Heather:
Can you or the person who you responded to provide a reference or
citation for the Baton Rouge paper? Based on some of my own work on
western mining camp sites, I found that patent medicine bottles tended
to be more frequent on sites that had women on them, than on sites
without women. Same (believe it or not!) with the liquor bottles. I
examined 40 different collections before I drew these conclusions.
It's quite possible that the author of the Baton Rouge paper was
seeing ethnicity when what he/she was getting was an indication of
gender. I'd like to see his/her data, if you can steer me the right
direction. You may reply off line if you want to protect the guilty.
All my data and conclusions are buried deep inside my dissertation
(Blee, Catherine H., 1991). I'm still trying to examine and refine my
model and am always looking for more data.
Cathy Spude
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______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: patent medicine and liquor bottles
Author: Heather Griggs <[log in to unmask]> at NP--INTERNET
Date: 11/18/97 3:01 PM
At 02:10 PM 11/17/1997 CST, you wrote:
>Hi. I got to this thread a bit late, and others have noted some
>excellent resources. I would just add, be careful. At a recent archy
>conference in Baton Rouge, I heard a paper in which the author, on the
>basis of one privy full of patent medicine bottles, combined with census
>data and Sanborn maps, conclusively proved that the Irish emigrant
>occupants of the block (in New Orleans) were low status and drunks.
Thank you for pointing this out. I think I have seen this paper, too.
However, contrary to this researcher's belief, I have evidence (both
historical and material) that this is not necessarily true. John Milner
Associates analysed artifacts from a huge cesspool and septic system that
contained two deposits from an Irish tenement building from mid-19th
century New York. The highest percentages of glass vessels were patent
medicines and medicinal vials. To our surprise some of the lowest glass
percentages were wine/liquor bottles. There was even a teacup in the
deposit with the image of an Irish Catholic temperence leader printed on
it. Finally, parasitalogical studies showed that these Irish had a
surprisingly low number of parasites considering the density of occupation
in the building and the time period. I propose that many Irish were
actually using patent medicines in the way they were dispensed... they were
sold to cure illnesses, maladies, and also parasites. This suggests that
while the Irish may have been sold these medicines under false pretenses,
the Irish were not necessarily the stereotyped drunks of Anglo-Protestant
tabloids and historical literature. I suggest to the author of this study
that he/she do some reading about the Irish in America in current
historical journals. If this person is on this list and would like some
sources, I would be happy to oblige.
Heather Griggs
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