I am suprised, actually, by your statement that most industrial excavations
focus on the worker.  It was my impression that just the opposite is
true--that the prevailing focus of industrial archaeologists has been on the
documentation of past industries, the recordation and preservation of
structures and industrial technologies, and that rather few industrial sites
have been excavated with the role of the worker in mind.  Studies such as
those by David Landon in Michigan, the investigation of Lowell's
boardinghouses under the direction of Mary Beaudry and Stephen Mrozowski,
Paul Mullins's examination of potters in nineteenth-century Rockingham
County, Virginia, and Paul Shackel's work at the armory in Harper's Ferry,
VA, are still in the minority.

The reference made by Mark Walker to scientific management and Taylorism
calls to mind a study by T. E. Leary (1979) who proposed an industrial
ecology of the workplace.  While this seems like an excellent basis for an
integrated study of the workplace, combining both its technological and
social aspects, it is nonetheless only a partial window on the industrial
past if we do not also consider worker behavior outside the workplace--in the
boardinghouse, the brothel, or the bar.  Leary's particular interest is with
the material environment of production--the effects of machinery and the
internal arrangements of the workplace upon working conditions.  This is
easily expanded to include studies of labor and management relations.  But it
is my feeling that while an industrial ecology of the workplace can be an
integral part of the study of the industrial landscape, it provides at best
only a limited perspective on working-class behavior, since it is not
representative of the full spectrum of relationships in which workers
participated daily.

It seems to me that whatever the industry, an understanding of management and
labor and the industrial process within the workplace is not and cannot be
complete without an equal consideration of worker behavior outside of the work
place--indeed, that this is the context for understanding worker behavior in
an industrial setting.  For this reason, I think it all the more important
that we encourage studies such as those produced under the America's
Industrial Heritage Project--surveys on industrial sites, company towns, and
worker housing, both private and corporate.  Mulrooney's survey of company
towns, and of living conditions for bituminous coal miners and their families
in southwestern PA, is an excellent example and provides a solid base for any
study of the 'workplace', be it underground in the mines, a study of coke
ovens, or the transportation of finished products to consumers.

Karen Metheny



In a message dated 1/19/01 10:48:37 AM, you wrote:

<< Today industrial archaeology is in the same position and those of us

> interested

> in it are ready for another paradigm shift.  Most excavations of

> industrial sites

> key on the workers.  Often the excavations of company towns are confined

> to the

> boarding houses, brothels, and bars.  But, it is time for the

> archaeological

> community to realize that there is tremendous value in excavating the

> industrial

> portions.

>>