Remains of the Congregants of the Spring Street Presbyterian Church

Summary

The ability to discern a life history and population histories from the bones of the deceased is an important contribution to any study of the past. At the same time, however, other lines of evidence, when combined with the body, can offer results beyond what is traditionally expected in this field. The value of contextualizing our work is that words and actions are complementary, and yet show us very different versions of lived experience. This paper will explore the intersection of written text and human remains through the case study of the letters of the Reverend Henry G. Ludlow during his time at the Spring Street Presbyterian Church, NYC, 1828-1837, and the remains of his congregants buried at the church between 1820 and 1846. Ludlow’s letters document his particular perspective on events at the time in the city. The remains buried at the church, on the other hand, document the affects of daily life on the body. This paper, then, highlights the advantages of an historical bioarchaeology, where the body and the text can lead to a deeper understanding of a group of people than either field could on its own.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Giving the Dead a New Life: Cemeteries and Bioarchaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-32,06