Placing Deathcare: Mortuary Goods and Services in the Landscape of Nineteenth-Century New York State

Summary

This is a poster submission presented at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

For nineteenth century Americans, death played a major social and economic role in daily existence. This poster draws attention to the idea that the life history of mortuary goods begins before they were used in mourning and burial practices. They first had to be manufactured and purchased, extending the networks through which they moved and communicated meaning. Combining archival research with geospatial analysis using GIS, I explore the spatio-economics of production and consumption of mortuary goods and death-related services, such as undertaking, within the upstate Towns of Cazenovia, Fenner, and Nelson, New York in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Understanding the role of the deathcare industry through good production and service provision in local economies and landscapes enriches our understanding of life and death in the past.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• 2024 SHA Poster Submissions

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow