Cold Spring, Hot Foundry: An Archaeological Exploration of the West Point Foundry’s Paternal Influence Upon the Village of Cold Spring and its Residents

Norris, Elizabeth M.

Publication:
Cold Spring, Hot Foundry: An Archaeological Exploration of the West Point Foundry’s Paternal Influence Upon the Village of Cold Spring and its Residents

dc.contributor.advisor	Robert W. Paynter
dc.contributor.advisor	H. Martin Wobst
dc.contributor.advisor	Bruce G. Laurie
dc.contributor.author	Norris, Elizabeth M.
dc.contributor.department	University of Massachusetts Amherst
dc.date	2023-09-22T20:28:50.000
dc.date.accessioned	2024-04-26T19:46:02Z
dc.date.available	2024-04-26T19:46:02Z
dc.date.issued	2009-09-01
dc.description.abstract	This dissertation explores the nineteenth century paternal relationship between industrialists and their predominantly skilled workers in a small northern community. As an archaeological analysis, artifacts such as houses and ceramics demonstrate the economic and consumption patterns observable throughout the United States during its industrialization. Discussion centers around the West Point Foundry, which operated in the Village of Cold Spring from 1818 to 1911 and originally owned half of the village’s property and employed half of its workers. Privately owned, it manufactured a variety of iron products including heavy ordnance for both the country’s Navy and Army. Methodological analysis paired documentary research, landscape and spatial analysis, and a reanalysis of several related archaeological collections from different social and economic classes of workers and owners. The Foundry and village is placed within a broader context of religious tolerance, paternalistic control, community planning and architecture, market accessibility, and worker turnover. It shows that the industrial paternalism of West Point Foundry owners was evident in Cold Spring’s development and generally decreased over the course of the nineteenth century. Among other signs, paternalism was visible in company housing built in half the area and the provision of land for a majority of local churches. Unlike other industrial communities where ceramic patterns can be explained by paternalism, consumption patterns better explain the ceramics archaeologically recovered from several Foundry related households. West Point Foundry worker ceramic assemblages display an abundance of tea wares and predominantly more bowls than plates, suggesting a diet that favored less expensive cuts of meat and investment in limited types of ceramics. An electronically attached Excel file details the original state of assemblages examined (WPFceramicsOriginal.xls) and a second one details the final analysis of assemblages including vessel lists (WPFceramicsEN.xls). Economic indexes and capital consumption patterns in this industrial community as well as others explored were lower than their urban counterparts. Based on existing research by archaeologists, historians, anthropologists, architects, and urban designers, this research suggests different cultural practices within a single manufacturer industrial community from those in rural or urban contexts.
dc.description.degree	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
dc.description.department	Anthropology
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.7275/1079141
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/38584
dc.relation.url	https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1143&context=open_access_dissertations&unstamped=1
dc.source.status	published
dc.subject	America
dc.subject	Ceramic
dc.subject	Community
dc.subject	Industrial
dc.subject	Nineteeth Century
dc.subject	Paternalism
dc.subject	History
dc.title	Cold Spring, Hot Foundry: An Archaeological Exploration of the West Point Foundry’s Paternal Influence Upon the Village of Cold Spring and its Residents
dc.type	dissertation
dc.type	article
dc.type	dissertation
digcom.contributor.author	isAuthorOfPublication\|email:enorris2000@yahoo.com\|institution:University of Massachusetts Amherst\|Norris, Elizabeth M.
digcom.identifier	open_access_dissertations/144
digcom.identifier.contextkey	1079141
digcom.identifier.submissionpath	open_access_dissertations/144
dspace.entity.type	Publication