Dear Colleagues -
        There is a nineteenth-century schoolhouse here in central Kentucky that is
part of a project on which I am working.  No structure is extant.  The site
consists of a foundation and associated midden. The schoolhouse appears on
an 1861 county map, but does not appear on the 1877 map.  The material
culture indicates that it was built in the 1850s.
        I have been able to locate some discussion of schoolhouses and the role of
education in America.  For example, Jim Delle (1995:28-29) states "With the
rise of industrial capitalism, behaviors in the space of public classrooms
were for the most part behaviors that would be appropriate for the regimen
of factory work:  to honor time, to sit and do rudimentary exercises in a
small space for the better part of the day, and to obey a supervisor who was
not a relative."  He continues "Thoughts, actions, ideas, and behaviors are
in part created by space.  From an early age, school children in North
America are taught to be orderly, attentive, and obedient to authority.
These appropriate behaviors are learned in spaces specific to such
disciplining -- schools."
        These sentiments are echoed in the same volume (Leone and Silberman's
Invisible America) by Russ Handsman (1995:146-147) who discusses time
discipline and the use of clocks in different environments, including
schools.  David Babson (1995:148-149) explores the role of public education
in "teaching" Native Americans to be "good" Euro-Americans. There are other
books (i.e., Daniel T. Rodgers, 1979, "The Work Ethic in Industrial America,
1850-1920") that talk about the use of schools to cultivate the Protestant
work ethic.  And so on.
        Clearly, schools were important institutions in nineteenth-century America.
However, I have been unable to find any archaeological studies of these
loci.  If any of you have excavated a schoolhouse, I would be very
interested to hear from you.  Additionally, if you are aware of any
references that might be of use to me in this investigation -- particularly
for rural schoolhouses, I would be grateful if you would share them.
Thanks and Cheers,
Deborah L. Rotman, Ph.D., RPA
Principal Investigator
Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc.
143 Walton Avenue
Lexington KY  40508
(859) 252-4737
http://www.crai-ky.com