African Meeting House Collection
Yellowware Mug
Recovered from the 44 Joy Street privy, this ceramic is an example of a yellowware mug with white clay decorative bands, most likely dating to the 1830s. As a mug it would have been used as we use them today, to drink hot liquids out of such as coffee or tea and meant to be used in an informal setting and carried away from the table. An example of similar mug can be found at the link below.
African Meeting House Sauceboat
Type: Porcelain, Canton
The Boston African Meeting House ceramic materials included a mended porcelain piece. This Porcelain ceramic, a wide rimmed ware, is a hand painted piece most likely dated between 1790 and 1835. The design is a hatched band on the interior with a Chinese garden motif with a possible entrance scene above two rocks and a valley. The ware is an elongated oval, most likely a Canton type. These were a mass-produced ware post-American Revolution with central motifs of Chinese gardens or village scenes. The ceramic assemblage of porcelain from the Boston African Meeting House is comprised of mostly hand painted tea wares. These wares were most likely more expensive and reserved for infrequent and formal occasions.
Tin Glaze Pitcher Handle
As this tin glazed, refined earthenware pitcher handle was found in the 44 Joy Street privy, this handle fragment most likely dates to the early 19th century as tin glaze ceramics were going out of style by the early 19thcentury. It would have been used to hold and pour liquids from, just as we use them today.
Barteaux Apothecary Bottle
The apothecary at 96 Green Street was established as early as 1844. F.A. Barteaux was the proprietor from 1876 to 1886. The pharmaceutical vessels recovered during archaeological excavations show that orthodox medicines- those condoned by medical physicians or prepared at apothecaries- played a role in the medical system of the African American community at 44 Joy Street. UMass Boston archaeologists also considered botanical remains and items of personal adornment as possibly forming part of that medical system. The proprietary medicine industry gathered speed in the second half of the nineteenth century, and the use of prescription medicines may have resonated with middle class ideas of respectability.