Community and Consumption: Immigrant Lives at Eckley Miners' Village

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology of Meat and Ale (General Sessions)" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Today, Eckley Miners’ Village in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, stands as the only mining town museum in the United States. Although the museum’s goal is to preserve and share the lived experience of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century coal patch town residents, the lives of the lowest-paid residents are overlooked. Physical structures of the homes belonging to such families, who were often immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe, are no longer extant. However, excavations in 2016 unearthed material culture related to the residents’ domestic lives. Artifact analysis, minimum vessel analysis, and census data reveal lifeways created to survive the pressures of unchecked capitalism and nationalistic persecution through community building and strategic consumption patterns. Professional and public interpretation of this work contributes to the growing body of working-class labor archaeology and immigration studies, but more importantly, gives voice to past marginalized families in a world still wrestling with racial and class tension.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology of Meat and Ale (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology