Hi,
I'm forwarding a reply to the coffin hardware query for someone who is
not on the list.
Erich
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Erich Schroeder Phone: (217)785-0033
Curator, Information Technologies FAX: (217)785-2857
Illinois State Museum GIS Lab Internet: [log in to unmask]
http://www.museum.state.il.us/ismdepts/anthro/staff/erich/erich.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------
--------Start of fowarded note-----------
Dear Ms. Richardson,
I have just finished analyzing a mid-19th Century cemetery in Illinois and
was able to date some of the unmarked graves by the coffin hardware. These
references should help you -
1980 Illustrated Catalog of American hardware of the Russell and Erwin
Manufacturing Company. Reprinted. Associations for preservation Technology.
Originally published in 1865, New Britain, Connecticut.
Bell, E. L. 1990, The Historical Archaeology of Mortuary Behavior: Coffin
Hardware from Uxbridge, Mass. Historical Archaeology, Volume 24, Number 3,
pp. 54-78.
Coffin, M. M. 1976, Death in Early America: The History and Folklore of
Customs and Superstitions of Early Medicine, Funerals, and Mourning. Thomas
Nelson, Inc., Publishers, New York.
Farrell, J. J. 1980, Inventing the American Way of Death, 1830-1920. Temple
University Press, Philadelphia.
Grauer, A. L. (editor) 1995, Bodies of Evidence: Reconstructing History
through Skeletal Analysis. Wiley-Liss, New York.
Habenstein, R. W. and W. M. Lamers 1975, The History of American Funeral
Directing. Bulfin Printers, Milwaukee.
Hacker-Norton, D., and M. Trinkley 1984, Remember Man Thou Art Dust: Coffin
Hardware of the Early Twentieth Century. Chicora Foundation Research Series
2. Chicora Foundation, Inc. Columbia, South Carolina. This one might be hard
to find - if you send me your postal address, I will send a copy to you.
Little, B. J., K. M. Lanphear, and D. W. Owsley 1992, Mortuary Display and
Status in a Nineteenth-Century Anglo-American Cemetery in Manassas,
Virginia. American Antiquity 57(3):397-418.
Rose, J. C. (editor) 1985, Gone to a Better Land: A Biohistory of a Rural
Black Cemetery in the Post-Reconstruction South. Arkansas Archaeological
Survey Research Series No. 25, Fayetteville.
See also Bell, E. L. 1994, Vestiges of Mortality and Remembrance: A
Bibliography on the Historical Archaeology of Cemeteries. The Scarecrow
Press, Inc., Metuchen, New Jersey. This should have additional references.
You might also search the web or other online libraries for coffins,
illustrated catalogues, etc. I know there are a number of trade catalogues
out there, but I could not find any in Illinois. The Hacker-Norton and
Trinkley report has a great listing of trade catalogues.
Good luck with your research.
Dawn Cobb
Illinois State Museum - Research and Collections
Springfield, Illinois
[log in to unmask]
|
