Hello all,

I'm a graduate student and bioarchaeologist interested in processes of
institutionalization in the 19th century, and I'm currently looking for
available skeletal assemblages for my dissertation research. I'm interested
in hearing about any collections from institutional contexts (prison,
almshouse, asylums) where a significant portion of the individuals under
care were engaged in labor, whether that is labor therapy, convict leases,
or to pay off their debts. So far I'm aware of the Virginia Penitentiary
collection housed at the Smithsonian and the Oneida Asylum assemblage as
two examples. I'm most interested in east coast remains from the mid 19th
to early 20th century, and smaller collections that could be analyzed
without employing an extensive sampling strategy.
If you know of any collections that match some or all of these criteria,
I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks very much,

Ellen Chapman
[log in to unmask]
Department of Anthropology
College of William and Mary
MSc, Durham University