Making the Museum

[Making the Museum]

For nearly three months, archaeologists from John Milner Associates (JMA) have been exploring the site where the Museum of the American Revolution will be built. Each week lead archaeologist Rebecca Yamin shares her team’s discoveries. As archaeology begins to wind down, she reveals what are likely to be some of her team’s last findings for the season:

We’re approaching the last week of archaeology until spring. When I left the field on Thursday, the other archaeologists were clearing button-making debris off a cellar floor that probably belonged to a wing of the Jayne Building. Among the debris were iron tools that may relate to Lippencott’s innovative button manufacturing process and some mysterious chunks of white porcelain—though not the sanitary kind. Once that cellar floor is taken up there will be only one more cellar floor to explore before we wrap up for the winter.

When we return in the spring, we’ll be digging under the ramp that trucks use to get in and out of the site. It covers one of the most potentially important properties in the project area—the lot that belonged to William Hudson and his descendants. The house, described as a “mansion” in the documentary record, stood at the corner of Third and Chestnut Streets. It had a view of the Delaware River from a garden that sloped southeast towards Dock Creek, and there were stables and servants quarters in “the rear of the court-yard.” We are hoping that remnants of them have survived later construction.

As expected, the privy found last week in the southwest corner of the site contained artifacts dating to the second half of the 19th century. Fragments of embossed medicine bottles and a sweet little redware dish that may have been used for mixing potions were among them, but best of all was a complete pewter spoon. Other artifacts found include the heavy plain white ironstone ceramics that were popular in the late 19th century and the leather sole of a shoe.

Pictured above is the spoon, the shoe sole, and the button factory machine part found on site.

Image Credit: John Milner Associates, Inc.

[Making the Museum]

For nearly three months, archaeologists from John Milner Associates (JMA) have been exploring the site where the Museum of the American Revolution will be built. Each week lead archaeologist Rebecca Yamin shares her team’s discoveries. Today she reveals some unexpected findings:

Just as we thought there was nothing left to find, another brick-lined shaft showed up in the southwestern corner of the site. The artifacts coming out of it appear to be from the second half of the 19th century, but once we get deeper we will know more.

At the beginning of the week we completed the excavation of two nearby features: a small diameter circular shaft and an incomplete brick circle. The incomplete circle was very shallow and didn’t yield much more than cinders, but the complete shaft was about six feet deep and contained late 19th-century artifacts, including lots of printers’ type.

The type is particularly interesting because it represents a later technological development in the industry than was found earlier in the project at Carter’s Alley. One aspect of our analysis will focus on the evolution of the printing industry, which was very significant in Philadelphia.

The northern half of the site is now being cleared and we are recording foundation walls as they are exposed. The foundations belong to buildings that once lined Chestnut Street. Many of the 19th-century buildings along the street front had basements plus sub-basements and it is unlikely that any backyard features from the 18th century survived beneath them, but you never know until you look under the basement floors. Time will tell!

Pictured above is a handful of the printers’ type found on site. Also pictured (below) is one of the building foundations described by Dr. Yamin. 

Every Thursday between 10am-2pm the archaeologists are available to take your questions in person from the steps of the First Bank of the United States, which is across the street from the construction site. Not local? You can submit archaeology questions to editor@amrevmuseum.org and we will answer them in a future post.

Image Credit: John Milner Associates, Inc.

[Making the Museum]

This summer, archaeologists from John Milner Associates (JMA) began excavating the site where the Museum of the American Revolution will be built. Each week lead archaeologist Rebecca Yamin shares a dispatch about her team’s discoveries. Today, we were thrilled to hear her report on a trove of buried treasures:

Artifacts! Artifacts! Artifacts!

Confined to the southeast corner of the site by construction activities, last week we put all of our efforts into excavating the two privies that had first been uncovered during the second week of the project. The largest of the privies—almost eight feet in diameter—contained at least two layers of fill. A railroad token was found in the upper layer and the thick lower layer was full of domestic artifacts, many of them dating to the late 1830s. These include many different ceramic vessels decorated with transfer-printed designs showing landscapes with castles and mansions and even a lighthouse. A set of glass tumblers was also found.

The other privy—about six feet in diameter—had been filled in the 18th century. Even more artifacts were recovered from its fill, including elegant glassware, locally made redware, beautifully hand-painted English ceramics, and a bowl decorated with a sailing ship flying the flag of Great Britain. Anna Coxe Toogood’s map reconstruction of the block in 1787 shows “Benjamin Humphreys, Gentleman” as the owner of the lot. By 1800, Widow Humphries was the occupant. The Humphreys surely set an elegant table. From the many food remains recovered we will be able to figure out what they ate as well as what they ate it on. 

Pictured above is a collection of items found in the 8’ privy (top), as well as items found in the 6’ privy (bottom). 

Have questions for Dr. Yamin and her team? She’ll be available to talk about their work every Thursday between 10am-2pm on the steps of the First Bank of the United States across the street from the construction site. Or submit your questions to editor@amrevmuseum.org and we’ll answer them in a future post.

Image Credit: John Milner Associates, Inc.

[Making the Museum]

Among the most remarkable structures to have once lived on our site is the Jayne Building. Built in the mid-19th century, architectural historian Charles Peterson called it the prototype of skyscraper design in the United States—and it stood right here in Philadelphia.

The building name references Dr. David Jayne, a physician whose wildly successful business sold patent medicines and health advice almanacs. Jayne hired local architect William Johnson to design this revolutionary building, and construction began in 1848. When Johnson passed away in 1849 the project was taken over by Thomas U. Walter, the architect of Girard College and the Capitol Dome.

The finished product was spectacular: an elegant eight-story building, flanked on both sides by six-story wings, topped with an ornate tower that marked the building’s height at an impressive 133 feet.

Its grandeur, unfortunately, was marred by a 1872 fire that gutted much of the building. While the interior was restored, the tower was not.

Nevertheless, the Jayne Building stood tall until 1958, when it was demolished to make room for Independence National Historical Park. Remnants of the building continue to be uncovered by our archaeology team.

Image Credits: Top, view looking east. Stereoscope via the New York Public Library. Below, view looking west. Photograph via PhillyHistory.org/The Library Company of Philadelphia.

[Making the Museum]

The depth of the shops is scarcely four feet, and we have not infrequently seen customers standing in the street chaffering with the shopkeepers, while the ladder stood inside the door. Talk about slinging a cat around by the tail in these shops. Why, there is not room in them to indulge in a respectable yawn. The upper apartments have frequently been used for very disreputable purposes…

Casper Souder, describing the super skinny building that stood on our site in the 19th century, referred to as “Squeezegut Row.” For 70 years it was the narrowest building in Philadelphia.

Have you seen a photograph or illustration of this odd little building? If so, share it with us! 

[Making the Museum]

In the first half of the 19th century, our area of Philadelphia was the city’s printing and publishing hub. Therefore, it should be no surprise that the Saturday Evening Post wasn’t the only major publication to call our project site home. Also on this list: the Philadelphia Inquirer, back when it was called the Pennsylvania Inquirer.

Its time at what was then 57 Third Street came during the reign of its second publisher, Jesper Harding, the former associate editor of the United States Gazette and the leading publisher of the bible in the country. Around the same time he acquired the Pennsylvania Inquirer, he also purchased the Democratic Press and the Morning Journal, all of which would soon be published under the Inquirer brand.

In 2009, the Philadelphia Inquirer posted a detailed history of its creation and evolution, starting with its first printing on June 1, 1829 to its current iteration. It gives an interesting look at the city (and the newspaper) in the years leading up to the Civil War.

Image Credit: Timothy Hughes Rare and Early Newspapers

[Making the Museum]

An archaeology team from John Milner Associates (JMA) is excavating the site where the Museum of the American Revolution will be built. Each Monday, lead archaeologist Rebecca Yamin shares a recap of the previous week’s work. Below is her newest dispatch:

It was a busy week on the site. Two circular brick features were uncovered near the southeast corner of the site after the contractor had scraped away overlying soil another five feet down. We suspect the features are privies from the backyards of historic houses that once faced Carter’s Alley or Dock Street. They measure 7.8 feet in diameter and 5.9 feet in diameter.

We test these kinds of features by digging out a quarter section layer by layer. Artifacts recovered from the larger of the two included lots of plaster, mortar, and many bottles dating to the late 19th century. A particularly interesting bottle, called “a master ink,” has a pouring spout and a partially legible label reading “Ink” and “London.”  

The granite blocks at the back of the Jayne Building were further exposed, revealing an iron door leading to the boiler engine pump vault that ran under Carter’s Alley. The vault is shown on the Hexamer Insurance Map pictured above, which dates to 1897. 19th-century insurance maps are very useful to urban archaeologists because they show property boundaries and are often labeled with the business and/or owner’s names. Color coding indicates what the buildings were made of, i.e. brick, stone, or wood, and whether the building was residential, industrial, or commercial.

More foundations and features including a possible fireplace were uncovered further to the west. Many pieces of cut bone and abalone shells that had been cut out for button manufacture were also found in this area. This appears to be waste from the button factory that was located at 237/239 Dock Street in the 19th century. Button making waste was also found in this area when the Visitors Center was being built on the block in the 1970s.

Pictured above are some of the features mentioned in the post. The first is a likely privy pit; the second is a Hexamer insurance map showing the Jayne Building’s vault; and the third shows three bottles uncovered on site, including the “master ink” bottle described above.

Have questions for Dr. Yamin and her team? She’ll be available to talk about their work every Thursday between 10am-2pm on the steps of the First Bank of the United States across the street from the construction site. Or submit your questions to editor@amrevmuseum.org and we’ll answer them in a future post.

Image Credit: John Milner Associates, Inc. and the Free Library of Philadelphia.

[Making the Museum]

The Saturday Evening Post and its iconic Norman Rockwell covers are seared into the American memory. And the venerable publication was itself the direct descendant of an even more legendary publication: Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette. So imagine our delight to discover that, for a short window of time, one iteration of the Saturday Evening Post was actually printed on the site of the future Museum!

It all started in 1729 when 22-year-old Benjamin Franklin and his partner Hugh Meredith purchased a flailing newspaper called The Universal Instructor in all the Arts and Sciences and Pennsylvania Gazette. (They quickly shortened the name.) Printed from their shop at 51 High Street, the newspaper became incredibly successful, due in no small part to Franklin’s written contributions. After Meredith retired, in 1748 Franklin brought on a new partner, David Hall. Hall took on full control of their printing company and the Pennsylvania Gazette upon Franklin’s retirement. From 1766 on, the business changed hands a number of times, including when Hall passed away and partial ownership shifted to his sons, its name switching from Hall & Sellers to Hall & Piere to Hall & Atkinson. It’s this last iteration that leads to the birth of the Saturday Evening Post.

When David Hall, Jr., passed away in 1821 his partner Samuel C. Atkinson united with Charles Alexander. They decided to rebrand the Pennsylvania Gazette into a literary weekly with mass appeal, covering foreign and domestic news, while eschewing all politics. The Saturday Evening Post debuted on August 4, 1821.

In 1827 the business moved from Franklin’s original headquarters to nearby 112 Chestnut Street. Atkinson became the sole owner of the Saturday Evening Post the following year, then in 1833 he moved the company to 36 Carter’s Alley, where the Museum is being built. The successful weekly was published there until 1840, when new owners George Graham ad John Du Solle moved the business further up the block to Third and Chestnut Streets.

The pattern of ownership changes continued for the next decade, with Edmund Deacon and Henry Peterson eventually taking over in 1848. They ushered in a renaissance of sorts for the Saturday Evening Post, boosting its weekly circulation to 100,000. But as seems characteristic of the roller-coaster fortunes of the publication, this success was not to last. It appears that Peterson broke the non-politics rule by writing a virulently anti-slavery article that alienated their significant Southern following, resulting in a slashed subscriber base.

The next revival would not occur until 1897, when Cyrus Curtis (of the Curtis Publishing Company) purchased the Saturday Evening Post from its most recent owners. Curtis turned it into one of the most beloved magazines in the country. It would enjoy this status until its readership began to decline in the 1960s. But like a phoenix, the Saturday Evening Post has risen again. Now published by a nonprofit, the magazine underwent a reinvention in 2013. It lives on from its home base in Indianapolis, nearly 300 years after its first iteration was born.

Image Source: October 2, 1729 edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette via the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. November 28, 1903 edition of the Saturday Evening Post via Wikimedia Commons.

[Making the Museum]

An archaeology team from John Milner Associates (JMA) is excavating the site where the Museum of the American Revolution will be built. Each Monday, lead archaeologist Rebecca Yamin shares a recap of the previous week’s work. Today, she reveals the team’s newest findings:

As is often the case with urban archaeology, things turn up where they are not expected.

Last week the archaeologists uncovered a wall that spans the width of Carter’s Alley, which started at Second Street, but did not run all the way through to Third Street until the early 19th century. The wall is built of alternating layers of cut stone and brick, a rather distinctive style. Its builder’s trench (which is the trench dug to support a wall) contained the same kinds of 18th-century artifacts—ceramic sherds, straight pins, and glass fragments—that were recovered from the midden next to it that we investigated last week. 

Another rubble stone and brick wall was found on the south side of Carter’s Alley and its builder’s trench also included 18th-century artifacts. Among them were lots of small pieces of animal bone and oyster shells, perhaps the remnants of meals enjoyed more than 250 years ago.

A two-foot diameter brick circle in the middle of the alley that we discovered last week was probably a communal well used by alley residents. According to the documentary record, the alley was “closely built on both sides.” The top two feet or so of fill in the well consisted of cinders, but as the archaeologists dug deeper they found a “Jayne’s Expectorant” bottle. Dr. David Jayne manufactured patent medicines on the block as early as 1852.  

Several large flat cut stones uncovered on the north side of Carter’s Alley during the first week of excavation appear to relate to the famous Jayne building—the city’s first “skyscraper,” which stood on the site. It was taken down in the 1950s when Independence National Historical Park was created. 

Have questions for Dr. Yamin and her team? She’ll be available to talk about their work every Thursday between 10am-2pm on the steps of the First Bank of the United States across the street from the construction site. Or submit your questions to editor@amrevmuseum.org and we’ll answer them in a future post.

Image Credit: John Milner Associates, Inc.