A Discussion of Eighteenth-Century Coffins from the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia Cemetery

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The First Baptist Church of Philadelphia (1707-1859) cemetery was incompletely relocated in 1859 prior to the parcel’s sale to a manufacturer of felt hats. Discovered by developers below a 20th century parking lot, the remaining section of the cemetery contained the graves of over 400 individuals. Early church membership rolls include congregants from a broad economic spectrum and of European and African descents. Excellent preservation within the burials extends to the coffin wood and hardware, including handles, grip plates, and lid plaques, and permits a detailed assessment of burial receptacle construction and decoration. Among the hardware are imported pieces depicted in British catalogs and unique objects that may have been produced locally, such as a plaque that depicts a dancing angel with facial features suggestive of African descent and furniture pulls repurposed as lid handles.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow