Hi Kevin,

I know this is a very late reply; my apologies. But please find below a
list of 1860s coffin hardware catalogs available in publicly-accessible
collections.

Regards,
Megan Springate

c. 1855-1864	W. M. Raymond & Co., New York, New York. Fisk's Patent
Metallic Burial Cases… New York Historical Society, New York, New York.

1858	Crane, Breed & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. Fisk's and Crane's Patent
Metallic Burial Cases and Caskets… Cincinnati Historical Society Library,
Cincinnati, Ohio.

1859	P & F Corbin, New Britain, Connecticut. P. & F. Corbin’s Illustrated
Catalogue and Price List. Hugh M. Morris Library, University of Delaware,
Newark, Delaware.

1865	Crane, Breed & Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. Crane, Breed & Co.,
Manufacturers of Patent Metallic Burial Cases and Hearses. Hagley Museum &
Library, Wilmington, Delaware.

1865	Markham & Strong, East Hampton, Connecticut. Revised Price List with
Illustrations. Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Connecticut.

1865	Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Company, New Britain, Connecticut.
Illustrated Catalog of American Hardware of the Russell and Erwin
Manufacturing Company. Reprinted 1980 by the Association for Preservation
Technology, Ottawa, Canada.

1866	P & F Corbin, New Britain, Connecticut. Price List, Manufacturers of
Wrought Cast Brass and cast iron butt hinges, coffin trimmings, and other
varieties… Hugh M. Morris Library, University of Delaware, Newark,
Delaware.

1866	Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Company, New Britain, Connecticut.
Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Company's Catalogue and Price List of
American Hardware. Hugh M. Morris Library, University of Delaware, Newark,
Delaware; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

1867	Crane, Breed & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. Wholesale Price List of Patent
Metallic Burial Case and Caskets… Microfiche 621. 1984 facsimile edition
(microfiche). In Trade Catalogues at Winterthur, Compiled by E. Richard
McKinstry, Item 621. Clearwater Publishing Co., New York

1867	J.H. Lewis & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. Wholesale Manufacturers of
Coffins and Caskets… American Antiquarian Society, Worcester,
Massachusetts. Also available digitally through the "American Broadsides
and Ephemera Series I, 1760-1900" collection by Readex.

1869	Sargent & Co., New Britain, Connecticut. Illustrated Catalogue and
Price List of Hardware and Mechanics' Tools Manufactured and Sold. Benson
Ford Research Center, The Henry Ford, Dearborn, Michigan.



> Laurie,
>
> Thanks for the response and publication suggestions.  The general
> consensus
> is that our artifact is part of a coffin thumbscrew.  The artifact was
> recovered from a mass burial trench dating to 1866.  Seventy-six bodies
> (all
> enlisted men) were interred in the feature.  Accounts, contemporary with
> the
> burial, indicate that the bodies were placed in simple pine boxes.  The
> military used the cemetery between 1866 and 1868.  The bodies were exhumed
> in 1888 and reburied at a national cemetery.  Homestead burials, dating to
> the 1880s, are known to exist at the site, which is now an alfalfa field.
> The real question is if the thumbscrew is contemporary with the military
> use
> of the cemetery or dates to the later homestead interments.  The screw may
> also have been dropped when the military bodies were exhumed and reboxed
> in
> 1888.  There seems to be some uncertainty among researchers as to when
> thumbscrews were first used on coffins.  The sources I have consulted
> suggest that the crews were not used until the 1870s.
>
> Do you have any references for when thumbscrews were first used on
> coffins?
>
> Can you provide references for 1860s coffin hardware catalogs?
>
> Kevin
>
> Kevin O'Dell
> Principal Investigator & President
> ACR Consultants, Inc.
> 1423 O'Dell Court
> Sheridan, WY 82801
> T: 307-673-5966
> F: 307-673-4908
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Burgess, Laurie" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 7:36 AM
> Subject: Re: Funerary Artifact ID Question
>
>
>> It does look like typical coffin hardware from the second half of the
>> 19th
>> century: a thumbscrew that most likely would have been inserted into an
>> escutcheon plate--the escutcheon may have had matching design elements.
>> But is there any other evidence of coffin burials in this mass grave?
>> Nails?  Any other hardware? Tacks, with white metal or cu alloy heads?
>>
>> Check out the following publications to get an overview of coffin
>> hardware--and also James Davidson's recent work.  There are also many
>> coffin hardware catalogues out there which can narrow your date range
>> substantially.
>>
>> Laurie
>>
>>
>> Bell, Edward
>> 1990 The Historical Archaeology of Mortuary Behavior: Coffin Hardware
>> from
>> Uxbridge, Massachusetts.  Historical Archaeology 24(3):54-78.
>>
>> Garrow, Patrick
>> 1987 A Preliminary Seriation of Coffin Hardware Forms in Nineteenth and
>> Twentieth Century Georgia.  Early Georgia 15(1-2):19-45.
>>
>> Hacker-Norton, Debi and Michael Trinkley
>> 1984 Remember Man Thou Art Dust: Coffin Hardware of the Twentieth
>> Century.
>> Research Series 2. Chicora Foundation, Inc., Columbia, South Carolina.
>>
>> Kogon, Stephen L. and Robert G. Mayer
>> 1995 Analyses of Coffin Hardware from Unmarked Burials Former Wesleyan
>> Methodist Church, Weston, Ontario.  North American Archaeologist
>> 16(2):133-162.
>>
>> Little, Barbara, Kim M. Lanphear and Douglas W. Owsley
>> 1992 Mortuary Display and Status in a Nineteenth-Century Anglo-American
>> Cemetery in Manassas, Virginia.  American Antiquity, 57(3):397-418.
>>
>> Laurie Burgess
>> Associate Chair
>> Department of Anthropology
>> National Museum of Natural History
>> Smithsonian Institution
>> MRC 112
>> P.O. Box 37012
>> 10th and Constitution Avenue NW
>> Washington, DC 20013-7012
>> (202) 633-1915
>> [log in to unmask]
>