This may be a little far afield, in terms of opium bottles, but we have
a number of opium pipes in our collection, some of which were collected
in the U.S. during the nineteenth century, apparently from
Chinese-American communities.  

Information on them is available on our searchable online database
(http://anthropology.si.edu/archives_collections.html ).  Some of the
entries have a thumbnail of the Smithsonian catalogue card under the
heading "multimedia", and if you click on it you can view the actual
card.  A couple of the cards refer to the "poisonous smoke" of the
pipes.  

In general, when using information from the cards, it's good to keep in
mind that some of these cards were created many, many years ago. 

In hindsight, I should have thought to send an announcement to the list
when the database went live last year.  Eventually we hope to link the
entries to images of the object, and are making good progress in
photographing the collections, but with 2.3  million archaeology objects
and over 200,000 ethnology objects it's going to take a while. 

For a different take on opium use, Kelly might want to track down John
Balaban's poem, "The Opium Pillow" in his anthology titled Blue
Mountain.  It's set in Vietnam but provides a look at opium use through
a different lens entirely.  (I can't pass up an opportunity to sneak
poetry into archaeology, even if it's a tenuous link).

Laurie Burgess

Laurie E. 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
[log in to unmask]
(202) 633-1915

  

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Levy,
Philip
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 8:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Opium Bottles Query

Hello all,
This query is from a friend of mine researching opium use in 19th
America. I
offered her some leads, but I thought the list would be a great
resource.
Here below is her inquiry, and thanks in advance for your input.

Phil Levy

"I am researching opium and laudanum use in early America -- who was
using
it, how much they used, etc. For this reason, I am interested in
relevant
sites, site reports, scholarship, and artifact assemblages, such as (but
certainly not limited to) sites with discarded opium bottles. I am
especially interested in the era before 1861. All information and
suggestions are welcome. If you have any suggestions, please contact me
offlist at [log in to unmask] Thank you very much!     -- Kelly Gray,
Towson
University"