Richard Veit

“Resolved to Strike Out a New Path”: Consumerism and Iconographic Change in New Jersey Gravestones, 1680–1820

Late 18th- and early-19th-century gravestones from central New Jersey fail to show the urns and willows that one would expect in an area settled by expatriate New Englanders. The gravestones are ornamented instead with elaborate monograms and other neoclassical designs. This paper argues that the popularity of certain decorative motifs, particularly monograms, sometimes associated with signed and priced markers, highlights the growing importance of consumerism and an increasingly competitive market for memorials at the end of the 18th century. The monogram design, which cuts across religious and ethnic boundaries, was extremely popular for a short period. Undecorated Philadelphia-style markers soon supplanted these memorials, as New Jersey’s brownstone carving tradition faded, and national and indeed international trends supplanted local traditions.

Social Status and Landscape in a Nineteenth-Century Planned Industrial Alternative Community: Archaeology and Geography of Feltville, New Jersey

Feltville is located in Union County, New Jersey. This small-scale planned industrial village was designed and operated by David Felt, a liberal Unitarian printer and stationer, from 1845 to 1860. Archaeological and documentary materials recovered over the last six years paint a picture of conditions in Felt’s rural industrial reformist alternative and provide a glimpse into the worldview of the community architect. Examination of Feltville and its historical context allows for the evaluation of the potential practical and theoretical contributions of historical archaeology in the study of utopian movements. Specifically, the diversity of sociopolitical ideals expressed prior to the advent of Marxian socialism calls into question the conflation of communalist and utopian social designs in some contemporary treatments.

John Zuricher, Stone Cutter, and His Imprint on the Religious Landscape of Colonial New York

John Zuricher was colonial New York City’s most prolific gravestone carver. Compared to the rather thin documentary trail that John Zuricher left, his material record is incredibly rich, comprising several hundred gravestones produced during a career that spanned four decades. Zuricher appears to have been active in both the Dutch and German communities but he also had many clients among the English elite in Manhattan. Zuricher’s stones also provide information about colonial trade networks. Working in New York City Zuricher found it easy to link into both regional trade networks and also into an East Coast trade network with Zuricher producing stones for clients as far south as Charleston, South Carolina. The Zuricher gravestones survive as artifacts to tell a story not only about Zuricher the man and his career but more importantly about life in colonial New York.

A Problematic Mississippian Pipe from the William Vaux Collection

ABSTRACT William Samson Vaux, Esq., was an enthusiastic nineteenth-century collector of minerals, artifacts, and coins. Passionately interested in the sciences, particularly archaeology and geology, he amassed an unparalleled collection of Native American artifacts that he later donated to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. Today these finds are housed by Bryn Mawr College. Included in the collection is a noteworthy Mississippian effigy pipe. Carved from stone, the pipe depicts a Birdman encircled by rattlesnakes and holding a chunkey stone. This article examines the pipe in its cultural, historical, and religious contexts. It also explores the larger question of the pipe’s authenticity. Ultimately, we argue that the pipe is almost certainly an original Mississippian pipe and an important addition to the corpus of known Mississippian effigy pipes. Moreover, its study highlights the potential of museum collections to provide new information about both past societies and the history of archaeology.

Rich Man Poor Man, Pioneer, Thief: Rethinking Earthfast Architecture in New Jersey

Recent archaeological excavations and documentary research have shed light on a once-vibrant and long-lasting tradition of earth fast architecture in New Jersey. This tradition persisted in the state from the period of initial settlement into the 19th century and was utilized by individuals of varied social, economic, ethnic, and occupational backgrounds. Earth fast architecture proved advantageous when masonry building materials were scarce, household economies were meager, skilled masons were expensive, and land tenure was questionable. The use of this architectural technique in New Jersey appears to have reflected a set of phenomena different than that previously identified in the Chesapeake region to the south, and was one of many options available to builders erecting vernacular structures from the 17th into the 19th century.

Keeping Edison’s Secrets: Archaeological Documentation of Thomas A. Edison’s Menlo Park Patent Vault

Archaeologists recently conducted fieldwork at the site of Thomas A. Edison’s Menlo Park Laboratory. Excavations revealed and documented a long-forgotten subterranean vault used by Edison to store patent drawings, scientific laboratory notebooks, office records, and other valuable documents associated with the operation of his pioneering industrial research and development facility. The vault highlights Edison’s concern with the collection and protection of company documents and his intellectual property, as well as his ongoing attempts to control the dissemination of information regarding his inventions.