UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 35, Page 2
July 8, 1993
Researcher peers at past through glass, ceramics

     Ceramics and glass found at archaeological sites are useful in
unlocking the past and giving insights about the people who once lived
there, according to George L. Miller, a material culture researcher at the
University's Center for Archaeological Research.
     Miller's field of expertise is glassware and ceramics, including tea,
table, kitchen and toilet wares used in the United States from the
mid-1700s until the 1930s. He has received a $35,000 archaeological
research grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for a
project studying English and American ceramics, particularly white
graniteware, also called white ironstone, popular in the United States from
1846-1917.
     Through evaluation and price indexing, archaeologists and historians
can more accurately compare and date sites and study consumer buying habits
of different levels of society in the past.
     Unlike wood, paper and fabric, which tend to disintegrate when buried,
ceramics and glassware, although easily broken, survive well in the ground
and are not recyclable, as are metal objects, Miller said. Once an
archaeologist has identified and dated ceramics and glass from a site,
Miller's index values can be used to establish the average cost. The index
provides a useful tool for archaeologists and for historians studying past
consumer behavior.
     "For example," Miller said, "the ceramics and glass found at a site
give some indication of the economic circumstances of the family who lived
there-whether they were wealthy landowners, merchants or tenant farmers."
     Ceramics also help to establish the time frame of an excavation
because it is frequently possible to date pieces and identify their origin,
Miller said. For example, tea cups in the late 18th century were small and
without handles and differed from coffee cups. But by the late 19th
century, the two merged into one style of a larger cup with a handle.
     Pointing to a photograph of a collection of bottles found in two
filled-up wells near Leipsic, Del., Miller said, "We can tell certain
things about the families who occupied this site. In one well, we found
old, handmade bottles from the late 19th century, which contained mostly
baking powder, patent medicines and blueing used to whiten laundry. From
these bottles we can deduct that the family did their own baking and own
medicating.
     "The other well contained a larger variety of machine-made bottles,
which contained prescription medicine, bleaches, inks and cosmetics from
the 1930s. The family was more sophisticated in their consumer choices, did
not do their own baking and sought medical advice for their illnesses."
     Until the mid-18th century, the most common ceramic ware was a
tin-glazed delftware, replaced in popularity in the 1780s by Josiah
Wedgewood's creamware, Miller said. Wedgewood furnished Catherine the Great
with a 960-piece set of creamware, which he renamed queensware.
Graniteware, or ironstone, then became the pottery of choice from the 1840s
until around World War I.
     Until the Civil War, most china, including tea, table, kitchen and
toilet wares, were imported from England. High tariffs and a poor exchange
rate for United States greenbacks against British pounds drove up the cost
of imported ceramics, and English potters immigrated from Staffordshire to
start up potteries in East Liverpool, Ohio and Trenton, N.J.
     For a previous study, Miller used creamware as the basis of his
classification system of index values from 1787-1880 and is using
graniteware as a base for his current research.
     Miller is collecting invoices of wares from England and copies of
price-fixing lists from Staffordshire and East Liverpool, Ohio, to compile
index values of white graniteware. He also uses invoices for ceramics sold
to county stores and, later, catalogues from mail-order houses, such as
Sears Roebuck. He will use the graniteware as a basis of comparison with
the costs of other kinds of ceramics.
     Miller, a graduate of Wayne State University, began his career as a
"shovel bum" on archaeological digs. He then worked as an archeologist for
St. Mary's City, the first capital of Maryland, for Canada Parks and, most
recently, for Colonial Williamsburg.
                                                  -Sue Swyers Moncure