Reassessing the Early Metallic Burial Case Industry 1848-1858

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The chronology and legacy of Fisk’s metallic burial cases and the subsequent manufacturers of the 1850s has always been vexingly incomplete. A paucity of detailed primary sources and a significant omission in an early historical account, repeated in secondary sources, primarily Habenstein and Lamers (1955) and somewhat echoed by Boffey (1980), have resulted in a skewed perspective of the early industry as being dominated by the Cincinnati firm Crane, Breed and Company. This unquestioned account has had a limiting effect on archaeological interpretation, particularly regarding burials lacking the occupant’s death date or other biographical information. Though important questions remain, new archival research and a reassessment of secondary sources have put to rest some longstanding inconsistencies, offer a clearer delineation of the businesses and coffin model chronologies, and return New York’s William M. Raymond to the rightful center of the industry’s early history.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2022 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology