Earthenware production in the rural north 1830-1860: an account book study

Abstract

This thesis examines the enduring viability of New England's earthenware pottery tradition in the nineteenth century by focusing on the career of Joseph Philbrick, a potter who worked in rural Maine, and on how redware continued to fill consumer needs. It challenges the common assumption that farmers made these ceramics on a part-time basis by demonstrating that customer demand was great enough to make potting Philbrick's primary occupation. Philbrick's business account book (daybook) provides the cornerstone of evidence for the thesis's conclusions. As an exercise in documentary archaeology, its entire contents were compiled for analysis using a computer database. Accounting practices are examined and recommendations on methodology proposed. Correlation of foodways, consumer behavior, and seasonal agricultural practices (seasonality) confirms that Philbrick's pottery business was integrally connected with the dairy agriculture market. Growth in dairy production in nineteenth-century Northern New England provided an economic atmosphere conducive to viable redware production.