Women At Work in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "The Archaeology of the Delaware River Waterfront Symposium of Philadelphia Neighborhoods" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Working-class women in nineteenth-century Philadelphia were important participants in the city’s economy and labor force. In addition to generating necessary sources of income, partaking in the workforce may have also provided economic mobility and independence. Increasing numbers of female workers throughout the nineteenth century meant that women more and more became an essential part of the city’s labor force, particularly in the domestic service industry. This paper discusses artifacts recovered from the Fishtown neighborhood that show evidence of women working, particularly relating to the laundering and repairing of clothing. These artifacts will be utilized to understand the implications of working for nineteenth century women, as well as the social, economic, and cultural impacts that those women had on Philadelphia.  

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of the Delaware River Waterfront Symposium of Philadelphia Neighborhoods   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology