What a Family's Glass and Ceramics Reveal: Tableware From the Robinson House

Bottles of Listerine, Lysol, Vaseline and Pepsi, plus rows of canning jars, tell archeologists how one African American farming family lived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A National Park Service (NPS) article from Manassas National Battlefield Park studies the Robinson family's glass and ceramics, and what they used at home.

American shell-edged ceramics found at the Robinson House. NPS photo.

Dishes and social standing

The Robinsons had a wide variety of decorative ceramics, plus matched sets for the dinner table and for serving tea. Together they point to the family knowing the popular dining and decorative goods of the time. The American shell-edged sets are probably from potteries in East Liverpool, Ohio, and date to the 1920s and 1930s. Several patterns were identified, which suggests the Robinsons may have followed the Victorian dining standard of assembling matching or similar wares. That may be a sign of social aspiration: some researchers suggest that the rights of citizenship were tied symbolically to a position in society, and matching wares could have been one way the family negotiated its position in the community.

Mass-produced goods and home canning

The glass shows a family buying mass-produced, brand-name products in quantity, among them Listerine, Noxema, Lysol, Dill's Flavoring Extracts, Pepsi Cola and other sodas, and Carter's ink. Archeologists also found many vessels for storing and preserving food at home. Canning may have been part of the farming family's way of life and made them more self-sufficient. NPS reads these finds as showing that the Robinsons sought the civil and material opportunities of their white counterparts, in contrast with earlier generations of African American families, whose access to the consumer marketplace was limited by slavery and economic hardship.

Analysis of Robinson House ceramics. NPS photo.

How archeologists count dishes

Archeologists use minimum vessel analysis to learn about past consumer behavior. It counts the minimum number of unique glass and ceramic vessels at a site or in a feature. Knowing what kinds of goods people bought, and where, gives insight into daily life.

A Lysol bottle. NPS photo.

Other brand names recovered include Vaseline, Listerine and Vick's VapoRub, and soda bottles from Pepsi, Orange Crush and Star Boy.

Glass bottles from different soda brands. NPS photo.

The family also canned. Its jars held tomatoes, beans, squash, pickles, grapes and blackberries that the family grew in its garden.

Jars used by the Robinsons for canning fruits and vegetables. NPS photo.

Sources

• National Park Service, Manassas National Battlefield Park, "Finding Identity Through Material Culture: The Robinson's Tableware and Glassware", part of the series African American Households; rewritten in hubnx's own words.