LABOR ARCHEOLOGY OF THE INDUSTRIAL ERA
Identifying and Evaluating Nationally Significant Archeological Sites of Labor
in the Industrial Era in the United States
A National Historic Landmarks Theme Study
Prepared by:
Contributing Authors:
Adam Fracchia
Michael Roller
Produced by:
Editor:
Erika Martin Seibert
National Historic Landmarks Program
May 2015
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National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation
Form
This form is used for documenting property groups relating to one or several historic contexts. See instructions in National Register
Bulletin How to Complete the Multiple Property Documentation Form (formerly 16B). Complete each item by entering the requested
information. For additional space, use continuation sheets (Form 10-900-a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer to
complete all items
X New Submission Amended Submission
A. Name of Multiple Property Listing
Labor Archeology of the Industrial Era Theme Study
B. Associated Historic Contexts
(Name each associated historic context, identifying theme, geographical area, and chronological period for each.)
C. Form Prepared by
name/title Adam Fracchia, Michael Roller
Organization University of Maryland, College Park date July 25, 2014
street & number 1111 Woods Hall, University of Maryland telephone 301-405-1423
city or town College Park state MD zip code 20742
e-mail [email protected]
D. Certification
I hereby certify that this multiple property documentation form has been approved by the National Register as a basis for evaluating
related properties for listing in the National Register.
Signature of the Keeper Date of Action
Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic
Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response
to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C.460
et seq.).
Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 18 hours per response including time
for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this
burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Chief, Administrative Services Division, National Park Service, PO Box 37127,
Washington, DC 20013-7127; and the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reductions Project (1024-0018), Washington,
DC 20503.
Name of Multiple Property Listing State
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Table of Contents for Written Narrative
Provide the following information on continuation sheets. Cite the letter and title before each section of the narrative. Assign page
numbers according to the instructions for continuation sheets in National Register Bulletin How to Complete the Multiple Property
Documentation Form (formerly 16B). Fill in page numbers for each section in the space below.
Page Numbers
E. Statement of Historic Contexts………………………………………………………………...4
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….5
Labor History, Industrial Archeology, and Labor Archeology ...........................................7
Traditional Labor History……………………………............................................7
New Labor History………..…………………………............................................8
Industrial Archeology…..……………………………............................................9
Labor Archeology……………………………………………………………..…10
Research Domains and Historic Contexts……………………………………………….11
Labor Processes...…………………………………………………………..……12
Labor and the Colonial Era….…….…………………………………….12
Industrial Labor ……..….……………………..………...………………14
Labor and Identity………………………………..…………………………...…17
Race and Ethnicity………...………………………………………..……18
Labor and Gender.……….....……………………………………………23
Labor, Class, and Conflict...………………………………..……………………29
Communities and Collectives..………………..…………………………………33
F. Associated Property Types……………………………………………………………………36
Property Types as Categories……………………………………………………………36
Worker Housing………...……………………………..........................................38
Social and Commercial Sites…...……..………………........................................41
Institutional Sites..……...……………………………..........................................42
Industrial Worksites..…...………………..………………………………………43
Infrastructure Sites……...……………………………..........................................43
Property type Summary...……………………………..........................................44
Research Questions..........................................................................................................45
Labor Processes...……………………………………………..…………………48
Research Questions….….………………………………………..………52
Labor and Identity...……………...………………………………...……………53
Research Questions….….………………………….…………………….56
Labor, Class, and Conflict...…………………………………………..…………57
Research Questions….….…………………………..……………………60
Communities and Collectives..……………………………………..……………62
Research Questions….….……………………………………………..…65
Evaluation Criteria…………...........................................................................................66
National Historic Landmark Exceptions….….………………………………….68
Evaluation Standards: NRHP Criteria………………………………………..….70
Evaluating Properties for Inclusion as NHLs of Labor Archeology………..…...71
G. Geographical Data ...................................................................................................................72
H. Summary of Identification and Evaluation Methods................................................................72
Evaluation Methods and Examples.......................................................................72
A Sample of Potential National Historic Landmarks ...........................................75
Lowell, Massachusetts...............................................................................76
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Table of Contents for Written Narrative
Page Number
Sloss Furnace, Birmingham.......................................................................78
Fayette, Michigan......................................................................................79
Chinese Mining Camp, Idaho……………………………………………80
Chinese Camp, California..........................................................................81
Buxton Townsite, Iowa..............................................................................82
Hope Mills, North Carolina.......................................................................83
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia....................................................................84
Sunrise City, Alaska..................................................................................85
Thurber, Texas...........................................................................................86
Current National Historic Landmarks of Labor Archeology................................87
Ludlow Tent Colony, Colorado................................................................87
I. Major Bibliographical References.............................................................................................91
Appendix A: Potential NHL Sites………..….……………………………………………...….109
Appendix B: Survey of NR and NHL Sites…………………………………...……………….114
Appendix C: Applicable Multiple Property Submissions………...…………………………....126
E. Statement of Historic Contexts
In 1991 Congress directed the National Park Service to undertake a theme study on American
Labor History (PL 102-101). The Labor History Theme Study (Arnesen et al. 2003) identified a
number of potential National Historic Landmarks (NHLs); however, archeological properties
were not explicitly considered in the research carried out for that theme study. To address this
omission, a Multiple Property Submission (MPS) cover document on labor archeology was
begun in 1997 and has undergone several revisions by several different authors since that time.
i
The theme study on labor archeology works in conjunction with the Labor History Theme Study;
however, the Labor Archeology Theme Study is not an addendum to the labor history.
Archeology can offer different research avenues and insights to the study of labor in the
industrial era.
The last few centuries, starting in the 1790s with the beginning of the industrial period to the
continuance of industrial production in the present, are specifically addressed here. Pre-
industrial labor is discussed briefly only to provide a context for comparison and show changes
brought about with industrial labor. A context for labor archeology that addresses work-related
i
Theresa Solury and David Gadsby prepared earlier drafts of this document. The Labor Archeology of the Industrial
Era theme study builds on their earlier work. This theme study also draws from the format and language of other
theme studies, especially The Earliest Americans Theme Study.
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sites prior to and during European colonization and settlement remains to be written and is
beyond the purview of this study. As summarized in Section H, the survey for potential labor
archeology NHLs largely has been restricted to existing National Register of Historic Places
(NRHP) and NHL properties. Lists of the properties recommended and assessed as well as
applicable MPS cover documents are included in the appendices. Other archeological properties
that meet the Criteria for NHL designation exist but have not been evaluated.
This MPS Theme Study will serve as a concise reference for context, research design, and
examples of properties related to the archeology of labor history or labor archeology of the
industrial era and can be used to assist in the identification, evaluation, and documentation of
archeological properties for designation as NHLs as well as listings in the NRHP. The research
on the context section consulted a wide variety of resources such as site reports from around the
country (e.g., Adams et al. 1981; Hardesty et al. 1994) and texts on work culture (e.g., Gutman
1976; Nash 1979, 1989). These resources provided theoretical concepts on work and work
cultures as well as comparable data on work sites throughout the nation. Major research
domains were derived from this research to illustrate possible ways of reviewing and assessing
archeological properties with labor significance. When coupled with the applicable domains, the
National Park Service's Thematic Framework (National Park Service [NPS] 1996) illustrates
relevant research questions that should guide assessments of potential NHL and NHRP
eligibility.
Introduction
Labor, or at least work, pervades the daily life of all people. Labor concerns the production of
goods or commodities within the industrial system and the reproduction of the human and
material resources necessary for industry. Workers under the industrial arrangement, as defined
in this study, are people who sell their own labor power in order to make a living, but have
limited control over the conditions under which they exercise that power. This particular
dynamic, characterized by social relations interconnected with the commodification of work,
deeply affected the lives, practices, and identities of all Americans.
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This theme study is meant to provide a basic framework for the nomination of archeological sites
that are nationally significant for their ability to yield or are likely to yield information of major
scientific importance about labor within the context of the industrial period of United States
history beginning in the late eighteenth century and continuing into the present. National
Historic Landmark Criteria reflect a rigorous evaluative framework appropriate for properties
possessing the potential to contain information of the highest level of national significance.
NHLs designated under the Labor Archeology Theme Study must be acknowledged to be among
the nation’s most significant properties associated with the context of workers and worker’s lives
as situated within the context of industrial labor systems. To be applicable, the relevant aspects
of a property must have occurred between the late eighteenth century and the present, or
specifically present a unique or early example of the work cultures that would later accompany
changes in industrial production. Furthermore, the properties must be located within the United
States and its territories and possessions.
Labor archeology properties for the NHL program are nationally significant sites where workers
extracted resources for industrial production, sites where workers processed and distributed
those resources, and places and structures associated with industry. Because the relationships
that labor produces are understood to pervade all social forms, the homes of men, women, and
children who performed, and in some cases continue to perform, these forms of labor and their
communities are also relevant to this study. Thus, data on labor archeology may be found at any
property whose major contributing features are associated with industrial labor. These properties
may include a range of different industrial sites from factories, workshops, and wharves to
canals, tenements, and union halls. The individual merits of each property, such as site integrity,
uniqueness, and ability to answer research questions of national importance (see Section F for
property types, NHL and NHRP Criteria, and proposed research questions) play a significant
role in determining whether properties are appropriate within the context of this theme study
The study does exclude properties where enslaved labor was the primary mode of work, because
plantation and industrial slavery sites constitute a body of archeological work so large and
important as to require separate treatment. Likewise, pre-industrial labor is not discussed though
the general transition to industrial labor is highlighted with a brief discussion of sites during this
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period to provide a historical context of the changes that accompanied this transition.
Labor History, Industrial Archeology, and Labor Archeology
The study of labor and industrial labor are represented by the fields of labor history, labor
archeology, and industrial archeology. A brief discussion of the field of labor archeology
illustrates its theoretical foundations along with some current trends in theory and practice.
Following this brief section on the history of labor studies and the increasing interrelation of
these fields is a brief historic overview of labor systems, work practices, and work cultures in the
United States from the beginning of industrialization to recent times organized around four
major research domains. While this section does not constitute a thorough examination or
description of all aspects of American labor history or labor archeology, the theme study in
general is intended to serve as a framework for evaluating the national significance of the
archeology of labor sites and offer a sample of nationally and potentially nationally significant
resources in the United States and provide enough context for such an evaluation.
Traditional Labor History
Labor history is usually divided into two primary schools of thought: traditional, movement-
based labor history and the “new” labor history. Traditional labor history in the United States is
grounded in economic history and traces its roots to John R. Commons’ Wisconsin School and
George E. Barnett’s students at Johns Hopkins University (Brody 1993:6). This tradition
approaches the study of labor as a study of trade unionism and collective bargaining (Brody
1979:111). Studies by these labor historians tend to focus on the institutional aspects of work,
such as union history and development (Brody 1985:27; Morris 1985:21). This traditional
approach “adopted a grand narrative form in which heroic workers and their unions marched,
bent but not bowed, toward a better future, culminating in the New Deal and federal labor law
reforms” (Arnesen et al. 2003:3).
Changing theoretical approaches and analytical methods in labor history in the 1960s and 1970s
prompted some scholars to expand labor history’s research areas. While studies by early labor
historians are excellent accounts of the development of the labor movement as a united entity,
they provide little information on the behavior and reasoning of workers and employers (Brody
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1979:112). For this reason, many later labor historians began to shift away from traditional labor
history and toward the study of working-class culture and movements.
New Labor History
During the 1970s, many scholars, following in the groundbreaking footsteps of British historian
E.P. Thompson (1966), shifted their focus of study away from protests and institutions to
examine the worker as an individual, not an aggregate (e.g., Dubofsky and Van Tine 1986;
Gutman 1976; Montgomery 1979:6). Thompson’s work examined the ways workers came to
view themselves as a group. Subsequent works of the “new” labor history have moved toward
the experiences of workers and away from the events acting on workers (Brody 1979:114). This
more recent turn toward social history has produced analytical studies in addition to the
descriptive studies conducted by traditional labor historians (Morris 1985:23). Ethnic histories,
labor mobility, communication, community studies, worker experiences, urban histories, women
and minority studies, and political behavior are all common avenues of investigation for “new”
labor historians (Brody 1979:115-117). More recently, “movement historians” such as James
Green (2000) have begun to use worker heritage as an organizing tool while others (Roediger
1999) have examined the intersections of race, ethnicity, and gender with worker’s identity.
The contemporary field of labor history is built upon a scholarly heritage that includes not only a
particularistic history of the labor movement, but also an increasingly sophisticated use of social
theory. While a clear distinction between both styles of labor history is apparent, it is not
necessary that these two styles be considered fully separate. This theme study proposes that
traditional and “new” labor histories need not be mutually exclusive.
The study of labor’s history has also received scholarly contribution from many other
disciplines. Contemporaries of the new labor historians, historical anthropologists such as Eric
Wolf (1982) and Sidney Mintz (1974), began to explore the consequences of increasingly
globalized trade and industrial labor and their effects on indigenous people. Other
anthropologists (Wallace 1978) studied the formation of industrial communities as well as the
experiences of women in the labor force (Di Leonardo 1985; Lamphere 1985) and the impacts of
neoliberal labor regimes on women around the world (Ong 2006). Together, the different
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research questions posed by labor history and related fields present a fuller conceptualization of
labor history and offer a range of avenues from which to study its many manifestations and
implications for the present.
Industrial Archeology
The historical archeology of industrial sites represents an independent discipline with an
intellectual genealogy separate from labor history. The first archeologists to study labor
explicitly did so within the context of an archeological subfield known as industrial archeology,
a term coined in 1955 by British archeologist Michael Rix (Rix 1955; Symonds 2005:37).
Industrial archeologists studied the material remains of the industrial revolution and industrial
era (Foley 1968:66; Hudson 1966, 1979). The motivation of these preservationists was initially
to document the extant remains of the industrial revolution from the vantage point of post-
industrial economies. Beginning in the late 1950s and 1960s, industrial archeologists began a
project dedicated to recording the physical structures of work places through the examination of
factory designs, layouts, and technology systems; a material history of technology and work
processes (Hudson 1979). In the United States, industrial archeologists documented features
such as factories, mills, foundries, bridges, railways, kilns, and mines.
The advent of the discipline was significant as it encouraged archeologists, for the first time, to
study fairly recent, standing, and very visible structures, creating an archeological and historical
record for a quickly disappearing and under-researched set of resources and applying
archeological methods and theories to extant structures (Vogel 1969:90-91). Industrial
archeology places primacy on material and technological developments rather than work-related
issues and culture. Because the traditional concern of industrial archeology is the creation of a
thorough record of the structure and layout of industrial buildings, space, and technology, it
offered little information on the social lives of workers or their experiences of the emergence of
the industrial system of labor. In historical archeology, there has been a call to include labor, not
only in the context of industrial or work-related sites, but in all sites that reflect the daily lives of
workers and their families (Shackel 2009). Through this work, it is now accepted that the
changes in technology, work processes, and social relations that came along with the industrial
era have significantly affected the identities, environmental and health conditions, social
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relationships, and other aspects of the lives of workers and their families.
Labor Archeology
In recent decades, historical archeologists have begun to examine sites associated with industrial
workers and their labor from an anthropological perspective (such as Adams et al. 1981;
Nassaney and Abell 2000; Shackel 1994). American labor archeology, which has intellectual
roots in North American anthropological archeology rather than British or American industrial
archeology or the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), expands some of the scope of
industrial archeology to include pre-industrial and modern society. In keeping with the “new”
labor history, American labor archeology also focuses on the factors that have affected the
experiences and social relations of workers beginning in the late eighteenth century with the
onset of industrial systems of labor. In recent years many archaeologists have begun to examine
daily life and labor in the United States (Beaudry and Mrozowski 1989c; Brashler 1991; Camp
2011; Costello 1998; Shackel 1996, 2000; Van Bueren 2002b; Walker 2008a; Wegars 1991;
Wood 2002a; Workman et al. 1994).
Another factor that distinguishes labor archeology from industrial archeology is the introduction
of more varied issue-based studies. Gender, racialization and ethnic studies (Voss 2005) are
three such areas of research currently expanding in the archeological field (for example see
Beaudry and Mrozowski 1989b; Orser 2007; Schuyler 1980; Scott 1994). Although more
comparative work needs to be done between sites and the individual histories of workers and
communities in order to develop a nuanced understanding of broader patterns of labor
organization, movements, and industrial labor, attention to identity and everyday experiences
allows archeologists to understand how workers negotiated social, political, and economic
contexts on a daily basis.
Practitioners of industrial archeology and labor archeology have formulated different sets of
research questions and may hold divergent goals; however, each approach addresses important
facets of industrial labor’s past. Both Eleanor Casella (2005:3) and James Symonds (2005) note
that since the 1990s, industrial archeologists have increasingly engaged with social theory,
which has expanded their focus beyond their particularist roots. For instance, Ian Mellor (2005)
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applies network theory to cotton textile mill designs to understand how the buildings conditioned
workers’ behavior, especially their communication habits. Ray Riley (2005) has also noted that
industrial archeologists must consider their sites as parts of larger regional and global systems.
When taken together, the archeology of industrial sites and the social archeology of labor
possess the potential to form a holistic view of work processes, patterns, and experiences.
Labor archeology, itself, presents a different approach than that found in other disciplines. First,
labor archeology is an important way to learn about a group of people who, for a variety of
reasons, seldom left historical records of their own lives (Gordon and Malone 1994:13-16).
Second, the material culture of industrial labor also affords archeologists the ability to address
different research questions than might be found in the field of labor history. Additionally,
within the discipline of historical archeology, methodologies that promote public engagement in
explorations of heritage have developed as a major goal of archeological research in recent years
(Little 2007; Shackel and Little 2007). Labor, as a practice that permeates social life in the past
as much as the present and that is intrinsically connected to important broad social questions
about identities, practices, politics and economy, is a topic that can serve as a touchstone for a
shared exploration of past and present (Shackel 2004, 2009). This focus is certainly the case in
terms of difficult, neglected, or forgotten aspects of American history. For instance, labor
history has been promoted as a way for contemporary workers to develop and explore their
unique heritage and to promote equity and fairness in the context of present social changes
(Green 2000). The Ludlow project is one example of this sort of participatory methodology
applied in the context of labor archeology (Ludlow Collective 2001; Saitta 2007; Wood 2002b).
The project examined the development of class solidarity amongst the participants of the
Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-1914 using a collaborative approach that engaged the present-
day labor movement in a neighboring community.
Research Domains and Historic Contexts in Labor Archeology of the Industrial Era
The history of labor in the industrial era represents a large area of research and a long time span
for the field of archeology. The Labor Archeology of the Industrial Era theme study uses four
research domains to provide a grouping of research questions to focus on regionally and
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nationally important aspects of the industrial era of archeological properties. In Section F, these
domains are also linked to applicable property types, research questions, and the appropriate
Thematic Framework themes and topics. A thorough chronological history of labor in the
industrial era is not included in this document as the Labor History Theme Study has already
detailed such a history. The following section details the four domains, their context, and the
information they can provide. While these trends are discussed separately in an effort to
highlight specific research questions, these domains are intricately interconnected and attention
should be paid to the dynamics of this interrelation.
Labor Processes
The industrial era was characterized by a shift in work and work relations which came to impact
almost all aspects of social life. Beginning in England in the second half of the eighteenth
century, mercantilism began to give way to a new mode of production, spurred by the investment
of capital and inventions which led to predominance of machine production (Wolf 1982:266).
This transition to industrial capitalism entailed a new way of life that was painfully
institutionalized over time (Gutman 1987:71). Since changes in labor processes of the industrial
era affected life both in and outside of the workplace, labor archeology of the industrial era
directs its questions to archeological contexts of both work and everyday life.
Labor and the Colonial Era
Although the colonial labor system is not covered in this theme study, a brief consideration of
pre-industrial labor helps to frame the context for industrial labor and the changes that occurred
during this transition. The colonial period in the United States and elsewhere saw the
introduction of new labor systems and the adaptation of traditional systems to new
environments. European settlers constructed farms, workshops, and stores in the colonies but
continuing labor shortages inhibited the development of a mature economy. In order to address
labor shortages, colonists and colonial governments enslaved native populations or imported
slaves, servants, and indentured servants (Boris and Lichtenstein 1991:33).
During this period prior to the industrial era, individual craftspeople, artisans, and their families
produced most commodities in a system known as the artisan system of labor. This system of
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labor was characterized by small-scale production, local markets, and skilled craftsmanship with
work centered around the home or the community. Homes often served as the earliest
production centers. Artisans generally owned the tools and materials necessary to ply their trade
and had a great deal of control over the hours and conditions of their labor. Men, and to a
smaller degree, women produced or processed goods on a limited scale as skilled craftsmen,
sometimes taking on apprentices or assistants who exchanged their labor for craft training, and
room and board (Arnesen et al. 2003). Most craft and artisan production thus was done by
independent producers, sometimes aided by family members, apprentices, journeymen, or others
(Gordon et al. 1982:54-55).
Early agricultural operations were centered around farm units with little distinction between
home and field. Households performed farm work year round, and family members provided the
primary source of labor. As the colonies became more established, merchant-farmers developed
larger plantations to produce goods on a greater commercial scale. Such operations required a
large and inexpensive labor force and often relied upon unfree labor—enslaved workers and
indentured servants—as well as tenants, settled yeomen, migrants, women, and children
(Arnesen et al. 2003; Gibb and King 1991). Archeologists like Mark Groover (2008) have
examined the evolution and impact of changes to agricultural operations. Groover (2008)
identified the material signature of changes to farm practices and the switch to commercial
farming from the colonial period to the present documenting the changes to rural households and
social life.
Colonial Era work practices, including varieties of enslaved, coerced, and indebted labor as well
as artisan or craft-based systems, set the stage for a new economic system beginning in the late
eighteenth century and intensifying in the middle of the nineteenth century. While this transition
followed regional variations, it is well accepted that an overall change in many aspects of the
economy, including the social relationships between labor and capital, were widespread by this
time.
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Industrial Labor
The transition from the artisan system to the factory system unfolded gradually in the United
States. This movement relates to other major themes of the period: changing conditions and
hours of labor, formation of a factory culture, and transformative technological developments, all
of which affected workers’ attitudes, lifestyles, and health. Generally, the artisan system
dominated from the 1700s to the 1860s, though factory discipline began to be implemented in
the first quarter of the nineteenth century (Boris and Lichtenstein 1991:84-85). Textile mills,
which required large equipment and water-power, appear to have adopted the factory system
earliest. For instance, Samuel Slater, a British textile entrepreneur, opened his mill in
Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1793, employing entire families in the work process. Slater’s system
included a system of tenant farms around the mills to house the working families (Gordon and
Malone 1994; Shackel 2009:24-25). Likewise, the Union Manufacturing Company in Oella,
Maryland began production shortly after 1808 (Clendenning 1992:251-252).
The introduction of the industrial system, which often shifted production from the home to a
separate manufacturing site, meant that workers lost power over their tools and equipment and
lost the ability to set their own prices or sell their own goods. Instead, industrial workers sold
their labor-power at prices set by factory owners. In this system, labor was coordinated under a
single technical system, often under the same roof. This system involved minimizing the
importance of craft skills on the part of laborers as compared to that of the artisan system and an
emphasis on the techniques of labor and time discipline. The new mode of manufacture saw the
cheapening and regularization as well as the consolidation of control over labor regimes (Gordon
et al. 1982:58). Work and social life became disciplined to synchronize with the repetitive and
rhythmic operations of increasingly mechanized processes. Mechanization increasingly
displaced skilled labor. Machines also meant the loss of ability to sell acquired skills at the same
rate of remuneration as prior to the introduction of the machine (Barnett 1926:117). Still, the
process of deskilling the labor force was gradual and uneven across the different industries
(Leary 1986:38). On the whole, from the late eighteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century,
labor conditions generally deteriorated in the United States (Kuczynski 1973:33).
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The United States saw significant changes including increasing industrialization during the
period from 1826 to 1861. The population of the United States in 1826 is estimated to have been
around 11,000,000; it tripled to 33,000,000 by time of the Civil War (Smith 1981:xi). The
magnitude of everything from railroads and immigration to farm production increased (Smith
1981:xi). During this period, wage labor became the dominant manner of organizing production
and economic affairs passed from the community as a whole to a special class (Gordon et al.
1982:3; Ware 1964:xi). Although the nation was still agrarian and half or more of adults were
self-employed by the end of the Civil War, the nation was quickly transitioning to a country
where the majority of individuals worked for employers (Dubofsky 1996:2-3).
By the late nineteenth century the wage-labor relationship between employers and workers
expanded and the United States can be said to have become a fully industrialized nation. From
the 1870s until the beginning of the Second World War, a shift occurred in the organization of
work and the structure of labor markets with more jobs reduced to common, semi-skilled labor
and control of the labor process concentrated among foreman and their employers (Gordon et al.
1982:3). The Gilded Age, representing the beginning of this period, also saw the growth of
middle-class professions like engineers and managers. At the same time, capital and production
became increasingly concentrated (Beaud 1983:117; Kuczynski 1973:124).
This rapid industrialization was marked by shifts in industry and industrial practices. Around the
turn of the century, science and efficiency, such as extolled by Frederick Taylor, led the drive for
order and control in the workplace. Taylor was a champion of the scientific management of
work, whereby scientific observations and methods were applied to the work process and labor
relations (Dulles 1960:255-256; Montgomery 1987). Mechanization and centralization
continued into the twentieth century with technological innovation further aiding the expansion
of the unskilled labor force (Jones 1999:156; Rodgers 1978). From the 1920s onward,
qualitative differences in the organization of work and labor markets were produced by political-
economic forces (Gordon et al. 1982:3).
Archeology can study how pre-industrial patterns of work and social life changed or were
realigned as a result of the introduction of industrial modes of production. The evolution of
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industrial production from the first mills to the factories run under principles of scientific
management and the assembly line had major ramifications in everyday life and their impact
inside and outside of the workplace can be studied. These changes and the patterning of
everyday life for all segments of the population are observable archeologically. The work of
Paul Shackel and others (Lucas and Shackel 1994; Moyer and Shackel 2008; Palus and Shackel
2006; Shackel 1996) in the former industrial town of Harpers Ferry in West Virginia illustrates
the movement from artisan to industrial systems and its effects. During the first part of the
nineteenth century, Harpers Ferry underwent a transition from a small craft village to an
industrial armory. This conversion was not at all times peaceful or comfortable. Shackel and his
colleagues examined not only how technological changes affected everyday lives but also how
they were subsequently memorialized in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Shackel’s 1996
work, in particular, used a variety of archeological tools to examine the culture change brought
on by new technological regimes. Other archeologists (such as Lucas 1994) have examined the
changing meaning of household material culture within the context of the industrial
transformation.
The process of transition to the discipline of the industrial order occurred in numerous craft
production settings throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. For example,
Bradford Botwick and Debra McClane (2005) illustrate a similar conflict between craft
producers and industrial workers in their examination of the landscapes of two Chesapeake Bay
fishing villages. Botwick and McClane (2005) documented how small-scale oyster tongers
resisted the onset of new fishing methods (dredging) and set the stage for a century-long conflict
over oysters in the Chesapeake. These changes had consequences for domestic spaces as well as
work places. Michael Nassaney and Marjorie Abel (2000:268), investigating the effects of
deskilling in the cutlery industry in the Connecticut Valley, concluded that through the principles
of scientific management "nineteenth-century elites used spatial organization to reinforce their
positions of power and authority in the emergence of industrial capitalism." Providing data,
which documents this transition at a nationally significant level, is a qualification for sites being
considered candidates as NHLs; a point detailed further in Section F.
The transition to more industrialized systems of production, commerce, resource extraction,
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commodity distribution, and agricultural production over time has increased the magnitude by
which the environment is used and altered, and in turn, impacts people. Industry can be
understood to include a “total system that includes raw materials, tools, operational sequences
and skills, social and cultural knowledge, work coordination, and the historical context within
which these parts and their interactions occur” (Hardesty and Little 2000: 97). Industrial
processes produce entire landscapes or networks of landscapes that evolve out of the interactions
of laborers and their families, labor processes, machines, and natural environments. In many
cases, such as the waterpower supplying the mills in Lowell or extractive industries such as coal
mines or quarries, local environmental resources were crucial for the success of industry and, as
a result, often determined work locations. These processes and their demand for labor and its
sustenance drove settlement patterns and land usage throughout the country during the industrial
era.
Archeologists have detailed the relationship between the environment and workers’ everyday
lives. For instance, Stephen Mrozowski (2006) documented the transition from craft labor to
industrial labor comparing residences and yards in Newport, Rhode Island, with residences and
yards in Boott Mills in Lowell, Massachusetts. Using pollen and parasite remains, Mrozowski
(2006) was able to compare the quality of and the creation and maintenance of these
environments in relation to work structures. Viewing the environment as an integral part of
daily life instead of just as a setting allows it to be studied in connection with changing systems
of labor and accompanying social relations. Thus, archeological sites also contain data on the
environment and its interface with industry and people and can shed light on a number of
research questions related to its change throughout time. For example, how were different
industrial operations dependent on harnessing or using natural resources? What was the impact
to the environment in this relationship? What were the primary impacts, such as water pollution
from tanning activities, or secondary impacts, such as lead pollution from smelting operations,
and how did they affect the quality of life of workers and nearby or distant populations?
Labor and Identity
Participation, coercion, or aspiration within capitalist systems of labor drew different groups of
people together for the purpose of work. Work is conducted socially among, between, and for
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groups of people as they are drawn into, forced under, or live within the economic systems in
which they become dependent as both producers and as consumers. As a result, labor relations
are nationally significant in the way divisions of race, gender, and ethnicity are created,
amplified, or maintained within the broader context of American social history and are used to
structure or classify the population.
The expansion of industry in the nineteenth century required increasing amounts of labor. In the
beginnings of the factory system, the labor requirement could be met with long hours similar to
the working day in agriculture, initially drawing from women and children (Cohen 1979:8).
Immigration and migration supplied the growth of industry and the construction of its
infrastructure. Widening national markets and subsequent competition compelled manufacturers
to seek to lower costs and reduce wages by employing cheap labor (Parmet 1981:16). This drive
to lower costs led to social differentiation and segmentation of the workforce, pitting different
groups against each other. As a result, conditions were created that prioritized production over
workers’ health and safety. Processes such as enslavement, migration, itinerancy, and the
development of ethnic, race, and class enclaves are all important aspects to the relationship
between labor and the movement of people. Archeology can explore the nature of these social
relations and the relationship between them and between industry through their material and
spatial signature.
Race and Ethnicity
The categories of race and ethnicity are socially constructed and thus historically situated in
relation to industry. In the United States, these categories were based on what could be assigned
as the “white race.” The process of racialization was wound around the stratification of society,
its segmentation and social inequality (Orser 2007:10). Therefore, to understand the dynamics
of labor and its relationship to industry, contextualizing the categorization of different peoples
by historical definitions of race and ethnicity is essential. The relationships between groups and
the ability for labor to organize was affected by these divisions and ideas.
While slavery is not covered in this theme study, the use of race in the exploitation of African
Americans deserves a brief discussion in the context of the marginalization which occurred in
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industry even after emancipation based on this earlier racialized pattern. Slightly before and
after the abolition of slavery, changes occurred in many minorities' roles in society and the type
of work they performed. Following many manufacturers’ transition to the factory system of
labor, many slave holders unsuccessfully tried to implement factory discipline on their
plantations in the Caribbean and the mainland South (Genovese 1991:143). While many
enslaved people remained as agricultural workers, others came to work in the factory system.
Both Northern and Southern entrepreneurs purchased or leased slaves to work as industrial
workers in positions such as machine tenders, mechanics, cobblers, or tanners (Shackel 2009:66-
68). Racist practices and beliefs, slave resistance, and a fluctuating economy fostered discord
between free and enslaved African-American and White workers in the southern United States,
enhanced by free Euro-American opposition to the new competition for wage positions. Whites
engaged in racist practices such as “job busting” to drive African Americans away from trades in
which they had traditionally participated (Towers 2000:221-222). Despite intergroup tension
and societal pressures, southern entrepreneurs continued to employ slave labor at early industrial
operations until the onset of the Civil War (Shackel 2009).
After the Civil War ended, freed slaves attempted to control the conditions and scheduling of
their work as much as possible. Freed slaves, unable to buy or find land to work, became wage
laborers in the Reconstruction South, working on plantations, construction projects, or in
processing and production centers. For many freed women, domestic wage labor became a
source of income, pride and a context for developing community organization and resistance
(Hunter 1997). But despite emancipation, the unequal treatment of African Americans persisted.
While society offered free African Americans a measure of control over employment options
and work conditions, employer practices and unfair government legislation plagued African
Americans and limited their opportunity for independence and economic success (Foner
1991:157). In later years from the 1900s to the 1930s, many freed slave families emigrated to
the north and north central states seeking employment and economic security as wage laborers in
major cities (Jones 1991:202-204). Though they had lived in segregated enclaves in Northern
cities before World War II, the degree of this segregation became more intense (Gordon et al.
1982:207).
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The boundaries of identity and what was considered “white” for other groups also shifted over
time. Categorization and racialization were tied to a host of differences, such as language or
religion, and used as a means of placing them within the industrial and social order. Immigrants
also supplied the demand for labor in industry. The later industrial era, roughly from the 1860s
to the 1940s, saw large numbers of immigrants fleeing oppression and/or searching for work,
enter the country. The mass of immigrants arriving with little resources around the mid-
nineteenth century were employed directly in the wage-labor force (Gordon et al. 1982:74) and
consumed its products.
Immigrants often began work in the urban industrialized centers and then spread across the
country in search of work. The waves of new labor were employed by companies to develop
further previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited areas of the country, playing an important
role not only in manufacturing, mineral and other natural resource extraction, but also in
expanding infrastructure development into American hinterlands. In the West, immigrants took
part in railroad construction, dam building, agricultural labor, timbering, mineral extraction,
commercial fishing and processing. The nature of this work: geographically isolated, often
temporary or seasonal and largely unskilled, resulted in occupational and domestic settings
reflective of the transient nature of this work (Hardesty 2007; Van Bueren 2002b:1-7; Walker
2008b). Residential differentiation of this type continued even after the end of the Second
World War, with people living together based on common bonds such as religion, ethnicity, or
race, in the process fostering shared dispositions and goals (Dubofsky 1994:236).
Minority discrimination during the industrial era was widespread. Many African American
women, for example, were unable to obtain manufacturing, processing, or sales positions due to
racially discriminative policies (Jones 1991:208-209). As such, they had a choice between
becoming agricultural laborers or domestic laborers. A similar discrimination in hiring practices
existed for African American males and other minority groups. Many employers preferred to
hire Northern and Western European and Euro-American workers over Southern European,
Mexican, Asian, or African American workers (Boris and Lichtenstein 1991:181-184; Jones
1991:208-209; Takaki 1991:214). Accordingly, only certain less-desirable positions, such as
manual or agricultural labor, were open for these workers (Jones 1991:202). Employers also
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often scaled wages for minorities so that Southern European, African American, Mexican, or
Asian workers received less pay than fellow White workers (Jones 1991:204). Considering
discrimination in hiring and work practices, it became especially important for minorities to
unionize. This organization was made difficult as a result of the positions most commonly
offered to minorities as unskilled, transient, manual, and agricultural laborers.
Laws codified discrimination and restrictions based on racial and ethnic categories. Slavery,
segregation, and exclusionary laws have marked the industrial period and can be related to
industrial modes of production. For instance, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a Federal
law to prevent male Chinese laborers from entering the country (Orser 2007:129-130). The law
was one in a wave of legislation imposing restriction on Chinese immigration arising from fear
of competition and interethnic tensions. Another example is the Bracero program which
operated as a guest worker program for Mexican migratory workers in the United States from
1942 to 1964. Immigration law and practice helped to create “a Mexican migratory agricultural
proletariat, a racialized, transnational workforce” that had various legal statuses (Ngai
2004:128). This policy ensured that this workforce remained separate from the American
working class.
Archeological scholarship has examined material culture for patterning that reflects the racial,
racialized, or ethnic identification of laboring groups in ways that range from identities internally
constructed to identities externally imposed (Epperson 2004; Orser 2007; Singleton and Bograd
1995). Many studies have broadened this analysis by recognizing the role ethnicity and race
play in combination with multiple facets of identity including nationality, gender, class, and
sexuality (Brighton 2008; Delle et al. 2000; Franklin 1997; 2001; Mullins 1999; Scott 1994;
Voss 2008; Wall 1994; Wilkie 2001). Archeology, informed by anthropological ideas, has been
particularly adept at examining the ways material culture can be used to address social identities
within a variety of conditions and social environments related to labor (Camp 2011; Duke and
Saitta 1998; Lightfoot 2005; Mrozowski 2006; Reckner 2009; Wilkie 2001).
Domestic arrangements in laboring towns, work camps, or industrial neighborhoods may reflect
a particular ethnic group clustering around or dominating the labor in an industry. In other
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cases, groups intermingled, sometimes reflecting the labor hierarchy inherent in industrial work
processes. Elsewhere they occur in diachronic succession or accumulation, reflecting the history
of global migration flows. Immigrant workers maintained their cultural traditions by forming
ethnic communities that offered support and understanding for their beliefs, practices, and values
(Boris and Lichtenstein 1991:171).
Some domestic occupations and worksites reflect the concentrated presence of solitary ethnic
groups employed in a single industry, blurring the thematic boundaries of sites as ethnic
enclaves, work camps, and company towns (Schulz 1996). Patently, they demonstrate
characteristics of all three. At the China Camp Site in the vicinity of San Rafael, California,
Chinese immigrants occupied a small village or work camp by about 1870 amidst technological
features associated with shrimp fishing and processing activities (Bingham 1978).
Archeological investigations demonstrated that the occupants of the camp employed technology
and material culture reflective of their ethnic ties, as well as consumed a diet reflective of
Cantonese cuisine (Schulz 1996:172). Among the practitioners of the archeology of Overseas
Chinese, a lively debate surrounds the negotiation of ethnic identities, particularly in regards to
observance of traditional continuity in the face of broader scales of economic and political
power, racism, and pluralism (Mullins 2008; Voss 2005; Voss and Allen 2008).
In some cases, archeology reveals distinct patterns in the material conditions related to
occupations by different groups (Little 2007:49-50). A. E. Rogge’s (1995) study of the diverse
ethnic makeup of Arizona dam workers examines the dangers inherent in dam construction and
the foodways and drinking habits of workers. The archeological study revealed the
segmentation and diversity of the work crew occupying this transient work camp. His findings
regarding Apache workers suggest that workers sometimes lived in traditional wikiups and
altered objects to serve the needs of their traditional cultures. Other cases, such as Don
Hardesty’s (Hardesty et al. 1994) work on Reipetown in Eastern Nevada, showed that while
labor positions and ethnic and class divisions were divided up spatially, domestic occupations
left no clearly discernible ethnic distinctions in the archeological record.
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Archeology conducted at Van Winkle’s Mill in the Ozark region of Arkansas reveals dynamics
at this site that span these changes in American history and racialized identity. Jamie Brandon
and James Davidson’s (2005) analysis of archeology at this timber mill and industrial complex
reveal conformity largely to a landscape model comparable to that employed at Southern
plantations of the time. This model incorporated the use of enslaved African Americans,
including entire family units, in labor. The operations occupied a landscape divided distinctly
between domestic and industrial functions. A visually prominent “big house”, analogical to
those that often held the focus of managerial functions on a Southern plantation, along with a
raised garden, presided at the central spot uniting this landscape. Excavations revealed the
construction of sturdier worker’s housing following the war for emancipated freedmen labor
(Brandon 2013; Brandon and Davidson 2005). Comparing artifacts recovered from the post- and
ante-bellum period residences illustrated startling differences, namely an increase in the types
and amounts of personal goods. Brandon (2013:43) theorizes that the artifacts recovered from
this period may reflect the occupants “growing engagement with consumerism” and the
fulfillment of their new desires “through carefully considered, critically aware consumption.”
Research at Van Winkle’s Mill synthesizes data gathered from different scales, such as the
landscape and individual household objects, to make comparisons. As a result, it reveals
information about changing racial and class identities across different historical contexts.
Labor and Gender
The conditions of labor and economy have a large and complex effect on the creation of
gendered identities in ways observable in archeological research. Gender identities were woven
with racial and ethnic categories. Feminist thought has inspired scholarship in archeology that
illuminates the complex constructed nature of gender identity in social contexts (Conkey and
Gero 1997; Conkey and Spector 1984; Scott 1994; Seifert 1991; Voss 2006). Archeologists
have identified the manner in which contexts of work and labor play a significant role in
defining gender as a complex cultural construction often inseparable from racialized and class-
based identities. Archeologists have examined the traces of everyday practices including
material culture, foodways, and built environments that create, transform, or defy gender
identities in these contexts.
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Industrial labor saw a shift in gender relationships. During the colonial period, gender played a
significant role in the types of work performed, though both women and men shared many
duties, including housework. Men often worked as farmers and may have chosen from a broad
array of other professions from which to derive all or part of their incomes. The ability to earn a
living was closely tied to masculine status, and was a condition of community membership
(Tannenbaum 2004:2-3). Laurel Ulrich’s (1991:58-68) discussion of housewives and household
labor during the colonial period reveals that most women worked in a restricted environment.
Middle class and elite women often worked as household managers, and a great deal of women’s
work focused on growing or preparing food. Most of their labor centered around the home and
the immediate surrounding area. Their responsibilities included maintaining families and
connected them to their communities through bargaining activities, charity activities, and the
raising of children (Ulrich 1991:58). Housework could often involve servants and family
members who often performed many duties (Arnesen et al. 2003). As such, it is important to
recognize households and adjacent work properties (e.g., gardens, milkhouses, laundries) as
essential work centers.
Despite the relatively restricted conditions under which women worked during the colonial and
early Federal periods, some women found opportunities to gain control of their working
conditions. Widows often found themselves in charge of their late husband’s business, as in the
case of Anne Catherine Green of Annapolis (Little 1994). Women also often found work as
midwives or medics and performed such crafts as beer or cider brewing, textile processing, and
teaching (Tannenbaum 2004:3; Ulrich 1982, 1990). Mary Blewett (1988) and Thomas Dublin
(1979, 1993) note that women may have worked in some capacity as craftspeople, producing
such articles as shoes and straw hats under the supervision of male craftsmen in their household,
but this service was not publicly recognized sometimes since men tended to conduct the business
end of the production operation such as sales. During the transition period, women initially
continued to produce or contribute to the production of goods in this manner but industries,
especially the textile industry, began to contract women to work on their own through a system
known as piecework. Factory work eventually brought an increasing number of girls and
women into the public workplace.
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As the household-based production system of the eighteenth century was gradually replaced by
the industrial system, women’s roles in production changed. Under the craft system, women
maintained the household and raised children, but also spent time at home assisting their
working husbands or male relatives produce goods (Blewett 1991:108-109). As new production
technologies developed, many women continued to help produce goods in their homes, but in
greater quantities and at a greater speed (Pleck 1991:16). Many of the job openings were in
occupations that can be seen as a commercialization of women’s household roles such as
domestic service, textiles, or serving (Montgomery 1987:136). Companies increasingly drew
women and children out of the home and into labor centers, as they tended to be an inexpensive
and efficient source of labor who readily took to factory discipline since few were skilled in a
traditional craft (Dawley 1991:97; Gutman 1991:191). Though women’s work experiences
retained many pre-industrial features including primarily a sexual division of labor, their
removal from the home significantly altered their societal roles (Blewett 1991:101, 116).
Companies also significantly altered the structure of daily events and chores by removing
women and children, the traditional foundations of the home and family, from houses for a
considerable amount of time during the day (Pleck 1991).
For other women, the shift to the industrial system corresponded with the rise in spatial divisions
of labor with men working outside of the home, possibly in factory settings, and women
managing the home and children. The dynamics of this shift changed most aspects of gender
relationships and was tied to class identity. For instance, archeologist Diana Wall (1991) has
studied the material signature of the cult of domesticity and changing gender roles in nineteenth-
century Greenwich Village, New York City, related to spatial patterns of work. Still, whether or
not a woman worked outside of the home impacted the time and energy she had to maintain her
family and home, the complete removal of men from the household during the day also
significantly altered the duties and time women spent maintaining their households.
Subsequently, changes in the performance of household labor practices occurred. Both at home
and in the workplace, the change to an industrial economy altered gender identities, both
masculine and feminine, in ways visible to archeological inquiry and essential to understanding
current and past conceptions of gender identity.
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The industrial era ushered in changes for the rest of the family and children in general. While
children always represented some degree of labor in performing errands or tasks, with industrial
labor they became a portion of the workforce as well. Early nineteenth-century small-scale
industry employed children. Child labor has been defined as the wage earning of boys and girls
under the age of fourteen (Montgomery 1987:132). Children represented a cheap labor force.
Children were sometimes recruited from poorhouses, but a more ready supply was obtained from
employing the entire family (Gordon et al. 1982:68). By the end of the nineteenth century, the
working-class norm saw children finishing six years of elementary education prior to starting
work unless the father was unable to work (Montgomery 1987:132). Still, the employment of
children and the nature of that labor was dependent on industry, social relations, family
dynamics, and current economics. For instance, more children tended to leave school to work
during periods of economic depression (Montgomery 1987:132).
Shifts in beliefs about the role of children in work/labor are seen in material culture and offer a
line of inquiry to understanding these beliefs within the context of industry and social relations.
For instance, the presence of toys recovered from nineteenth-century working-class tenement
deposits from the neighborhood of the Five Points in New York City suggests some children had
a degree of freedom from work and could participate in childhood activities (Brighton 2001;
Griggs 1999:95).
Archeologists have examined gender identities in industrial relations. Archeological research
and landscape studies of the Boott Mills industrial complex in Massachusetts by Mary Beaudry
and Stephen Mrozowski (Beaudry 1989; Beaudry et al. 1991; Mrozowski et al. 1996) examine
the manner in which the owners of the mills instituted an ideology of paternalism that disciplined
and regulated the gendered behaviors of workers. Initially, the operators of Boott Mills
exclusively hired young unmarried girls from rural backgrounds as factory labor in their textile
factories. These young women were housed together in boarding houses where they were
closely watched. Behaviors such as “reading, singing, drinking, meetings, leaving work, and
gambling” were prohibited as unsuitable to their performance as a disciplined labor supply
(Beaudry 1989:20; Mrozowski et al. 1996:4). Archeologists, however, found evidence that
workers resisted the efforts to restrict their behavior in the form of hidden caches of alcohol
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bottles and tobacco pipes (Beaudry et al. 1991:168-169).
Changing gender and social relations have been documented materially and spatially in other
contexts. Historians and archeologists alike have noted the increasing separation between
domestic spaces and workspaces over the course of the industrial period (Baxter 2002; Beaudry
and Mrozowski 1988; Belford 2001; Cohen 1986). Ruth Cowan (1983) discusses the effects of
industrialization on housework and daily life, including changes in architectural designs and use
of space, increases in personal belongings, and the advent of germ theory. New household
goods and tools offset the increase in duties due to the absence of men from the household, the
rise in personal belongings, and new scientific theories. Lizbeth Cohen’s (1986) work examines
the role of social reformers and companies in their efforts to regulate the home life of immigrant
and working-class households using domestic furnishings, consumption patterns, and uses of
space to reinforce or shape values emphasizes the intersecting effects of nativism and class-
based ideologies on gender identities and familial relationships. Reformers, as well as
companies, took up aesthetics to encourage social harmony and stability in the lives of workers.
Company housing exemplified these aesthetics, employing simplicity, minimalism, and
reinforced particular uses for interior spaces. Smaller units with separate entrances and smaller
rooms reinforced a middle-class focus on the nuclear family in place of the communal values of
the boardinghouse. The separation of rooms in company housing reinforced middle-class
conceptions of divided social, work, and private spaces (Cohen 1986:266).
Margaret Wood’s (2002a, 2002b) work in the coal company town of Berwind uses the
archeology of domestic refuse and household economy to demonstrate the agency of women’s
efforts in the home within the context of broad historical and social changes. Wood (2002b)
argues that archeology demonstrates that patterns of consumption and domestic labor in the
working class households of Berwind, Colorado, between 1900 and 1930, are distinct from the
well-documented findings in middle-class households of this period. In one example, she
indicates that during the striking era of Berwind’s history women contributed to household
economy by communal cooking and cleaning and the taking in of boarders. These efforts also
helped to build the community cohesion necessary for enduring the difficult economic
conditions brought on by striking. In later years, when middle-class households seem to indicate
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a preference for mass-produced foodstuffs, working-class women were conserving their money,
relying instead upon efforts at thrift including communal cooking and home canning (Wood
2002b). Scholars such as Wood and others highlight the efforts company reformers took to
reduce the effects of communalism they perceived as emanating from the domestic realm of
working-class households. Such efforts attempted to restrict communal cooking behaviors, the
boarding of single males and extended family, and the familial usage of household space (Cohen
1986; Wood 2002a).
Reform efforts during the Progressive Era focused on altering ethnic and gender identities. Part
of these efforts in the early twentieth century advocated for spreading middle-class meal
preparation and service norms that included the use of nationally marketed processed food
(Venable et al. 2000:19). Canned goods, though still expensive, saw a drop in prices and were
seen as a symbol of Americanization (Levenstein 2003:107). Just like ceramics and glassware,
having and using these commodities properly was perceived as essential for inclusion and using
brands and acceptable food commodities was part of being accepted as “American.” Social
workers, public health workers, and dietary reforms in the early twentieth century, not
recognizing how economic insecurity structured diet, attacked the “inferior” way that the
working class, especially newer immigrants, chose, prepared, and served their food (Levenstein
2003:103). For reformers, immigrants needed to be discouraged from making their spicy,
mixed foods and were encouraged to adopt more of an Americanized diet and dining etiquette
(Levenstein 2003:103-105). These reform efforts were linked to labor relationships and the
rights of different ethnic and racialized groups. The pressure to conform to these social norms
can be seen in the type of goods consumed such as national brands, and the manner in which
they were consumed. Material culture thus can present a more nuanced picture of the
negotiation of these and other social norms over time by various individuals and groups.
Efforts by archeologists to add complexity to gender would not be complete without recognition
of the construction of masculine identities, also equally affected by conditions or roles associated
with labor. The intersection of gender and race or ethnicity can be seen in the context of
masculine identity among Chinese workers in the Market Street Chinatown in San Jose in the
late nineteenth century. Archeologist Bryn Williams (2008) suggests that the jobs worked by a
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largely male Overseas Chinese workforce including laundry labor, cooking, and other service
work, were not considered normative to male-associated duties and roles among those of
European ancestry during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This led to a popular
discourse that “emasculated” male Chinese laborers, a discourse that extended these associations
with the material culture and daily practices and habits of these men (Williams 2008:56).
William’s research focuses on the complex contradictory meanings different groups likely
associated with the ubiquitous Chinese or Chinese-style ceramics frequently found in great
quantities on such sites. He suggests that tiny porcelain cups, likely to be interpreted as feminine
by nativist observers, were more likely to be understood within a Chinese drinking tradition that
associated masculinity with both power and gentility.
Labor, Class, and Conflict
From its initial inception to the present, industrial relations and industrial effects have created
tensions and conflict. During the period of transition to the factory system, labor disputes,
actions, and organization became a tangible reality. Despite the apparent strength of
industrialization and the great power that companies exerted over their workers, many workers
resisted attempts at the implementation of industrialized work practices and domination and
control over their daily lives (Gutman 1976:50-76, 79-117; McGuire and Reckner 2003; Shackel
1996:59). While creating competition between native and foreign-born workers encouraged
disorder in the workplace and discouraged unionization (Boris and Lichtenstein 1991:171-172),
companies enabled workers to develop a collective voice by eliminating the individualism so
strongly associated with the skilled craftsman (Montgomery 1991:289). Over the years, the
number of unions representing workers wishes and demands against company policies and
practices increased. In general, during most labor protests, workers fought for the institution of
union rules, wage increases, and control over working conditions (Montgomery 1991:290-292).
Economic, political, and social conflicts between companies and employees have always existed.
The conflicting interests of the two groups encouraged the development of at least two social
movements, the industrialization and unionization of labor. During the nineteenth century, when
industrialization developed, most industries eventually replaced the artisan method of individual
production and piece payment with the daily set pay of the wage labor movement (Shackel
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1996:147-162). Because most industries and employers were determined to control work forces
that were more unified and structured (Nash 1989), they created company policies that required
work to be completed on the company property with set times for the commencement of breaks
and recess. They also regulated and standardized hours and pay rates. All of these changes
followed the industrialization movement.
Workers responded to industrialization through protests, strikes, sabotage, and other forms of
resistance. The end result of much union and protest activity was a standardization of work
practices that benefitted both employers and employees (Montgomery 1991:296-297). The
conflict and solidarity associated with the development of these organizations both drew people
together and apart as social classes connected to their positions of work. In the process, conflict
and organization of labor transformed the work and social landscape of the country.
One characteristic of the industrial era is the formation of an industrialized work culture. One
theory proposed by anthropologist June Nash (1989) is that the overriding goal of an industry is
to create a unified work force, since this type of work force is much easier to control and
understand than one composed of disparate ideas, values, and beliefs. To achieve this goal,
corporations instituted policies to regulate their employees' habits and behavior inside and
outside the work place, as is evident in many company towns (see for instance Mrozowski and
Beaudry 1987; Bond 1989:23-29, 35). The material culture present on and within industrial
landscapes constitutes an important line of archeological evidence regarding industrial life.
Through the architecture of company housing and factories, employers were able to regulate
behavior and work ethics. Through material culture and industrial discipline, corporations
attempted to create a work force that acted similarly and held the same values and goals,
believing that in this way they could retain a steady supply of reliable employees (Landon
1989:41). Firmly enforced policies and practices, coupled with technological changes, caused
greater and more far-reaching changes in the lifestyles and health of workers and their families
(Shackel 1996). These practices and resistance to them are observable archeologically.
Out of the factory’s consolidation of labor rose a new sense of worker solidarity and
collectivism, initially organized around common craft (Montgomery 1991:289). Worker
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solidarity encouraged protest to the new factory discipline, and industrial workers began to forge
a new identity based on their common interests (Gutman 1976:54; Montgomery 1991:289-292;
Shackel 1996:59). The conflicts arising out of this mobilization sometimes led to violent events,
occasionally leading to participants killed on both sides of the confrontation. Most often,
however, the death toll fell on the side of labor as during incidents such as the Lattimer Massacre
(1897), the Ludlow Massacre (1913-1914), and the Battle of Blair Mountain (1921) (Blizzard
2004; Jeffrey-Jones 1978; McGuire and Reckner 2003; Novak 1996; Roller 2013; Shackel and
Roller 2012). Other times, this conflict was acted out within the realm of everyday life in the
context of work and home.
With its ability to identify aspects of history not included in the written record, archeological
research has identified instances of labor resistance to the enforced discipline of industrial labor
in the form of sabotage, foot dragging, and the rejection of discipline and regulation (Nassaney
and Abel 2000; Shackel 2004). In Paul Shackel’s (2000) examination of the bottling works of
the Harpers Ferry brewery, the discovery of a large cache of bottles hidden behind walls and in
the elevator shaft of the brewing company illustrates a case of undocumented resistance against
the established rules of industrial discipline and increasingly dangerous and unhealthy work
conditions. Workers disobeyed the management’s rule banning the consumption of the factory’s
product by employees (Shackel 2000).
Changes in the organization of work centers, labor practices, worker status, and work conditions
prompted the creation of early labor organizations and political parties, which facilitated the
mounting protest from the working class. The development of a cohesive class consciousness
among workers and amongst working class communities of diverse ethnic and racial origin are
an important theme in labor research. Beginning in the 1990s, a group of archeologists began
excavating the Ludlow Tent Colony site in Colorado (Larkin and McGuire 2009; McGuire and
Walker 1999). The Ludlow scholars conducted participatory archeological research at the site of
the 1914 Ludlow Massacre in which National Guardsmen machine-gunned and burned a
striker’s camp, killing 20 of its inhabitants. Excavating with graduate and field school students
for six field seasons, the collective has unearthed the remains of several tents and storage cellars
(McGuire and Reckner 2003:88; Reckner 2009). Rather than taking the residents of the
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surrounding area as the target community, the collective has adopted the organized labor
movement in Southern Colorado as its target descendant community. Part of the project’s goal
is to perform participatory archeology in the service of a community (Duke and Saitta 1998:1).
McGuire and Reckner (2002) have used the data from Ludlow to explain labor relations in the
west, a maneuver helping to situate the American West as a periphery in Wallerstein’s world
systems theory model. The Ludlow Tent Colony Site is now an NHL designated in part for its
national significance to labor archeology and is discussed in Section H.
Class relations were altered with changes in industry and industrial relations. From the 1870s
until the beginning of the Second World War, a shift occurred in the organization of work and
the structure of labor markets with more jobs reduced to common, semi-skilled labor. Control of
the labor process was concentrated among foreman and their employers (Gordon et al. 1982:3).
Capital and production also became increasingly concentrated (Beaud 1983:117; Kuczynski
1973:124). As operations grew in size from the 1870s to the 1920s, office work became a more
important aspect of industries and operations (Arnesen et al. 2003). The position of supervisors,
craftsmen, and foremen who became office workers maintaining, scheduling, and ordering the
work day and work processes, also grew at this time (Arnesen et al. 2003). This shift in control
and the hierarchy of control affected the dynamics of worker relations and conflicts.
The work of the Ludlow project illustrates the dynamics of a protracted and open conflict
between management and labor. Industrial sites are, of course, richly complex not only with the
conflict caused by new impositions of labor, but also by the kinds of social relations embodied
there. The period also saw a great deal of conflict related to racial and ethnic identities as White
workers attempted to defend their jobs from the perceived threat of African-American and
immigrant workers (Roediger 1999; Towers 2000). Barbara Voss (2005) for example, points to
the relationship between white industrial labor unions and violence surrounding the destruction
of San Jose’s Chinatown in 1887. Voss (2005:430, 432) further points out that industrial labor
contexts were important sites of intercultural encounter and communications in the nineteenth-
century West. Similarly, Mark Walker (2008a) describes a worker’s hierarchy in West Oakland
that was shaped by nativist and racial discourses as well as the perceived skill levels of certain
types of workers. Walker suggests that domestic life can be interpreted as producing and
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expressing a material culture that indicates certain ideas about class consciousness. This
approach requires taking into account multiple perspectives at once. In the case of the Cypress
Freeway project in Oakland, the consumption of faunal material and dining ceramics were
examined. It was found that symbolic differences existed between the quality and quantity of
material objects these groups consumed. While the unskilled workers spent more on cuts of
meat, the skilled craftsmen consumed more expensive sets of formal dining ware, participating
for their own reasons in the ritualized dining that came along with the middle-class cult of
domesticity. These variations do not necessarily suggest an acculturation or an emulation of
middle-class values, but a situated negotiation of these values based upon local conditions.
Other researchers (Baxter 2002; Van Bueren 2002a) have examined specific contexts such as
Western work camps to see how class relations play out in these specific contexts. Wood
(2002a) and Hardesty (2002) have examined work and gender in the frontier company towns,
noting how such marginal cultural settings allowed women to negotiate new identities as
workers and activists garnering new kinds of social and economic power. Margaret Wood’s
work on the coal company town of Berwind, Colorado is a component of the Ludlow
Collective’s broader investigation of class solidarity and conflict in the coal region of Colorado.
Many of the families residing in the strike camp at Ludlow were former residents of the
company town of Berwind. Through her archeological examination of domestic refuse and
landscape features, Wood learned that the role of women of diverse ethnic backgrounds was
essential to the development of strong class and community identities necessary to endure strike
conditions. Post-strike assemblages are contextualized by Wood (2002b) in the administrative
practices that aimed at limiting these capacities. In the process, they disempowered women by
rendering them solely dependent on men’s wages for household income.
Communities and Collectives
Industrial work and relations brought about changes to social life and organization. The effects
of changing systems of labor are so far-reaching as to be fundamental to the formation of all
other social relations in a society, even those outside the workplace (Delle et al. 2000, Shackel
1996, Silliman 2006). For this reason, the examination of working-class communities and other
places of habitation provide important evidence for understanding broad social changes directly
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related to changes in work and affecting wider society. This research domain examines the
broader impact of the industrial era to the social grouping of people. While this focus intersects
with the other three domains, a conceptualization of sites and their assemblages at the level of
the collective or the community is crucial for contextualizing the broader impacts of industry and
the regional or national significance of sites.
Communities responded to industry and industrial relations differently depending on a host of
factors such as different social relations, location, and the nature of the work. Labor archeology
conducted in these industrial landscapes can examine the wider pattern of social formations
associated with workers and their families, asking research questions regarding settlement
composition, design, and density, the impact of industry, environmental adaptation, and
community health. For instance, Beaudry and Mrozowski’s (1989c) multidisciplinary studies of
the Boott Mills complex in the Lowell National Historical Park address the historical archeology
of class and industrial labor at the community level by examining several sites together.
Beaudry (1989, 1993) and Mrozowski et al. (1989) produced a broad contextual view of
nineteenth-century mill operatives’ lives. Through this comparison of sites, they were able to
examine everyday conditions through the multiple lenses of archeobotany, faunal, microfaunal,
landscape, and material culture analyses. These analyses link examinations of public health,
hygiene, landscape, and corporate paternalism with the introduction and adoption or rejection of
nineteenth-century middle-class Victorian values across the hierarchy of the community.
Archeology has also examined the impact of industry outside of company towns. In urban
environments, neighborhoods may develop based around the occupation of a laboring group
defined by profession, class, or ethnic background or in connection to a specific industry. Such is
the case in the West Oakland Cypress Freeway project, which examined a working-class
neighborhood occupied by workers of varying backgrounds associated with the labor provided
by the terminus of the Central Pacific Railroad (Walker 2008a). The Irishtown Bend site in
Cincinnati is another such neighborhood defined by its industry, consisting of a laboring Irish
population which settled along the banks of the Cuyahoga River. The provenance of the
neighborhood, extending from the mid-nineteenth to the first few decades of the early twentieth
century, can be associated with a supply of inexpensive home sites in the low-lying floodplain of
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the river adjacent to unskilled labor opportunities associated with the lake shipping port that
thrived in the early days of Cleveland history. The archeological resources of this neighborhood
reflect a variety of domestic and commercial sites connected to both the initial Irish occupation
and the transition in the last two decades of the twentieth century to Eastern European migrants
who replaced the Irish in identical labor functions (Lee 1989).
Industrial communities also included utopian or reform communities. They represent alternative
ways of working and living based on the principles of reformed industrialism that led to
formation of distinct though often short-lived communities (Shackel 2009:62-63). These
communities often sought to resist the new culture of industrial capitalism and include
communities founded by social reformers and charismatic leaders, such as Robert Owen’s town
of New Harmony and subsequent Owenite communities (Shackel 2009:62-63). Such
communities offer a different perspective on community formation and dynamics and labor
organization than corporate-based industrial towns. These communities are a unique data set
and pose different research questions and interests and thus, deserve their own theme study.
Therefore, utopian and reform communities are not addressed in this theme study.
Government programs also led to the formation of communities or significant changes to
existing communities based on industry. For instance, the Spruce Production Division (SPD)
project from 1917 to 1918 has the potential to contain a vast archeological resource
encompassing an early instance of Federal intervention in industrial technology and labor
relations. In the early years of the First World War, among rising demand for spruce to build
airplanes for the war effort, the lumber industry of Oregon was crippled by clashes between
management and workers. Workers, organized by the Industrial Workers of the World,
demanded better working and living conditions. In response, the Federal government
intervened. They put soldiers to work for the logging industry of the state, making uniform
demands for the labor and living conditions of all workers. They also constructed massive
infrastructure improvements in the area. Though the SPD only lasted for a few years, it had a
massive effect on the landscape of the Northwest coast, administering nearly one hundred
separate locations in which soldiers and loggers lived and worked. The project is also believed
to have been the model for later generations of Federal work programs such as the Civilian
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Conservation Corps or CCC (Tonesfeldt 2013).
With the 1929 collapse of the United States stock market, laborers became desperate for work.
The government took an active role in revitalizing the economy by establishing both the Works
Progress Administration or WPA and the CCC, among other broad scale government work
programs (Bloxom 1982:1). These projects employed not only blue collar workers, who created
a lasting impression on the landscape by constructing dams and the United States road system,
but also white collar workers, artists, writers, and musicians (Bloxom 1982). WPA and CCC
properties relate an unusual and complex connection between labor and government activity.
Through the excavation of work camps, labor sites, and examination of government and
historical records this important chapter of the nation’s history can be told. New Deal
archeologists also, it should be noted, were responsible for performing some of the fundamental
work of historical archeology in this nation, particularly in the American Southwest (Fagette
1996; Lyon 1996).
F. Associated Property Types
Property Types as Categories
The Labor Archeology Theme Study utilizes a property classification system that makes use of
property classes and types as described in the National Register Bulletin: How to Apply the
National Register Criteria for Evaluation (NPS 1997). Properties are classified as buildings,
sites, districts, structures, or objects (NPS 1997:4). For the purposes of this study, property types
are grouped into two major classes: sites and districts.
Property Classes:
•Sites: A site is the location of a significant event, a historic occupation or activity, or a
building or structure, whether standing, ruined, or vanished, where the location itself
possesses historic, cultural, or archeological value regardless of the value of any existing
structure.
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•Districts: A district possesses a significant concentration, linkage, or continuity of sites,
buildings, structures, or objects united historically or aesthetically by plan or physical
development.
In this study, sites are deposits of archeological and historical value that are associated with
industrial labor. Districts are defined as multiple sites or deposits of archeological and historical
value that are associated with industrial labor. Districts are a collection of related properties of
archeological and historical value that can all document industrial labor. The district has the
capacity to highlight many different aspects of work and life. Therefore, the district can be
composed of properties that are themselves potentially significant for illustrating aspects of
industrial labor. The district can also be a collection of properties that are not individually
significant, but together illustrate a more complete picture of industrial labor and thus constitute
a significant district. Special attention should be paid to understanding the different properties of
a community, town, or area and the relation of these properties to work and work life. Such an
attention encompasses a review of the landscape of industrial labor and the interrelation of its
components rather than treating properties as isolated and discrete entities. The National
Register Bulletin: How to Prepare National Historic Landmark Nominations (NPS 1999:64-67)
provides guidance on selecting the boundaries of sites and districts. Several general property
types can be delineated from the property classes.
Property Types include:
•Worker housing
•Social and Commercial sites
•Institutional sites
•Industrial worksites
•Infrastructure sites
Each of these broad property types is discussed in turn with examples of specific sites or districts
that illustrate the different types. Because there is considerable overlap between property types,
some types are discussed under more than one category. The property types are listed with the
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prominent or most common examples; other specific sites not listed below may be included
under these property types depending on the historical context of the site or district.
Worker Housing
At the basic level, worker and employer housing is the location of the residence of workers,
employers, and/or their families. This housing may comprise individual properties or contribute
to a broader industrial community district. The remains of worker and employer housing
indicate community social structure, ethnic, racial, and class divisions, political influences,
company policies, cultural styles and trends, and individual wants and needs. Typical
archeological features associated with worker housing are cellars, wells, privies, foundations,
partially standing structures, standing structures, and domestic trash concentrations. Worker
housing can include both company and worker-constructed houses and boarding houses in a
variety of styles and materials. Common forms of worker housing include single-family homes,
tenements, apartments or attached housing units, boarding houses, hotels, shanties, and
impermanent homes, such as tents or dugouts.
Several factors influenced the form of housing in which a worker lived. The identity of the
building commissioner was one principal determinant in the form of worker housing constructed.
One major commissioner of worker housing was the corporation. Corporations commissioned
the construction of housing to supply their workers with reasonably priced, local dwellings. The
houses, whether single family home, tenement, hotel, or boarding house, also offered
corporations the opportunity to attempt to further control the lives and behavior of their workers
(Beaudry and Mrozowski 1989b; Bond 1989; Mulrooney 1989:9-27). Many corporations
established strict policies against drinking, rowdy behavior, and non-employee residents in their
boarding houses (Bond 1989:23-36). In this way, corporations could try to control how workers
conducted themselves during their free time and with whom they had daily contact (Bond
1989:27).
Corporations could further influence workers lives through the architectural designs of the
housing they commissioned. In Lowell, as in many other company towns, corporations instituted
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a strict, uniform, and simplistic design in their workers' housing. Corporations intended this
form of design to imply corporate success and a sense of control and order in their workforce
(Landon 1989:41; Mrozowski and Beaudry 1989:290). While company housing enabled
employers to attempt to further control the home lives of their workers, privately constructed
homes provided workers with the opportunity to express their personal culture and personal
preferences. Workers, who constructed their own homes or lived in single-family rentals, could
defy corporation attempts at forming a unified workforce by selecting their own building
materials and styles.
Despite any intentional or subconscious attempts to defy corporations or popular opinion in a
houses' physical presentation to the public, economic and social conditions such as the workers’
ethnic background or social status affected the form and quality of the homes constructed.
Wealthier and higher status employees, such as managers, often lived in single-family homes
made from more substantial and refined materials. Logically, economic boundaries also limited
the form and quality of the homes the working-class could construct, often forcing them to use
lesser quality materials and simpler designs. Divisions of class, race, and ethnicity are visible in
the layout, conditions, and style of workers' housing at some sites. For example, at the Chinese
Mining Camp Archeological Site in Idaho (Elliott 1994), canvas and repair tool remains indicate
that workers here constructed impermanent homes in a distinctive Chinese style for American
mining camps. In the Lower Salmon River Archeological District in Idaho (Sisson and Swanson
1986), the difference between Chinese and European mining practices and living conditions are
also noticeably present in the archeological record. Personal housing here offered workers the
opportunity to purchase and prepare their homes and daily experiences as they desired (e.g.,
types of furnishing used, types of foods prepared, and table settings used
) (Bond 1989:23, 30;
Dutton 1989:87-88). Regardless of social status, workers could make similar statements with
their personal behavior, appearance, and consumption habits when corporate housing policies did
not restrict them.
Ideas about the hierarchy of industry or relations in industry can be studied by a comparison of
the difference in the architecture and spatial relationships between segments of the working
population. For instance, Mrozowski (2006:74) documents company attempts to inscribe the
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hierarchy of the Lowell mills in the built environment by studying residential form and size.
Randall McGuire (1991) details different industrial landscapes in late nineteenth and twentieth-
century Broome County, New York. Company owner Jonas Kilmer constructed a landscape and
used architecture to emphasize the gulf between him and his workers while another owner
George F. Johnson did the opposite by building his house in the same style as his workers
(McGuire 1991).
The placement of homes and communities affected the quality of life for workers and employers.
Work camps and company towns connected to resource extraction, construction or agricultural
work were often located as close as possible to the natural sources of wealth. This resulted in
isolated settlements in regions remote or peripheral to the urban centers where the bulk of these
resources were consumed or processed (Van Bueren 2002a). In the case of many Western work
camps, including those for mineral extraction, timbering and agricultural work, these were
sometimes transient settlements that leave an ephemeral footprint for archeological investigation.
Nonetheless, interesting archeological work has been conducted on these types of sites that offers
a snapshot of clearly defined temporal and social origin for comparison (Hardesty 2002).
Company towns that were developed by Industrial-era capitalist ventures in mining and
manufacturing developed rigidly structured company towns which generated, maintained, and
reflected differentiation and stratification within the social ranks occupied by management and
various levels of skilled and unskilled labor. These company towns vary by region, industry, and
temporal context, but each demonstrates important clues about the intended or real relationships
between labor and capital. In the case of many mining or resource extractive company towns,
housing provided by companies typically consisted of economic, quickly built dwellings for
workers. High initial capital investment costs in technological and industrial aspects of the work
frequently resulted in a company’s attempt to recapture this capital by providing minimal
investment in infrastructure including heating or indoor plumbing (Aurand 2003; Mulrooney
1991).
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Social and Commercial Sites
Social and commercial sites represent properties, not residences, institutions, or workplaces that
were connected with social life and/or commercial functions. Social structures in worker
communities are important for the role they played in workers' daily lives. These properties can
include a wide range of functions including recreation, culture, education, religion, health,
funerary, and social life. The quantity, quality, cost, and variety of social enterprises in a
community influenced how workers' entertained themselves, along with how workers' free time
and home life was structured. The actual design, construction method, and size of social
structures and buildings varied, as did the activities to which each catered.
Social structures common in many industrial contexts include buildings such as hotels, cafes,
saloons, brothels, meeting halls, town squares, parks, and dance halls. These structures provided
workers with the opportunity to socialize with others and to participate in an activity other than
work. The artifact concentrations associated with these structures provide additional information
on the activities and practices in social areas. Goldfield Historic District in Nevada contains
information on the commercial life of an early twentieth-century gold mining town. Ruins from
Goldfield's commercial district include a social club, several banks, a saloon, lodging house, and
a hotel (Woodward et al. 1982). Artifacts gathered in this area, particularly around the club and
saloon, may provide researchers with valuable information on the types of activities and
customers catered to at these social and commercial establishments.
The commercial structures and buildings in workers' communities also provided needed or
wanted goods and services to workers and their families. Commercial structures include stores,
restaurants, banks, and markets. The presence or absence of certain goods and services, their
price, and their availability all affected the structure and quality of workers' home lives. These
structures and buildings varied by design, construction method, and size according to the needs,
wants, and economic means of the owners and the communities surrounding them. The artifact
concentrations associated with these structures provide additional information on the different
activities and practices in commercial areas. Individual social and commercial properties are
also very useful for labor history analyses. For example, excavations at the Hoff Store Site in
San Francisco provided researchers with information on the consumption habits of early to mid-
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nineteenth-century Pacific West settlers, particularly gold prospectors (Pastron and Hattori
1990).
The connection of commercial and social sites to industry can shed light on the role and extent to
which industry or industries shaped life outside of the workplace. Company sponsored or
structured activities or buildings extended the influence of industry. In the early nineteenth
century, George F. Johnson created a landscape for his workers that included such structures and
places as parks and hospitals and which can be interpreted as an effort to downplay class
differences and promote the appearance of equality (McGuire 1991:114-123). Other, potentially
non-company sanctioned, activities could have had the opposite effect. For instance, taverns
were potential locations of solidarity and bonding for workers and often a means of escape for
male workers (Hall et al. 1987:164; Montgomery 1987:91; Rorabaugh 1979:151).
Institutional Sites
The institutional structures found in workers' communities were responsible for providing special
services to area residents. Community schools, churches and other religious buildings, hospitals,
and jails could improve the quality of life in the area by offering services to improve resident’s
mental, spiritual, and physical health. Other properties include sites related to governmental or
military institutions directly linked to the industrial community such as post offices, courthouses,
fire stations, and military facilities. In company towns, corporations often constructed
institutional structures to draw new laborers into an area and to insure the continued presence of
current employees.
Institutions provide a wide range of data that offers another avenue to understand industry and
life outside of work and the relations associated with it. Institutions can be studied to understand
quality of life and the services available to workers. The degree to which workers and their
community had access to institutional services can illustrate the social relations and inequality
within a community. Beyond offering basic services, institutions helped structure the dynamics
of the town as well. Churches and other religious buildings and schools were social centers of
identity and ideas and could be supportive of or against industry, industry’s impacts, and
industrial relations.
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Industrial Worksites
As a large percentage of a workers' day was spent in the work place, these structures and
buildings are important to a study of workers' communities. Worksites encompass a wide-range
of potential properties depending on the specific type of production from factories to quarries
and many ancillary and supportive locations such as storage facilities or processing sites. Often,
work-related structures, buildings, and features served as the economic center of workers'
communities. In company towns, the work centers were also responsible for the provision and
maintenance of most other community structures and buildings. Strong industrial centers also
drew other enterprises and residents to an area. The location, design, and structure of industrial
centers also often influenced town layout and development. Changes in the material culture in
industrial centers over time may provide answers to questions such as how workers interacted
with other employees and employers and how changing technology and work practices affected
workers' lives inside the work place.
Work related buildings and structures are significant in several other ways. These buildings and
structures may be noteworthy for the role they played in the development of local, regional, and
national economies, as architectural or engineering feats, and for their potential association with
expanding science and technology. Industrial archeologists have examined the remains of
industrial structures, analyzing the architecture, structure, and organization of industries and
industrial complexes, and have created a considerable bibliography and documentary record of
industrial properties. This substantial data should be drawn upon to aid in the identification and
understanding of industrial worksites or used for comparison purposes.
Infrastructure sites
Infrastructure sites represent properties connected to serving the needs of industry and/or
communities. Community infrastructure includes such elements as sewer systems, road systems,
power lines, water lines, canals, and railroads. These structures and features affected the quality
of life for area residents. The availability of transportation routes, clean water, and sewage
disposal was important as they helped towns expand, maintain health, and generally encourage
workers to remain in communities. Many corporations constructed these features in company
towns to facilitate industrial functions, but they also constructed these features for the well-being
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of their local employees (Bond 1989:25; Mrozowski et al. 1989). Archeologically, the remains
of town or community infrastructure may reflect how and why individuals perceived the space
and layout of their environment, as well as possible changes to the use of space following labor
or societal changes. Other types of labor sites may also have developed around the need to
create infrastructure properties. One such example is the Blackstone Canal Historic District in
Massachusetts (Adams et al. 1995), which contains the remains of an early nineteenth-century
canal constructed to provide a transportation route for passengers and commercial or industrial
shipments and to help harness waterpower. A number of boardinghouses, impermanent
construction camps, and nearby dwellings or farmsteads provided workers with residences for
the duration of this construction project (Adams et al. 1995).
Infrastructure properties are also important for reasons similar to those of other industrial
properties. These properties may be significant for the role they played in the development of
local, regional, and national economies, as architectural or engineering feats, and their potential
association with expanding science and technology.
Property Type Summary
Each of the property types encompasses an archeological site. A related grouping of similar or
different property types represented by individual archeological sites constitutes a district. For
instance, a row of several homes belonging to workers and owners in a mining town would be a
collection of archeological sites and illustrative of the worker housing property type. Their
proximity and/or common relationship to the mining industry would allow them to be grouped as
a district. In this example, other property types such as infrastructure sites, industrial work sites,
social and commercial sites, and institutional sites related to the industry could also each be
considered archeological sites and all grouped under the category of a district along with the
worker housing based on their shared affiliation to the mining industry. Such a broader
consideration of industrial community beyond the worksite allows for a more dynamic and
nuanced understanding of the lives of workers, their families, and people associated with or
impacted by industry.
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Research Questions
This section suggests and summarizes research issues and questions significant to labor
archeology of the Industrial era within the context of the labor research domains proposed in this
study and the National Historic Landmark Thematic Framework. Examples of currently
designated and potentially eligible National Historic Landmarks and National Register properties
whose documentation records or suggests the existence of resources possessing levels of
integrity capable of contributing significant information at the national level are mentioned under
the appropriate labor research topic.
The four broad research domains described above correlate with the topics outlined in the
National Park Service Thematic Framework (NPS 1996). The Revised Thematic Framework
serves as a conceptual tool for evaluating the significance of cultural resources and as an outline
of major themes and concepts that help to conceptualize American history. The Framework can
then be used to help identify cultural resources that embody America's past and to describe and
analyze the multiple layers of history represented by the property types (see Table 1).
The following table and section connect each domain to the most relevant themes and topics
from the Framework and property types. The correlation stresses the relevancy of the proposed
domains from this study for addressing the broader topics represented in each nationally
significant resource. The number of applicable Framework themes and topics indicates the
diversity and breadth, as well as the potential wealth of data, offered by the study of industrial
labor in the US.
The research questions and their intersections with and elucidation through the Framework
themes provide a means to focus and evaluate research on different aspects of labor archeology.
While these questions and their intersections are a useful means for this purpose, they are not
mutually exclusive. The research domains and subdomains of this theme study and the topics and
themes of the Framework are woven together as part of the comprehensive picture of life and
work in the Industrial era. Researchers should consider the interrelation of these different
elements of labor archeology. These connections, along with the specific foci of the research
domains, will help frame the assessment of the broader significance of a property or properties.
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Table 1: Matrix of Property Types by Thematic Framework Themes and Labor Archeology
Theme Study Research Domains
Framework Themes and Topics Labor
Processes
Labor and
Identity
Labor,
Class, and
Conflict
Communities
and
Collectives
Peopling Places
-Family and the Life Cycle
-Health, Nutrition, and Disease
-Migration from Outside and Within
-Community and Neighborhood
-Ethnic Homelands
-Encounters, Conflicts, and Colonization
-Worker
households
-Social and
Commercial
-Industrial
worksites
-Infrastructure
-Worker
households
-Social and
Commercial
-Institutional
-Worker
households
-Social and
Commercial
-Institutional
-Worker
households
-Social and
Commercial
-Institutional
Creating Social Institutions and Movements
-Clubs and Organizations
-Reform Movements
-Religious Institutions
-Recreational Activities
-Social and
Commercial
-Institutional
-Social and
Commercial
-Institutional
-Social and
Commercial
-Institutional
Expressing Cultural Values
-Educational and Intellectual Currents
-Visual and Performing Arts
-Literature
-Mass Media
-Architecture, Landscape Architecture,
and Urban Design
-Popular and Traditional Culture
-Worker
households
-Social and
Commercial
-Institutional
-Worker
households
-Social and
Commercial
-Institutional
-Social and
Commercial
-Institutional
Shaping the Political Landscape
-Parties, Protests, and Movements
-Governmental Institutions
-Military Institutions and Activities
-Political Ideas, Cultures, and Theories
-Social and
Commercial
-Institutional
-Social and
Commercial
-Institutional
Developing the American Economy
-Extraction and Production
-Distribution and Consumption
-Transportation and Communication
-Workers and Work Culture
-Labor Organizations and Protests
-Exchange and Trade
-Governmental Policies and Practices
-Economic Theory
-Worker
households
-Industrial
worksites
-Institutional
-Social and
Commercial
-Infrastructure
-Social and
Commercial
-Worker
households
-Worker
households
-Industrial
worksites
-Social and
Commercial
-Institutional
-Social and
Commercial
-Institutional
Expanding Science and Technology
-Experimentation and Invention
-Technological Applications
-Scientific Thought and theory
-Effects on Lifestyle and Health
-Worker
households
-Industrial
worksites
-Infrastructure
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Framework Themes and Topics Labor
Processes
Labor and
Identity
Labor,
Class, and
Conflict
Communities
and
Collectives
Transforming the Environment
-Manipulating the Environment and its
Resources
-Adverse Consequences and Stress on the
Environment
-Protecting and Preserving the
Environment
-Worker
households
-Industrial
worksites
-Infrastructure
Changing Role of the United States in the
World Community
-International Relations
-Commerce
-Expansion and Imperialism
-Immigration and Emigration Policies
-Industrial
worksites
-Infrastructure
-Worker
households
-Social and
Commercial
-Social and
Commercial
-Institutional
Table 1 provides a matrix of the intersections between the Framework themes and topics and the
Labor Archeology Theme Study domains by property type. Researchers should use the table to
help determine what research questions are potentially applicable for their property types and the
questions and topics that can be addressed. The table serves as a guide, not a prescription, to aid
researchers in ensuring the historic context is fully developed. For instance, industrial worksites
can be used to address several of the Framework themes in the Labor Processes and Labor,
Class, and Conflict domains. Based on the data set, a researcher may find that industrial
worksites can best address the topic of both worker and work culture as well as conflict in the
workplace. Using this determination, the data can be analyzed around these research questions
and the level of significance of the property assessed. The use of the table and applicable
Criteria can be used to explore elements of the history of industrial labor beyond archeology as
well.
Connection to the Framework themes and topics provides an opportunity to assess the level of
significance of a property. The majority of questions are scalable in terms of their significance:
local, regional, and/or national. To this end, the proposed research questions are left open and
scalable. The ability to connect the Framework topics with comparable data and larger trends
provides for an increasing level of significance. Researchers should attempt to place their
property in wider regional and national contexts and use comparisons to assess significance and
relevance. The following section details the intersection of the domains and Frameworks
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themes and topics and possible research questions to help researchers maximize a property’s
potential to detail labor history.
Labor Processes
Labor archeology sites and properties associated with Labor Processes include places with the
research potential to illuminate nationally significant aspects of the social, economic, and
political systems of industrial labor as they exemplify industrial processes of labor and their
transformation from previous forms of work. These sites may include districts or individual
households of workers, including those in company towns, industry-related or dependent
neighborhoods, or villages. Sites exemplifying data on labor processes can also include
manufacturing towns, wharfs, canals, company towns, resource extraction sites, factories,
sweatshops, apparel works, mills, furnaces, warehouses, glass works, potteries, and construction
sites as well as associated infrastructure such as canals and dams.
The Framework theme, Peopling Places, includes the topics: family and the life cycle; health,
nutrition, and disease; migration from outside and within; community and neighborhood; ethnic
homelands; and encounters, conflicts, and colonization (NPS 1996:7). The dynamics of the
family life from the composition of the household and workforce to the economics of the family
were dramatically altered and realigned. Evidence of this change can be found at worker
households, social and commercial sites, and industrial worksites. The impact of industry also
changed patterns of health and nutrition and incidences of disease, which can be studied at
worker households, social and commercial sites, infrastructure sites, and industrial worksites.
Archeological evidence of both topics can be seen through an analysis of the soils, faunal, floral,
human remains, and material deposits.
The Framework theme, Developing the American Economy, includes the topics: extraction and
production; distribution and consumption; transportation and communication; workers and work
cultures; labor organizations and protests; exchange and trade; governmental policies and
practices; and economic theory (NPS 1996:11). Industrial labor brought upon and necessitated
new forms of extraction and production, distributions and consumptions, as well as means and
patterns of transportation and communication. Industrial worksites, such as manufacturing,
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processing, mining, timber and lumber, and commercial operations, contribute to the extraction
and production topic and to the distribution and consumption topic. The transportation and
communication topic as well as distribution topic can be applied to infrastructure sites.
Likewise, consumption patterns point to different economic relationships as well as new forms of
production. The worker and work culture topic and the exchange and trade topic could be
illustrated by worker housing and social and commercial sites. Governmental policies, practices,
and economic theory can be seen at institutional sites.
The Framework theme, Expanding Science and Technology, includes the topics:
experimentation and invention; technological applications; effects on lifestyle and health; and
scientific thought and theory (NPS 1996:12). The effects on lifestyle and health can be seen in
industrial worksites and worker housing. Industrial worksites and infrastructure sites detail
technological applications and the imposition of scientific theory and experimentation and
theory.
Industrialization was accompanied by many technological changes. The invention and
implementation of new labor technologies, such as the institution of piecework seen at Harpers
Ferry, changed the way in which laborers worked and perceived their work. Workers at most
manufacturing operations toiled at an increased speed and produced a greater quantity of items
with the aid of new machinery and labor practices such as the assembly line. These workers
were less attached to their products and the production process than earlier workers were during
the artisan production period. Archeological evidence of changes in technology may be found in
changes in the material culture associated with the production process.
New technology also impacted workers' health conditions. Changing production and processing
methods often forced workers to labor in unhealthy conditions and environments for a significant
period of time. For example, the increase in harmful fumes released during production and
changes in air quality and temperature caused an increase of bronchial infections and diseases
among miners, furnace and forge operators, and brewery workers. The faster speed of
machinery, such as weaving and spinning devises, also threatened physical harm to workers in
mills and factories.
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Working conditions at many labor sites, particularly mining sites, often endangered the health
and life of workers. Dangers such as unsanitary arrangements, unstable work sites, machinery,
and pollution coupled with exhaustive working hours brought about accidents, illnesses, and
deaths. This theme includes sites connected to the health hazards and mortal dangers of many
early working conditions. Mining communities where large numbers of workers were killed in
accidents or from diseases related to underground excavation work, mills and factories where
women and children were harmed by machinery or killed in fires, and breweries where workers
received life-threatening illnesses from their working conditions are the types of sites for which
this theme offers a research format.
Archeologically, soil analyses and studies of privies and trash pits can reveal information on the
impact of changing technologies on workers' health. An increase in parasites in soils and an
increase presence of medicinal bottles or products in waste deposits after the implementation of
industrialized labor practices are evidence of this issue. Research at Harpers Ferry (see Shackel
and Winter 1994) proved the validity of this application of labor archeology.
This theme also concerns the effect of changing technology and work systems on workers' and
their families' lifestyles inside and outside the workplace. As described above, changes in labor
practices following industrialization affected workers' lives on many levels. New company
policies and the replacement of the artisan method of production during the 1800s are visible in
the archeological record (Shackel 1996:147-162). Within the workplace, the absence of personal
belongings, liquor bottles, or tobacco-related products reflects the institution of new company
policies and the practice of the modern work ethic. The absence of work-related items in
workers' domestic areas also supports the assumption or expectation of industrialization's
separation of work from the home. In boardinghouses, the archeological record provides
evidence of company policies on personal behavior and the structure of free time (Beaudry and
Mrozowski 1989a:49-61). More specific research questions in this area include how workers
responded to new company policies, technology, and the modern work ethic in their
consumption habits; how workers' families adapted to the separation of work from the home; and
how company policies affected workers' free time and social lives.
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The NPS theme, Transforming the Environment, includes the topics: manipulating the
environment and its resources; adverse consequences and stresses on the environment; and
protecting and preserving the environment (NPS 1996:13). Evidence of manipulation of the
environment and subsequent adverse consequences and stress on the environment can be seen in
industrial worksites, infrastructure sites, and worker households. Industries and labor
communities had an enormous impact on the environment and natural resources. Extractive
operations and logging industries considerably altered the physical appearance of the
environment by digging into the earth, clearing forested lands, and creating waste such as tailing
piles and slag heaps.
Beyond these changes to the environment that followed industrial development, labor enterprises
altered the environment by harnessing natural resources (especially water resources), developing
land for commercial and residential purposes, and increasing pollution as companies became
more industrialized and areas became more populated. Archeologically, a study of the
development of human habitation and industry within a region will supply information on
subsequent transformations of the environment. Soil samples may indicate the introduction of
new elements, such as fertilizers, to the environment as well as the depletion of natural resources
and minerals. Physical alterations such as vegetation removal, commercial and residential
development, and extractive industry processes should be readily visible in the existing
landscape.
The Framework theme, Changing Role of the United States in the World Community,
includes the topics: international relations; commerce; expansion and imperialism; and
immigration and emigration policies (NPS 1996:14). The themes of commerce and expansion
and imperialism are visible at industrial worksites and worker households. Patterns of
consumption reflecting the spread of mass consumerism can illustrate the transformation of
commerce that came about with the expansion of industrialism and the influence of policies,
which supported this mode of production.
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Labor Processes Research Questions:
1) How did work culture and the lives of workers change during this period? How did work
and changes in the mode of work affect the family and family relationships as seen at the
community or regional level?
2) How were health, nutrition, and quality of life impacted by the shift to industrial labor
and changes in industrial labor? Can this shift be seen at the household, community, or
state levels? Are there regional patterns in health, nutrition, or quality of life that are
documented as part of a shift to or as a result of industrial labor and can this pattern be
seen in just one or in different types of industrial work or in a specific time period?
3) What were the patterns of migration and immigration that accompanied the demand for
different levels of labor? Does the information from the site or district significantly
contribute to the knowledge about migration and immigration patterns regionally or
nationally?
4) What were the patterns and impact of extraction, production, distribution, and
consumption of the industrial era? How are these patterns identified regionally and how
does the site or district contribute to that knowledge? Why is the site important for
understanding regional or national patterns?
5) What are the patterns of exchange, trade, and economic theory that characterized this
mode of production? How are these patterns identified regionally or nationally and how
do they change through time? Does the site or district characterize these patterns in a
way that shows that change in a significant way?
6) How did inventions change industry and industrial relations and how was technology
applied in this context?
7) How did these technologies effect lifestyle and health and impact the environment? Can
such environmental change be seen at the state or regional and national levels? Can the
property or properties provide important knowledge about these changes?
8) How did industrialization affect and enable commerce, expansion, and imperialism? Can
specific types of work within industrialization be tied to commerce, expansion and
imperialism regionally and nationally? How does the site or district help us understand
these issues?
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Example How did work culture and the lives of workers change during this period? This is a
research agenda that can be used to explore the impact of industrial shifts in the workplace as
well as outside in the home. The archeology of multiple properties in the town of Harpers Ferry,
West Virginia, has shown how significant changes in the work practices were reflected in the
home (Lucas and Shackel 1994; Moyer and Shackel 2008; Palus and Shackel 2006; Shackel
1996). Shackel and his colleagues examined how technological changes affected everyday lives
as read through material culture. The sites excavated in Harpers Ferry are rare examples of a
detailed archaeological study of the nationally significant shift in work practices, domesticity,
and social relations with the transformation from craft to wage labor. For instance, Michael
Lucas (1994) examined the changing meaning of household material culture, such as dinnerware,
within the context of an industrial transformation. These deposits dated from the earliest armory
occupation through the turn of the century providing an excellent sample through time to
examine new consumer goods and work-related objects in the context of this significant shift in
labor (Shackel 1996).
Labor and Identity
Labor archeology sites and properties associated with Labor and Identity detail the development
or transformation of racial, ethnic, or gender identities or the categorization of laborers and their
families related to the social conditions of work. Archeological sites relevant to Labor and
Identity include those contexts discussed above in the sections on Race and Ethnicity and
Gender. Labor archeology sites related to labor and identity include individual households or
districts of workers including places such as individual dwellings, company towns, work camps,
boardinghouses, bunkhouses, and hotels. They may also include social places in which the
expression of cultural practices may be observable such as social halls or other recreational
centers, commercial establishments, union buildings, and monuments. Labor and identity
properties also can be places of work in cases in which entire industries or tasks within them may
have been tied exclusively to particular groups of people as defined by ethnicity, race, or gender.
These sites include properties such as factories, office buildings, extraction sites, agricultural
operations, ranches, trading outposts, construction sites, and furnaces.
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The Framework theme Peopling Places includes the topics: family and the life cycle; health,
nutrition, and disease; migration from outside and within; community and neighborhood; ethnic
homelands; and encounters, conflicts, and colonization (NPS 1996:7). Changes to industrial
production and this mode of production affected facets of life related to the movement of people
and identities. Evidence of migration and the family and life cycle can be seen at worker
households, social and commercial sites, and institutional sites.
Industry demands for labor forces often populated isolated regions. Natural resources, such as
ore deposits or water resources that otherwise did not encourage commercial or residential
development attracted companies to these areas, who in turn attracted a working population. In
the archeological record, the material remains of industry-established labor camps that evolved
into permanent settlements in isolated areas are good illustrators of the connection between the
draw of labor and the peopling of places and the development of communities and
neighborhoods. In other contexts, different groups shared established communities or outside
groups were brought into existing communities to provide a cheaper and/or more compliant labor
force. Encounters and conflicts may also be studied with the remains of these types of
properties, particularly in instances where conflict occurred between different ethnic and/or class
groups.
This theme acknowledges the mobile lifestyles of many workers in the United States who were
required to follow labor operations into different regions. Illustrations of this theme are available
at the colony sites, logging camps, railroad camps, temporary mining communities, and migrant
agricultural camps found throughout the country. This theme is also useful in illustrating how
labor participated in the Euro-American settlement of outlying areas of the United States.
The Framework theme Creating Social Institutions and Movements includes the topics: clubs
and organizations; reform movements; religious institutions; and recreational activities (NPS
1996:8). Social and commercial sites and institutional sites document the connection between
identity and social institutions and movements. Social, religious, and recreational activities of
different groups and their relation to industry can be illustrated by these properties.
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The NPS theme Expressing Cultural Values includes the topics: education and intellectual
currents; visual and performing arts; literature; mass media; architecture, landscape architecture,
and urban design; and popular and traditional culture (NPS 1996:9). Cultural values can be read
at points of transmission such as social and commercial sites and institutional sites as well as
their potential internalization in worker households
The development of cultures as individuals moved in and out of workers' communities, and the
impact of industry on traditional cultures may be traced through the presence, absence, or style
of artifact remains. Studying exchanges, adaptations, or the disappearance of cultural remains
and styles may also clarify the interaction of different cultures at labor sites. From architectural
remains, the differences in the style and the materials used in the housing of workers of different
class and ethnicity can be useful in understanding perceptions and relationships among different
groups of workers. Landscape architecture and urban design can also be useful for similar
reasons in this context.
The Framework theme Developing the American Economy includes the topics: extraction and
production; distribution and consumption; transportation and communication; workers and work
cultures; labor organizations and protests; exchange and trade; governmental policies and
practices; and economic theory (NPS 1996:11). Workers and work culture and distribution and
consumption practices can be seen in worker households and social and commercial sites.
Variation in consumption patterns and work culture based on social relations can help illustrate
the work relations and community dynamics between different groups.
The Framework theme Changing Role of the United States in the World Community includes
the topics: international relations; commerce; expansion and imperialism; and immigration and
emigration policies (NPS 1996:14). Immigration and emigration policies, imperialism, and
international relations can be seen at worker housing and social and commercial sites. The
presence of different groups can help to illustrate the history and relationship of immigration and
emigration policies to industry, and the broader sphere of international relations and policies.
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Labor Identity Research Questions:
1) How did different social relations and identities in the industrial era shift and impact the
family in regards to general health and nutrition? Is the site or district reflective of
regional or national shifts in social relations and general health?
2) What were the dynamics between different social relationships and identities in the
industrial era? Did they evolve in relation to industry with reference to the wider
regional and national patterns of immigration and migration? How did the social
categories of race, ethnicity, and gender affect hiring and work practices and how did
these different identities intersect?
3) What were the dynamics of identity that characterized participation in societal reform
movements and religious institutions connected to industry?
4) In the context of industry, how were cultural values expressed and reflected, such as in
art, architecture, the built environment, and other elements of material culture?
5) How did the changing role of the United States in commerce and international relations,
as a result of industrial development, impact social relations through policies and actions
such as expansion and immigration? The broader patterning of US policy should be seen
in the material record reflecting community dynamics and the enforcement or lack of
enforcement of such policies.
Example In the context of industry, how were cultural values expressed and reflected in things
such as art, architecture, the built environment, and other elements of material culture? A. E.
Rogge’s (1995) study of the diverse ethnic makeup of Arizona dam workers examines foodways,
drinking habits, and the dangers of dam construction. The archeological study revealed the
segmentation and diversity of the work crew occupying this transient work camp. Rogge (1995)
found evidence that some Apache workers lived in traditional wikiups and altered objects to
serve the needs of their traditional cultures. Likewise, Don Hardesty’s (Hardesty et al. 1994)
work on Reipetown in Eastern Nevada found that even though labor positions and ethnic and
class divisions were divided up spatially, domestic occupations left no clearly discernible ethnic
distinctions in the archeological record. Understanding the expression and negotiation of
identity due to the impact of industry and industrial relations is important for understanding the
dynamics of labor history of different groups. Both examples present nationally significant
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patterns of cultural values and identities influenced or impacted by different and unique forms of
work and labor relations.
Labor, Class, and Conflict
Labor archeology sites related to Class and Conflict include places in which class identities may
have been assigned, negotiated, contested, or developed in the context of labor relations or
shared work experiences. These properties may include individual households or entire districts
where worker housing may have been including company towns, work camps, strike camps,
boardinghouses, bunkhouses, and hotels. They may also include social places in which the
expression of class identity may be observable or broadcast such as social halls or other
recreational centers, saloons, commercial establishments, union buildings, and monuments.
These properties also encompass sites of outright conflict, historical episodes that can serve as a
solidifying force for the development of group identities. Sites of conflict and tension range
from battlefields or massacre sites to strike camps, public spaces, political centers, monuments,
and statuary.
The Framework theme Peopling Places includes the topics: family and the life cycle; health,
nutrition, and disease; migration from outside and within; community and neighborhood; ethnic
homelands; and encounters, conflicts, and colonization (NPS 1996:7). Conflict resulting from
the movement of people, especially different groups, can be seen in worker housing, social and
commercial sites, and institutional sites.
The Framework theme Creating Social Institutions and Movements includes the topics: clubs
and organizations; reform movements; religious institutions; and recreational activities (NPS
1996:8). Social and commercial sites and institutional sites show the connection of class and
conflict. Clubs and organizations offered opportunities for class bonds as well as exclusion of
other groups. The organization of labor, such as in union halls or private clubs, allowed workers
or owners to come together to challenge the current work dynamic. Similarly, the forums and
context provided by reform movements, religious institutions, and even recreational activities
can be viewed in light of their role and involvement in labor disputes and conflicts.
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The NPS theme, Expressing Cultural Values, includes the topics: education and intellectual
currents; visual and performing arts; literature; mass media; architecture, landscape architecture,
and urban design; and popular and traditional culture (NPS 1996:9). Worker housing, social and
commercial sites, and institutional sites can embody cultural values related to labor and class and
conflict.
Archeologists can study conflicts between different groups and classes by analyzing the physical
evidence of interactions between different groups, such as material exchanges and distinctions in
artifact styles. For instance, differences in construction methods and architectural styles may
indicate class divisions. The type of neighboring structures and the community layout are also
possible clues to disparities based on the ethnic, racial, and class composition of workers'
communities.
Another aspect of workers and work cultures concerns how workers' housing may indicate
community and social structure, spatial layout, ethnic and class divisions, company policies,
workers' reactions to industrial labor, cultural styles and trends, and individual or household
wants and needs. As noted above, the architecture of company housing often closely reflects
hegemonic company policies in its strict uniformity and simplicity (Landon 1989:41; Mrozowski
and Beaudry 1989:290). The housing layout and placement in the community may reveal how a
company would like its working population to behave and whom the company would like its
workers' to interact with on a daily basis. Private housing provides workers with the opportunity
to express their own culture, opinions, and thoughts. Workers could use traditional or radical
architectural styles to express these beliefs and to express their disapproval of company policies
and industrial labor.
The framework theme, Shaping the Political Landscape, includes the topics: parties, protests,
and movements; governmental institutions; military institutions and activities; and political
ideas, cultures, and theories (NPS 1996:10). Evidence of parties, protests, and movements as
well as political ideas, culture, and theories can be seen at institutional sites and social and
commercial sites. Governmental and military institutions and activities can be seen at
institutional sites.
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This theme focuses on the organization of workers into active groups and unions, and their
struggle for workers' rights. Sites directly connected to unionization or union leaders are
important properties for this theme, as are sites related to strikes, protests, and union or anti-
union activity. The archeology of workers' communities may also illustrate the conflicts that
arose between different interests in a labor community. The introduction of unions to company
towns was often accompanied by conflict between workers and industry leaders as unions argued
for labor reform involving working conditions and salaries. Industry leaders responded to the
growing unionization of labor forces by refusing to hire or fire union-affiliated workers and by
forbidding their workers from having contact with any union up-risers. Considering these
actions, it is not surprising that a number of labor protest camps formed on the outskirts of
company towns that forbade unionists (Arnesen et al. 2003).
This theme also focuses on working-class intellectual life. Beyond the general academic
education of workers and their families, this theme covers the development of new labor
practices, technological changes, and instructions on basic workers' rights. Institutional
structures, such as academic and vocational schools, illustrate the education of workers and their
families. Instruction in work practices and workers' rights may be more difficult to interpret
from the material record. Sites connected to known labor reformers, such as the Kate Mullany
House NHL, may be potential properties that illustrate this in the archeological record.
Residential properties in communities where changing labor practices occurred may also provide
some evidence of home instruction in changing labor practices.
Labor protest camps usually consisted of semi-permanent to impermanent dwellings, as well as
possible commercial enterprises that supported camp members. Evidence of these communities
may include the remains of structures and associated waste deposits. Likewise, properties
associated with significant labor protest leaders, union and protest organizations, or protest
actions contribute information significant to the topic of labor organization and protest.
Primarily, the existence of an outlying encampment is a possible indication that labor conflict
occurred at a company town, as industry leaders would have expelled unionists from their towns.
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Unionists who were not directly affiliated with the nearby company town may also have chosen
to settle in the area so that they would have easy access to workers they hoped to convert to
union membership. In several instances, archeological evidence from labor protest camps or
other sites may provide evidence of the violence associated with class conflict. In the nineteenth
century, many industry leaders responded to labor protestors with violent force. The Ludlow
Tent Colony Site in Las Animas, Colorado (Simmons and Simmons 2008) details such a violent
response and the resulting destruction.
The Framework theme Developing the American Economy includes the topics: extraction and
production; distribution and consumption; transportation and communication; workers and work
cultures; labor organizations and protests; exchange and trade; governmental policies and
practices; and economic theory (NPS 1996:11). Class and conflict resulting from worker culture
and relations can be seen in worker households, infrastructure sites, and industrial worksites as
well as social and commercial sites and institutional sites. Governmental policies and practices
can be evident at social and commercial sites and institutional sites.
The Framework theme Changing Role of the United States in the World Community includes
the topics: international relations; commerce; expansion and imperialism; and immigration and
emigration policies (NPS 1996:14). Class and conflict related to immigration and emigration can
be seen in the policies of various institutions as well as inequities or differing levels of
participation in various social and commercial properties.
Labor, Class, and Conflict Research Questions:
1) What was the relationship between labor and industry and how does material culture
reflect the way workers responded to industry and industrial relations? How is the site or
district indicative of regional and/or national labor relations?
2) Was the relationship between labor and industry in conflict? Does the material record
reflect the relationship between labor and capital or within laboring groups? Are these
relationships reflective of broader regional and national trends?
3) How did national emigration and immigration policies and patterns lead to labor and
class conflicts or disputes?
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4) How did educational and intellectual currents, political ideas, cultures, and theories shape
the relationship between industry and labor at the property? Given that the adoption of
norms or attention to ideas can strain or support this relationship, does the material
culture or built environment of the property reflect the nature of these relationships?
5) How did the processes of extraction and production engender the relations between labor
and industry, work culture, and class formation, and create tensions? Can the property
provide important knowledge about these changes?
6) How do the patterns of consumption and distribution reflect class formation and
industrial relations? Does the material and spatial evidence at the site or district
contribute regional or nationally significant knowledge about labor relations and the
consumption of goods?
Example How was the relationship between labor and industry in conflict and seen in
relationships with different institutions, organizations and protests? This research question can
detail the dynamic and sometimes contested relationship between workers and employers. For
instance, the archeology of the Ludlow Tent Colony Site documented the material culture of
striking miners and their families and the dynamics of the strike and its impact, including a battle
between striking coal miners and the National Guard that led to the destruction of the tent colony
and the deaths of two women and eleven children. As one of the best preserved labor camps in
the United States, artifacts from the site have been critical to understanding the effects of striking
behavior in regards to class and ethnic interactions. Archeologists have examined whether or not
the camp was segregated along lines of ethnicity, religion, or country of origin. Reflecting upon
how labor strikes influenced gender roles in labor camps can also be examined in detail from the
artifacts found in domestic deposits as workers’ domestic sites were traditionally the domain of
women. Interestingly, researchers hypothesize that women and children were active participants
with the male miners in developing class consciousness, and aided in unifying support for the
strike.
Examining the material record has also been crucial for identifying the material
conditions that led to strikes during this era in American history. The virtually intact
archeological record found within the domestic features of the Ludlow Tent Colony Site consists
of the accumulation of the mundane actions of people within their homes. Analysis of these
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remains is providing one means to gain a richer, more detailed, and more systematic
understanding of the everyday reality of Colorado mining families than is available from
documents of the 1913-1914 strike. Finally, the archeological record has been instrumental in
defining the specific events that took place within Ludlow Tent Colony on April 20th,1914, the
day of the battle, massacre, and conflagration. Battlefield archeology has played a significant
role in determining what actually happened on that day as opposed to what was reported in the
documentary record. Therefore, Ludlow is a unique example of a site that contributes to the
broader and nationally significant history of labor relations and labor struggles.
Communities and Collectives
Labor archeology sites related to Communities and Collectives includes places where groups or
combinations of different groups lived, socialized and sometimes labored together. These
properties may be places built and designed entirely by the management of the properties such as
is the case with company towns, company boardinghouses, and some work camps. They may
also be entire districts where workers dwellings may have been, including working class
neighborhoods, work camps, boardinghouses, bunkhouses and hotels. These places can include
structures or sites that served as the setting for the development of community identities
including union halls, social halls or other recreational centers, saloons, and other commercial
establishments. Overall, the domain looks at the group or community level and is scalable at this
dimension, but also can represent research questions of regional and national significance.
Examining comparative literature and broader contexts can help assess the research significance
of this domain.
The Framework theme Peopling Places includes the topics: family and the life cycle; health,
nutrition, and disease; migration from outside and within; community and neighborhood; ethnic
homelands; and encounters, conflicts, and colonization (NPS 1996:7). Worker households,
social and commercial sites, and institutional sites can shed light on migration outside and within
communities and community and neighborhood dynamics.
The Framework theme Creating Social Institutions and Movements includes the topics: clubs
and organizations; reform movements; religious institutions; and recreational activities (NPS
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1996:8). At the community level, social and commercial sites show social organization,
activities, and movements. Religious institutions at the community level are represented by
subsequent institutional sites. Parks, clubs, stores, schools, and churches were among the
numerous social institutions industry leaders constructed and supported. In workers'
communities in isolated areas, as illustrated by the Cairnbrook Historic District in Pennsylvania,
companies were even obligated to provide water resources and housing. All of these institutional
provisions further helped to link labor to workers' lives.
The framework theme Shaping the Political Landscape includes the topics: parties, protests,
and movements; governmental institutions; military institutions and activities; and political
ideas, cultures, and theories (NPS 1996:10). Ideas, movements, and issues can be seen in social
and commercial sites and institutional sites.
In order for workers to protect their personal autonomy and rights as laborers, they developed
unions. These organizations, which slowly developed over time, hoped to give workers a
measure of protection against industrial policies and practices (Nash 1989). Unions connected
workers into a larger and more organized network of supporters, but they also provided a social
connection for laborers. The shared concerns, problems, and goals of laborers united individuals
after their set workday. Unions also provided workers with social functions and institutions,
such as special meetings or clubs. As described above, the development of unionization may be
traced through the study of properties associated with significant labor protest leaders, labor
protest activity, and union activity.
The topic "parties, protests, and movements" is well illustrated by properties associated with
labor protest and the development of unions. Politicians, and thereby political ideas, cultures,
and theories, were closely connected to workers since consumerism and mass production
depended on production forces that were satisfied, or at least compliant, with the national
standards for labor practices. Accordingly, workers, especially after the formation of unions,
demanded certain national standards and expected politicians to satisfy their needs as public
representatives. This theme may be more complicated to illustrate archeologically, but
properties connected to labor protests that influenced political thoughts and actions are useful
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here. The Ludlow Tent Colony Site, described above, is an excellent example of this type of
property since the union activity at this site encouraged the definition of methods for resolving
labor conflicts (Saitta et al. 2005). Participants of a historic event rarely witness more than a few
incidents associated with the event in question. The day-to-day existence of strikers within
Ludlow Tent Colony, and the series of documented events that culminated with the tragedy of
April 20
th
, 1914 exemplify these problems in interpreting a historical event. Physical evidence
and spatial patterning contained in the archeological record found within the Ludlow Tent
Colony Site can assist in resolving some of these issues
The NPS theme, Expressing Cultural Values, includes the topics: education and intellectual
currents; visual and performing arts; literature; mass media; architecture, landscape architecture,
and urban design; and popular and traditional culture (NPS 1996:9). Social and commercial sites
and institutional sites would have shaped or contributed to the cultural values and expressions of
a community.
The Framework theme, Developing the American Economy, includes the topics: extraction and
production; distribution and consumption; transportation and communication; workers and work
cultures; labor organizations and protests; exchange and trade; governmental policies and
practices; and economic theory (NPS 1996:11). Social and commercial sites and institutional
sites can offer a broad picture of work cultures, distribution and consumption, exchange and
trade, and economic theory.
Economic theory and governmental policies and practices can be applied to a number of
properties. These properties may be related to changes in economic theory or changes in policies
and practices instituted or guided by the government. Sites connected to government work
programs such as the WPA and CCC also provide excellent possibilities for studying the
interaction between government and labor activity at the community level.
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Communities and Collectives Research Questions:
1) How did industry and the industrial mode of production affect communities and
neighborhoods? How are the effects of production part of regional and/or national
trends?
2) How were communities created and affected by patterns of migration and immigration
related to industry? Can the site or district demonstrate the significant effects of the
movement of people to the community as a result of work? How does the dynamic of
regional demographics reflect national trends in the movement of peoples across borders
or between regions for the purpose of work?
3) What was the relationship between clubs and organizations and industry?
4) At the level of the community or collective, how were societal reform movements started
and how did they interact with industry? Can the property provide important knowledge
about these regional and national movements at the community level?
5) How did cultural values shape the relationship between communities and collectives and
industry and what were the broad patterns of this relationship?
6) What was the community and collective dynamic of participation in political parties,
labor organizations, movements, and protests related to industry?
7) How were communities shaped by the process of production, extraction and other aspects
of this process? This question intersects with the labor processes domain focusing on the
community as a whole.
8) How did governmental policies towards industry affect communities and groups? How
can the effects of these policies be seen at the local level? What evidence can the site or
district provide to understand how these policies were negotiated?
9) How were patterns of consumption within the community tied to industry and economics
in the Industrial era? Do these patterns vary across the community and how does this
variation reflect prevailing regional or national patterning?
Example How did industry and the industrial mode of production affect communities and
neighborhoods? This question provides an avenue to understand the wider impact of different
modes of production. Labor archeology has examined industrial landscapes asking research
questions regarding settlement composition, design, and density, and the impact of industry,
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environmental adaptation, and community health. For instance, Beaudry and Mrozowski’s
(1989c) multidisciplinary studies of the Boott mills complex in the Lowell National Historical
Park address the community level by examining several sites together. Beaudry (1989, 1993)
and Mrozowski et al. (1989) produced a broad contextual view of nineteenth-century mill
operatives’ lives. Through the comparison of sites, they were able to examine everyday
conditions through multiple, but connected, layers of archeological evidence that included
specific artifacts, features, and their analysis. These analyses link examinations of public health,
hygiene, landscape, and corporate paternalism across the hierarchy of the community providing a
much more detailed assessment of the lives of mill workers, their interrelation, and the
differences between them. Based on this detailed and thorough examination, the Boott mills
complex can provide significant information on the dynamic between industry and the
community and, in the process, illuminate regional and national industrial trends.
Evaluation Criteria
Information contained in the theme study is to be used to evaluate the significance of labor
archeology properties as National Historic Landmarks or for inclusion on the National Register
of Historic Places. Labor archeology properties, represented by archeological sites and districts,
considered for National Register nomination must possess integrity of location, design, setting,
materials, workmanship, feeling, and association at national, state, or local levels of significance
relating to one or more of the Criteria. National Historic Landmark Criteria reflect a similar but
more rigorous evaluative framework and threshold for properties possessing the potential to
contain information of national significance. As set forth in 36 CFR 65.4, properties meeting
these Criteria:
1. Are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to, and are identified
with, or that outstandingly represent, the broad national patterns of United States history
and from which an understanding and appreciation of those patterns may be gained; or
2. Are associated importantly with the lives of persons nationally significant in the history
of the United States: or
3. Represent some great idea or ideal of the American people; or
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4. Embody the distinguishing characteristics of an architectural type specimen exceptionally
valuable for a study of a period, style or method of construction, or that represent a
significant, distinctive and exceptional entity whose components may lack individual
distinction; or
5. Are composed of integral parts of the environment not sufficiently significant by reason
of historical association or artistic merit to warrant individual recognition but collectively
compose an entity of exceptionally historical or artistic significance, or outstandingly
commemorate or illustrate a way of life or culture; or
6. Have yielded or may be likely to yield information of major scientific importance by
revealing new cultures, or by shedding light upon periods of occupation over large areas
of the United States. Such sites are those that have yielded, or which may be reasonably
expected to yield data affecting theories, concepts, and ideas to a major degree.
Labor archeology properties, like other archeological resources, are usually nominated under
Criterion 6. To be designated an NHL, a property must contain information that is “expected to
yield data affecting theories, concepts, and ideas to a major degree.” Other Criteria can also be
applicable. Stated briefly, nominations made under Criterion 6 must address two questions:
1. What information is the site likely to yield?
2. Is the information nationally significant?
To prepare a nomination and assess the significance of a property, researchers should follow the
steps outlined in the National Register of Historic Places Bulletin: How to Prepare National
Historic Landmark Nominations (NPS 1999) and briefly mentioned here in the context of this
theme study.
To begin, the researcher needs to find, cite, and justify the qualifying NHL Criteria for the
property or properties. To do this, the researcher should use Table 1 to identify the relevant
research domains and Framework themes and topics. Next, the researcher should select the
applicable research questions the property can address and/or pose additional research questions
that have not been conceptualized before. This step necessitates an outline of the historical
background of the property and the formation of a defensible research design that includes a
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solid overview of current theory, concepts, and ideas, especially in labor archeology and labor
history.
From this context, the researcher should be able to compare the data or likely data from the
property with other known resources and the knowledge base. From this comparison, the
property's relationship to this knowledge base and the relevant Criteria can be detailed. This
context is further crucial to assessing the significance of the property at the local, regional, or
national level. At the national level, properties should be exceptionally important when
compared to other properties. Thus, the relative merit of the significance and integrity of the
property should be compared to other similar, potentially nominated properties.
Archeological properties can meet Criteria 1 through 5 in addition to Criteria 6. Inclusion of
additional applicable Criteria increases the strength of an assessment and subsequent nomination.
For instance, the Ludlow Tent Colony Site was designated an NHL for labor archeology under
Criteria 1 and 6. Not only did Ludlow yield archeological data affecting theories, concepts, and
ideas to a major degree, the property also was associated with events that have made a significant
contribution to, and are identified with, or that outstandingly represent the broad national
patterns of United States history and from which an understanding and appreciation of those
patterns may be gained.
Each Criteria requires its own justification. Linking the Criteria to the research domains and
Framework themes and topics allows researchers to flesh out the significant aspects and elements
of each Criteria. In the case of Ludlow’s NHL nomination, the strength and association of these
Criteria can be seen in the nomination’s discussion of the four applicable Framework themes and
five applicable Framework topics (see Simmons and Simmons 2008). Applying the research
domains of this theme study, the Ludlow NHL addresses three out of the four research domains.
Once again, the overall strength of a nomination is contingent on delineating the relevant Criteria
and the argument and research supporting that selection.
National Historic Landmark Exceptions
Ordinarily, cemeteries, birthplaces, graves of historical figures, properties owned by religious
institutions or used for religious purposes, structures that have been moved from their original
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locations, reconstructed historic buildings and properties that have achieved significance within
the past fifty years are not eligible for designation. If such properties fall within the following
categories they may, nevertheless, be found to qualify:
Exception 1: A religious property deriving its primary national significance from architectural or
artistic distinction or historical importance; or
Exception 2: A building removed from its original location but which is nationally significant
primarily for its architectural merit, or for association with persons or events of transcendent
importance in the nation's history and the association consequential; or
Exception 3: A site of a building or structure no longer standing but the person or event
associated with it is of transcendent importance in the nation's history and the association
consequential; or
Exception 4: A birthplace, grave or burial if it is of a historical figure of transcendent national
significance and no other appropriate site, building, or structure directly associated with the
productive life of that person exists; or
Exception 5: A cemetery that derives its primary national significance from graves of persons of
transcendent importance, or from an exceptionally distinctive design or an exceptionally
significant event; or
Exception 6: A reconstructed building or ensemble of buildings of extraordinary national
significance when accurately executed in a suitable environment and presented in a dignified
manner as part of a restoration master plan, and when no other buildings or structures with the
same association have survived; or
Exception 7: A property primarily commemorative in intent if design, age, tradition, or symbolic
value has invested it with its own national historical significance; or
Exception 8: A property achieving national significance within the past 50 years if it is of
extraordinary national importance.
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Evaluation Standards: NRHP Criteria
Any successful NHL nomination also will meet NRHP Criteria. A site ineligible for listing as an
NHL may still meet the Criteria to be listed on the NRHP. The National Historic Preservation
Act of 1966, as amended, outlines four Criteria under which a historic or prehistoric site could be
qualified for listing on the NRHP. These are listed in 36 CFR 60:
The quality of significance in American history, architecture, archeology, and culture is present
in districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that possess integrity of location, design,
setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association, and:
A. that are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad
pattern of our history; or
B. that are associated with the lives of persons significant in our past; or
C. that embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction, or
that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a
significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction;
or
D. that have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or
history.
Archeological site eligibility is normally considered under Criterion D, the potential to yield
information important to prehistory and history. Determining what information is important in
history can be accomplished only through explicit arguments linking the site(s) and cultural
resources in question to theoretical and substantive questions and issues of archeological or
historical knowledge.
Integrity is related to a property's ability to provide sufficiently intact data that yields or is
expected to yield information significant to the historic context or theme. The National Register
Criteria requires that properties retain integrity of location, design, setting, materials
workmanship feeling, and association. Archeological properties are not expected to recall the
physical image of an event, person, process, or construction technique. With archeological
properties though, natural and cultural processes are likely to affect the integrity of the site.
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Therefore, the integrity of archeological properties is assessed by the site's potential ability to
provide data for research questions (NPS 1997:46).
The same characteristics that define National Register requirements for integrity apply for NHL
integrity: location, design, setting materials workmanship, feeling, and association (NPS
1999:36-37). Furthermore, to assess integrity the researcher must "l) define the essential
physical features that must be present to a high degree... 2) determine whether the essential
physical features are apparent enough to convey the property's significance; and 3) compare the
property with similar properties in the nationally significant theme" (NPS 1999:37).
Specifically for archeological properties, which fall under Criterion 6, the integrity is based on
the property's "professionally demonstrated intactness" of deposits and features to the extent that
they can address nationally significant research questions (NPS 1999:37). Integrity applies to the
level of preservation or quality of information, but it is important to note that due to the
complexity of the archeological record, integrity should be a relative measure dependent on the
historical context (Little et al. 2000:36-37).
Evaluating Properties for Inclusion as NHLs of Labor Archeology.
To summarize, for a property to meet the Criteria of a National Historic Landmark under the
Labor Archeology Theme Study, it must reasonably be expected to yield data affecting theories,
concepts, and ideas to a major degree in regards to the formation, transformation, or continuance
of major social aspects of labor in America leading to or throughout the Industrial period,
roughly from the mid-eighteenth into the twentieth century and be at least 50 years old. Such
sites are those which have yielded, or which may reasonably be expected to yield, data that is
highly relevant to the research questions and domains outlined in this study.
When assessing NHL or NRHP significance, it is important to note how a property can
contribute important information. This can only be done through the development of explicit
statements detailing the kinds of information that are available in addition to the integrity of this
information for the specific property or district. NRHP or NHL nominations are research
designs and syntheses, and not listings of physical attributes or general research questions.
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This theme study is meant to help frame and assess these research questions and their
significance. A property should have integrity to yield data affecting theories, concepts, and
ideas to a major degree and yield or likely to yield nationally significant information. In order to
establish the national significance of an archeological resource, it must be demonstrated how the
data has made or will make a major contribution to the existing body of information. The
discussion of the property must include important research questions on labor archeology of the
Industrial era which can be answered by the data contained in the property.
G. Geographic Boundaries
Geographical data defines the boundaries of an area in which the properties for a multiple
property group exist or are likely to exist. For the purposes of the National Register and NHLs,
the boundary for labor archeology properties is the United States and its territories, such as
Guam and Puerto Rico.
H. Summary of Identification and Evaluation Methods
Evaluation Methods and Examples
Potentially eligible NHL sites meeting the Criteria set by this theme study were taken from the
National Historic Landmark list and the National Register of Historic Places listing. These
properties were evaluated with reference to the themes proposed by this study: Labor Processes,
Labor and Identity, Labor, Class, and Conflict, and Communities and Collectives. The
properties serve as examples for assessing the significance of labor archeology properties.
To determine which properties might exist that illustrate nationally significant data in labor
archeology, a review of properties in the NRHP and NHLs was conducted in an earlier draft of
this theme study by David Gadsby and Theresa Solury. No properties were considered if they
were not already listed, with one exception for the Chinese Camp in Tuolumne County,
California. Considering the scope and scale of the National Register, it was necessary to limit
the properties reviewed. The potential properties selected for review were listed under Criterion
D for their archeological information potential and had "industry" as an area of significance.
There were 423 properties in the National Register listed through 1996 that met these two
requirements. Because of the inconsistency in nominations listing areas of significance beyond
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"archeology," it is possible that other listed properties may be good candidates for NHL
designation. From the 423 properties reviewed, a number were chosen for discussion in this
document for several specific reasons. A full list of all the properties originally reviewed for this
report follows as Appendix B.
It is important to bear in mind that the information in this document is designed to serve as a
guideline for reviewing archeological properties associated with labor archeology. Each
property must be judged individually and as such, a property is not immediately guaranteed
National Register or NHL acceptance if it meets the suggested requirements in this document.
The two most important factors for the selection of properties are quality and content. Each
property contains intact archeological material that appears to be in excellent to good condition
and is related to a significant moment or theme. The properties described were selected in an
attempt to provide as comprehensive a coverage of issues and distribution as possible. Although
using a limited database places some constraints on the possible kinds of specific property types,
they represent most non-Register and non-Landmark properties as well. It is possible that there
are other property types present that were not discussed. It is also important to acknowledge the
potential significance of commerce properties, which have not been reviewed here to date.
Errors or generalizations in the listing of some properties on the National Register also must be
considered in this instance. As such, related properties may not have been reviewed but this is a
difficult oversight to overcome as each property on the National Register and the NHL survey
would need to be reviewed individually to account for errors or generalizations.
As mentioned above, the integrity of a property was also an important factor in its selection.
What constituted the level of integrity was determined by a property's ability or potential to yield
information important to research questions addressed at the site. Most nominations contained a
clear discussion of the property’s integrity that simplified the review. The uniqueness of a
property and its connection to a historic context are other important factors in its selection. The
properties not discussed in this document were excluded for a number of reasons. Primarily, the
properties reviewed during research that were not selected for discussion in this document failed
to contain either a strong archeological record with good integrity or evidence of workers' lives.
Other properties contained all the necessary elements, but were not related to significant
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moments or themes in history. In some instances, the National Register database listed
properties as related to archeology and industry, but the archeology and the industry were
unrelated to one another. An example of this occurrence is Winehaven in Contra Costa County,
California, which is a property containing an early twentieth-century winery but significant for
its archeology at a prehistoric Native American habitation site (Winehaven Historical Study
Committee 1978).
Other properties do not have enough research or information to be adequately evaluated
according to the NHL Criteria For instance, the Antioch Potash Plants in Sheridan County,
Nebraska, is a reviewed National Register property that was rejected for further consideration as
an NHL at this time because it lacked sufficient data. Fifteen companies organized in the United
States to extract potash from alkali lakes during World War I as the nation was primarily
dependent on Germany to supply this agricultural nutrient (Jensen 1979:8.1). Five companies
composed the Antioch Potash Plants between 1916 and 1918 (Jensen 1979:7.1). The American
potash market declined in 1918, causing the plants to temporarily close. These plants were
reopened in 1919, but only operated for another five months when Germany began selling
affordable potash again (Jensen 1979:8.2). Ten of these companies were in Nebraska, and
except for the Antioch plants, the physical evidence of this industry has been almost completely
destroyed. Homes for workers, primarily one-to two-room shanties equipped with steam-heat,
electric light, and plumbing, are said to be situated nearby. In the 1920s, the shanties were
dismantled or moved. At the same time, the plants were torn down to salvage the structural steel,
brick, and other reusable materials. All machinery was sold for scrap (Jensen 1979:7.3).
As the above account indicates, a strong history of the development and structure of the Antioch
Potash Plants exists and suggests a good potential for archeological remains for this understudied
property type. The plant is in a state of visible ruins, but the Antioch Potash Plants’ nomination
indicates no credible evidence that intact buried cultural sources connected to workers' housing
or other activities remains. While documentary sources state the existence and describe the
quality of worker housing, researchers have been unable to confirm their presence at this time.
Because of this absence, which eliminates much of the potential for information on workers'
lives, Antioch Potash Plants was not considered for further consideration as an NHL at this time.
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The Black Diamond Mines in Contra Costa County, California, is another example of a National
Register property currently rejected for further consideration as an NHL because of a lack of
national significance. The Black Diamond Mines is a district covering a region prospected for
coal in the mid-1850s. Though the district originally formed around coal mining, commercial
silica sand mining became the primary industry in the area during the early-twentieth century
(Praetzellis 1991:7.0). Five towns rose around the mines and continued to be populated until the
mines closed in the early twentieth century. Overall, the integrity of the site is considered very
good, and archeologists have conducted some sporadic excavations at the site between 1979 until
1986 (Praetzellis 1991:8.15). The Black Diamond Mines are potentially important for their role
in the westward expansion of the United States and for the cultural adaptations and interactions
between various ethnic groups represented at the mines. While this district appears to be a likely
candidate for inclusion on the National Register, its national significance is questionable. This
property, while in very good condition and representative of an unusual ethnic history for
California, is not unique on a national level and contributes more to a regional level of
significance. For this reason, the Black Diamond Mines will not be considered for further
consideration as a NHL.
While both the Antioch Potash Plants and the Black Diamond Mines can provide information on
the structure and organization of workspaces they currently do not show strong potential to
reveal nationally significant information on workers' lives and individual activity. Properties
best suited for labor archeology investigations contain domestic remains in addition to those of
workspaces. While the presence of worker housing is not necessary at each property examined,
it is a helpful component since it often reflects the greatest personal impression a worker or a
worker’s family leaves in the material record of industry.
A Sample of Potential National Historic Landmarks
The following sample sites and districts represent properties that appear likely to be eligible
National Historic Landmarks under the Labor Archeology Theme Study. These properties are
highlighted to provide researchers a guide to nominating nationally significant sites using this
theme study. These sites do not represent all of the potential sites that may be applicable but
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serve as a guide for nominating nationally significant labor archeology sites. As of February
2014, only one archeological site has been nominated based on labor archeology, the Ludlow
Tent Colony Site. This example and a sample of potentially eligible archeological sites and
districts are provided below.
Appendix A contains a list of sites selected as potential NHLs in an earlier draft of this report
while a full list of the properties reviewed for that earlier draft follows as Appendix B. Appendix
C lists potentially relevant Multiple Property Submission (MPS) studies that can be used in
conjunction with this theme study to address specific industrial properties.
Lowell National Historical Park, Massachusetts
Lowell National Historical Park, Massachusetts, is an exemplary example of a district containing
data on the establishment of industry and the formation of a built environment reflecting the
social relations connected to that industry. Thus the district contains archaeological resources
capable of addressing the research domains of Labor Processes and Labor and Identity. The
creation of Lowell National Historical Park in 1978 acknowledged Lowell's significant
contribution to the American Industrial Revolution (NPS 2008). The city and its textile mills and
infrastructure represent the first large-scale planned industrial city in American history,
structuring work as well as home life. Lowell served as a model for American industry for much
of the nineteenth century (Mrozowksi 2006). The Lowell Locks and Canals Historic District,
which includes the canals, their locks, and mills, is already designated as a NHL.
Lowell can contribute to the Labor Processes domain. In the early years of this mill company
town, industry operators supplied workers with housing in local boardinghouses constructed and
maintained by the mill company. Boardinghouse operators leased their establishments from the
mill company, and as leasers they were obliged to follow company regulations unless they
wanted to risk losing their operation (Mrozowski and Beaudry 1987:156). As such, the rules for
boardinghouse residents were fairly uniform throughout company holdings. Rules against non-
company residents, the consumption of alcohol on the premises, or drunken and disorderly
behavior by residents were common rules for these housing arrangements. In later years, many
of the boardinghouses became tenements.
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The archaeological resources at Lowell can also detail the interaction of labor and identity. At
Lowell, workers preferred to live in tenements instead of the boardinghouses since they could
have a greater control over their personal lives in these establishments (Dutton 1989:88).
Residents could furnish tenements as they chose, prepare the foods they desired, and live with a
moderate increase in behavioral freedom. Further study of the Lowell workers' housing may
provide information about how company policies affected the lifestyles of residents in both
establishments and how residents responded to labor changes and industry practices in their
material culture and consumption habits. The archeology of Lowell also can illuminate the
changing ethnic and gender identity of the workforce.
Excavations at Lowell (see Beaudry and Mrozowski 1989c) have demonstrated the site has the
potential to meet at least NHL Criteria 6. The excavations recovered nationally significant data
that exemplifies the evolution of industrial production, corporation control, and their effects on
the everyday life of workers and their families. One brief example of this type of data, out of the
many varieties recovered, is the evidence of the impact of industrialization on personal hygiene
found during the excavations. Working in the mills was very dirty. The processes involved in
making cloth released clouds of lint and other materials that stuck to the body, which was often
covered in sweat and machine grease. Considering the lack of facilities discovered during
excavation, it would have been difficult to keep one’s clothes and body clean. Artifacts related
to personal grooming were found throughout the boarding house excavations and included
combs, cosmetic and cologne containers. These luxuries were probably prized possessions that
helped with personal hygiene. Their recovery sheds light on the different strategies, individual
and communal, used to mitigate the depersonalizing experience of working in the mills.
In the context of repetitive and anonymous industrial work and low wages, the particular
individual choices connected to personal adornment found during the excavations at Lowell take
on a particular significance for understanding the development of gender identity. Beaudry and
Mrozowski (2001:123) suggest that the particular characteristics of the many decorative hair
combs, brooches and buttons are significant for more than their functional role but rather for
their capacity to reflect “the active process of the construction of selfhood and of identity”. The
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items recovered revealed a penchant for costume jewelry among the young female textile
workers, which the researchers suggest reflects a self-conscious expression of working class
identity. In some cases, however, jewelry consisted of less expensive black glass versions of
more expensive jet jewelry popular among the middle-class women of the time (Mrozowski
2001:123). These items, on the other hand, express middle class aspirations among the workers
and perhaps an expression of their increased capacities for earning power (Mrozowksi 2001:123-
125). Collected in broadly patterned samples these particular items contribute significant
understandings to how individual choices are amalgamated into collective movements of identity
formation. Thus, the data can contribute significant important information on the research
domains of Labor Processes and Labor and Identity.
Sloss Furnace, Birmingham, Alabama
The Sloss Furnace is an example of a National Historic Landmark that is a potentially eligible
property based on labor archeology. The complex was erected in 1881 and 1882 and developed
over time producing cast and pig iron. Remaining in operation until 1970, the site represents
post-Civil War efforts to industrialize the South and presents evidence of the intense economic
competition with the already-industrialized North. This unique example of competition and
attempts to modernize can illustrate the Labor Processes domain.
The domain of Labor and Identity is illustrated by the Furnace’s workforce. Unlike industries in
the North at this time, African Americans made up a large part of the labor pool (Adams
1978:8.1). Archeological evidence has the potential to document the experience of postbellum
life for African Americans in the context of industry. The archeological record of the industry
documents the racial dynamics and racial hierarchy of the Furnace. The preservation of intact
buildings and mining remains indicates the likely preservation of substantial archeological
information. The Furnace property has integrity and would be potentially eligible under
Criterion 6. The Sloss Blast Furnace would have the archeological potential to contribute
significantly to the research domains of Labor Processes and Labor and Identity.
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Fayette, Delta, Michigan
The town of Fayette in Delta, Michigan, is a post-Civil War charcoal iron-smelting company
town established and operated by the Jackson Iron Company from the middle to the late
nineteenth century (Brooks-Miller et al. 1996:7.1). Originally, the town contained industrial,
residential, commercial, and administrative structures. Today, the town is well-preserved with
the remains of the furnace complex and the associated iron-smelting operation, commercial and
administrative buildings, residences, and other associated buildings still standing.
The size of the town allows for a broad examination of the Community and Collectives domain.
Fayette is divided into four distinct areas. The industrial area centers around the remains of the
furnace complex and also includes the remains of ten conical brick charcoal kilns, a dolomite
lime kiln, a dolomite quarry, piling rows from wooden docks, and railroad features (Brooks-
Miller et al. 1996:7.4-7.5). Next to the industrial area is the administrative and commercial area.
This area contains the remains of buildings, building foundations, demolished buildings and
structures with no associated above ground features, and slag deposits used for road fill (Brooks-
Miller et al. 1996:7.5).
The residential area is the largest component of Fayette. This area contains the remains of
houses, privies, the company sawmill, and pilings from docks with sheds (Brooks-Miller et al.
1996:7.5). A second residential area was occupied by the less skilled workers in Fayette.
Archeologists have identified the sites of seven houses, though no visible, aboveground remains
are present. Other features in the district include additional housing, the local school district, an
oval racetrack, outside commercial structures, religious structures, and a cemetery (Brooks-
Miller et al. 1996: 7.7-7.10).
Archeologists have studied the residential and commercial life through limited excavations, but
they have not studied the industrial remains to any serious extent. Together the area has the
potential to document many facets of the company town and their interrelation. Detailing the
domains of Labor Processes and Labor and Identity, the archeological remains of this district can
potentially illustrate aspects of iron-processing techniques, and exchange and trade in a company
town. It can also provide significant information about workers and work culture of the
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nineteenth century. The intact remains of worker housing and the presence of residential areas
divided by class have the potential to reveal information on the daily lives of workers, the
formation of communities, and the interaction between different class groups. Fayette can meet
Criterion 6 and can contribute to the research domains of Labor Processes, Labor and Identity,
and Community and Collectives.
Chinese Mining Camp Archeological Site in Idaho County, Idaho
An excellent example of a workers' community that displays evidence of ethnic divisions and
conflicts is the Chinese Mining Camp Archeological Site. The Chinese Mining Camp
Archeological Site in Idaho County, Idaho, is part of the Chinese Sites in the Warren Mining
District MPS. Although White miners officially organized it in 1862, Chinese workers primarily
occupied this site from 1870 to 1910, since the local government prohibited the Chinese from
legally mining in the district until 1869 (Elliott 1994:8.1). After this time, the government
allowed the Chinese to work on leased operations, though they would not allow them to purchase
any land. Between 1870 and 1900 at least five separate Chinese mining companies monopolized
gravel placer operations in the Warren District (Elliott 1994:8.1). The population in the district
fluctuated seasonally, but the Chinese were the dominant ethnic group in the area during these
peak mining years (Elliott 1994:8.2).
Archeologists from the University of Idaho in Moscow excavated 20 percent of the Chinese
Mining Camp over a four-year period from 1989 to 1992. Their excavations show data that can
address both the Labor and Identity and Community and Collectives domains. They have
identified several structural ruins and many mining features in the camp. Archeologists have
also found thousands of artifacts that are commonly associated with Chinese mining camps in the
Pacific West, such as specific kitchen utensils and opium bottles. Imported Asian goods indicate
the different consumption habits of the Chinese from the American miners who worked in the
area. The Chinese-styled terraced gardens found at this site suggest different food procurement
methods for miners. Ethnic differences in mining techniques are also visible in the camp tool
and feature remains. Researchers can identify the different mining techniques, community
planning, building traditions, and building uses in connection with a strong Chinese heritage,
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along with the interrelationship between Chinese and Euro-American miners (Elliott 1994:7.2-
7.3, 8.2-8.3).
The remains of housing, tools, food, and other examples of material culture demonstrate cultural
divisions and differences and have the potential to provide information on the interaction of
different ethnic groups and the effect of governmental policies and practices associated with
immigration and immigrants on their lives. The archeological remains from this site illustrate
ethnic differences in nineteenth-century work cultures at mining properties and have the potential
to address questions pertaining to the research domains of Labor and Identity and Community
and Collectives and thus can meet Criterion 6.
Chinese Camp, Tuolumne County, California
A similar property, Chinese Camp, California, is another example illustrating ethnic differences
in work cultures. Chinese Camp is a small scale, unincorporated community in the western part
of Tuolumne County, California (Bloomfield et al. 1994:VI.1). During the late 1840s when gold
was discovered in the area, a number of mining camps sprung up across the countryside as
miners followed rumors of great discoveries. Europeans and other mining sponsors brought
Chinese laborers into Tuolumne County as a steady supply of cheap labor (Bloomfield et al.
1994:VI.2). Chinese miners settled at Chinese Camp after being collectively forced out of or
abandoning nearby Campo Salvado, the site they were contracted to work.
Like the previous example, the Chinese Camp illustrates the research domain of Labor Processes
and Labor and Identity as well as Labor, Class, and Conflict. While researchers have not
excavated within this district as of 1993, a survey report of the area was prepared. The survey
identified thirteen archeological sites representing residences, commercial structures and
districts, mining features, ethnic activity areas (specifically the site of the "Tong War", a small
battle fought between two opposing Chinese groups), a water works, social activity centers, and
a cemetery (Bloomfield et al. 1994:IV.4). The surface survey also identified a number of
artifacts connected to the Chinese miners that illustrate different ethnic groups and may suggest
trade patterns among the miners and larger trade centers. The data can detail exchanges and
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trade in labor communities and the differences in goods used by different ethnic groups at the
camp, and the work cultures of nineteenth-century Chinese and non-Chinese miners.
The archeological remains of this district illustrate gold extraction activities and techniques,
particularly the differences in mining techniques between Chinese and non-Chinese miners and
can illustrate Labor Processes in mining operations. This district may also illustrate the role
Chinese immigrants played in the formation of community and national laws, attitudes, and
opinions. Chinese Camp thus may contribute to the research domains of Labor Processes, Labor,
Class, and Conflict, and Labor and Identity and can meet Criterion 6.
Buxton Historic Townsite in Monroe, Iowa
The Buxton Historic Townsite in Monroe, Iowa, also illustrates ethnic and class divisions and
conflict in work cultures, but relates to the African-American experience in the Midwest.
Buxton developed out of a need for Consolidated Coal Company owners to create a town site
closer to unexhausted coal resources during the late-nineteenth century (Lufkin 1983:8.2). The
company constructed a large number of identical houses for its workers and brought commercial
and public ventures into the community (Lufkin 1983:7.1-7.2, 8.2). Buxton's most unique
feature as a late nineteenth to early-twentieth-century coal mining town was its large African-
American population (Lufkin 1983:7.1).
David Gradwohl and Nancy Osborn excavated in Buxton in the early 1980s and identified the
types of remains available in the district. These types include the existing remains of buildings
and associated features, evidence of transportation networks, portions of the centralized water
control facilities, portions of the centralized downtown heating and sanitation system, vegetative
evidence of gardens, garbage dumps, scattered refuse, and a cemetery (Lufkin 1983:7.2-7.3).
Buxton Historic Townsite can contribute to the issue of ethnic and class divisions and conflicts
with its remains from a rare mixed-ethnicity company town, and thus is potentially significant
under Criterion 6 under the domains of Labor Identity and Labor, Class, and Conflict. Unlike
many other ethnically divided towns, historic accounts indicate that Buxton was an ethnic utopia,
in which all nationalities and ethnic groups had an equal opportunity to advance socially and
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economically. The archeological remains of this district illustrate coal extraction and processing
techniques, exchanges and trade in a company owned town, and can contribute to an
understanding of the workers and work culture of early twentieth-century coal mining.
Archeological remains from this site may also reflect differences in the material consumption
habits and company treatment of different ethnic groups in the community, helping to enrich our
understanding of, or otherwise, complicate historic accounts of the ethnic equality that presided
in the town.
Hope Mills Historic District in Cumberland, North Carolina
The Hope Mills Historic District in Cumberland, North Carolina, reflects changes in work
practices that accompanied the development and institution of industrialism with its associated
technological changes. Hope Mills Historic District contains the remains of an industrial village
based around textile mills established before and after the Civil War. During the Civil War, nine
textile mills operated here to supply Confederate troops with fabrics. Union troops burned eight
of the nine mills during the war. After the war, a northern prospector rebuilt the mills and
subsequently a southern company bought the property and ran the mills in competition with
northern enterprises. At least one mill was still in operation in the 1980s (Jasperse 1985:8.3-8.7).
The remains of the district include industrial, residential, commercial, and religious structures
(Jasperse 1985:7.1). Researchers have conducted no archeological excavations at this site to
date, but the potential of the district to contain significant intact deposits is very good.
Researchers have uncovered documents and maps accounting for the presence and location of
industrial and residential structures and buildings that are no longer visible and predate the Civil
War destruction of the mill town (Jasperse 1985:7.2). Other structures, buildings, and
landscapes dating before and after the Civil War are standing intact or in ruins.
The district is significant since it contains the sites of both an antebellum cotton mill and New
South cotton mills (Jasperse 1985:8.1). Hope Mills Historic District may be able to contribute to
the research domain of Labor Processes and has the potential to meet Criterion 6. The
archeological remains of this district may illustrate the transition of southern industries from pre-
to-post Civil War practices, including changing industry practices, standards, and technologies
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from a small scale work force to an industrialized system with wage laborers. The remains of
buildings, structures, and the overall layout of the community, along with the remains from
machinery and equipment, are helpful in illustrating this theme.
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in Jefferson County, West Virginia
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in Jefferson County, West Virginia, has received
significant amounts of archeological attention detailing its long industrial history that can detail
the research domains of Labor Processes; Labor and Identity; Labor, Class, and Conflict; and
Community and Collectives. For instance, the Labor Processes and Labor, Class, and Conflict
domains are applicable regarding the John Hall's Rifle Works and the US Armory which
introduced factory discipline to Harpers Ferry in the early-nineteenth century along with new
technology associated with an early assembly line system. Workers at the armory and the rifle
works were resistant to the adoption of industrialized labor practices and technology since they
viewed wage laborers as mere machine tenders (Lucas and Shackel 1994; Shackel 1996).
Workers resisted the new work discipline in a variety of ways, the most noteworthy of which
was to ignore regulations over behavior.
In their consumption habits, most workers responded to changing labor practices by using
commercial products over homemade products. The increased social value of commercial goods
encouraged many to adopt this consumption pattern, though archeologists at Harpers Ferry have
uncovered evidence for some contradictions in workers’ consumption habits (Lucas and Shackel
1994; Shackel 1996). The remains of at least one worker’s house have contained a number of
ceramics that were unfashionable after the adoption of the factory discipline in Harpers Ferry.
Paul Shackel (1996:111-145) offered two possible interpretations of these ceramic deposits in his
text. One interpretation is that workers at this site may have consciously chosen to use an
unfashionable table setting as a form of silent protest to the new labor practices. Workers may
have viewed the older style of goods as hallmarks of a time when the artisan method of
production was still in place, a time when workers still viewed themselves as important and
integral parts of the production process. The second interpretation is that under the new wage
labor system, workers received less pay and were less economically capable of keeping up with
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society's fashions in commercial goods. Either interpretation represents an instance where
workers' lifestyles were affected by industry changes and possible reactions to these changes.
Addressing the domains of Community and Collectives and Labor Identity, work by Matt Palus
and Paul Shackel (2006) at the island community of Virginius Island has documented the
relationship between changes in management and the daily lives of workers and their
community. The industry, which shifted between different types of industries and products, also
moved from a paternalistic management style in the early to the middle of the nineteenth century
to an absentee form of ownership in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Palus and
Shackel (2006:xiii) were able to document that the workforce become increasingly deskilled and
impoverished and detailed a general homogenization of material culture over time. The Harpers
Ferry National Historical Park possess data that can potential address Criterion 6 and the
research domains of Labor Processes, Labor and Identity, Labor, Class, and Collectives, and
Community and Collectives.
Sunrise City Historic District in the Kenai-Peninsula Borough of Alaska
Sunrise City Historic District in the Kenai-Peninsula Borough of Alaska can also illustrate the
effect of labor on workers' and their family’s lives as workers had to adapt to inhospitable living
and working conditions in order to mine untapped areas. Workers also had to adapt existing
mining and building technology as well as work practices to this new environment. This district
contains the remains of a late nineteenth-century mining camp that became the supply center for
mining in the Sixmile Creek area. Miners first settled Sunrise City in 1895, and continued to
inhabit it until 1939 (Buzzell 1997:8.1). Though fire, natural erosion processes, and scavenging
for construction material has damaged the site to an extent, the district contains many
archeological sites that retain a high degree of integrity (Buzzell 1997:7.9). Researchers divided
the district into three components: the townsite area, the Point Comfort area, and the sites on the
east side of the Sixmile Creek.
Within the townsite area, one partially standing structure (a log cabin) is still present today (as of
1997). Archeologists and surveyors have identified thirty building foundations (many with root
cellars), seventeen artifact concentrations, eleven isolated artifacts, two sections of foundation
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from the tram road, nine features of hand-stacked rocks (which are well-preserved evidence of
early hand-mining practices), and 175 depressions (Buzzell 1997:7.5-7.6). The Point Comfort
area contains the Point Comfort Cemetery and part of a tram road foundation (Buzzell 1997:7.7).
The sites on the east side of the Sixmile Creek are associated with the boom years of Sunrise
City (Buzzell 1997:7.8). During periods of expansion, newcomers settled on this side of the
creek. The ruins of three log cabins with partially standing walls, a standing log cache, six cabin
sites marked by root cellars, and the stone foundation of a cabin compose this area of the district.
The remains from workers housing and associated material goods illustrate how the isolated and
often inhospitable environment of Alaska affected workers' daily lives and has the potential to
answer research questions pertaining to the Labor Process and Community and Collectives
domains. The semi-permanent to impermanent style of housing and the poor quality of building
materials reflect the temporary nature of habitation in this area, the inability to obtain good
quality building materials, and the difficulty in using existing technologies, while the limited
variation in material goods reflects the isolation of the area. Structural remains from Sunrise
City will also be useful in determining what type of architectural styles miners used in Alaskan
mining communities. Technological changes from small scale hand-mining to a larger scale
machine-mining are probably also detectable here. Thus, Sunrise City Historic District can
address Criterion 6 and the research domains of Labor Processes and Community and
Collectives.
Thurber, Erath, Texas
The company town of Thurber, located in Erath, Texas, also has an interesting history of union
activity and labor protest. Thurber was the only bituminous coal mining town in Texas, and as
such it played a key role in the expansion of the railroad industry in the region. This town was
also a strict company town with all of the housing, special features, and amenities controlled by
the town owners. Thurber is an important district for union activities as miners struck here for
almost a decade in order to receive better working and living conditions, as well as better salaries
and can detail the Labor, Class, and Conflict domain. Early in Thurber's union history, any
union affiliated person was kept out of the town, and the owners eventually fenced the town off
from public access and kept it under militant guard. Strikebreakers were imported into the town,
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including a large if not exclusively African-American labor force, from around 1888 until 1899
when striking miners and company management reached agreement (Steinbomer 1979:8.1-8.2).
Eventually, Thurber became the first all union town in the country (Steinbomer 1979:8.1). Labor
organization and conflict between different groups share research questions associated with the
Labor and Identity and Community and Collectives domains.
Researchers have yet to conduct archeology in Thurber. Survey work has documented ten
significant standing buildings, a cemetery, two artificial lakes, the foundations from a brick
plant, and the foundations of hundreds of homes in the district, all of which suggest the good
potential for archeology in the area (Steinbomer 1979:7.1). The potential for marginal, mining
protest camps surrounding the townsite is also excellent. As it illustrates the activities of protest
movements, political ideas, and the changing political environment of late nineteenth and early
twentieth-century company towns, the research domain of Labor and Identity, Labor, Class, and
Collectives, and Community and Collectives are applicable and the district has the potential to
meet Criterion 6.
Current National Historic Landmarks of Labor Archeology of the Industrial Era
Ludlow Tent Colony Site, Ludlow, Colorado
As mentioned earlier, the Ludlow Tent Colony Site represents the only NHL nominated under
the theme of labor archeology. Forty acres encompassing most of the 1913 to 1914 tent colony
and the camp’s trash dump are in the nominated area (Simmons and Simmons 2008:61). The
colony was scene of a battle between National Guard Troops and striking miners in April of
1914 that led to the death of thirteen people in the camp and a fire that engulfed the colony. The
Ludlow Massacre was a pivotal event arising from the efforts of workers to improve conditions
in the mining industry and the broader struggle between management and labor over the
workplace (Simmons and Simmons 2008:4).
Having excellent integrity, Ludlow has yielded and is likely to yield information of major
scientific importance. The archeological resources have the potential to answer national
significant questions about ethnicity, class interaction, the living conditions of strikers, gender
roles, and material conditions of striking as well as events of the battle (Simmons and Simmons
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2008:4). An earlier draft of this theme study suggested, the site as a potential NHL based on the
Framework themes of Developing the American Economy, Peopling Places, Creating Social
Institutions and Movements, and Shaping the Political Landscape because it can address the
following topics: encounters, conflicts, and colonization; reform movements; parties, protest, and
movements; workers and work culture; and labor organizations and protests. Seen in the light of
the current version of the theme study, Ludlow addresses the research domains of Labor and
Identity, Labor, Class, and Conflict, and Community and Collectives.
As the only currently designated NHL under labor archeology, researchers are strongly
encouraged to review the Ludlow Tent Colony Site NHL nomination as an example of a
successful nomination. The nomination is listed under NHL Criteria 1 and 6 (Simmons and
Simmons 2008). The nationally significant event that led to Ludlow meeting Criterion 1 was the
assault on the tent colony that led to the deaths of women and children. The significance of this
event is also supported by a number of other factors including the public’s reaction and the
event’s subsequent commemorations. The ability of archeology to detail this event and the
relations and details surround it from a relatively unbiased perspective afforded the property the
ability to meet Criterion 6, the high potential to yield information of national significance.
The detailed research framework for Ludlow attempted to address these Criteria with relevant
research questions linked to the Thematic Framework themes and topics (Simmons and Simmons
2008:21-22). This attention to the themes and topics allowed them to focus on specific questions
that could be addressed by the archeological record. In regards to the theme of Peopling Places,
the researchers asked the questions: “Are the strikers’ and their family members’ ethnicity and
countries of origin identifiable in the archeological record?” and “Does the internal layout of the
tent colony reflect segregation along lines of ethnicity, religion, and country of origin?” (Reckner
2009; Simmons and Simmons 2008:21-22). In regards to the theme of Shaping the Political
Landscape, researchers asked if the archaeology could confirm or dispute the many different
highly politicized accounts of the events leading up to the Massacre. Of particular sensitivity in
this regard were the differing accounts of April 20
th
, 1914 by the union and subsequent oral
history and that presented by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.’s public relations firm which suggested
that the strikers’ hostile actions instigated these events.
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Because there is an abundance of conflicting documentary evidence for all of these subjects,
research was geared towards providing uniquely archaeological perspectives to challenge or
elaborate upon the sometimes simplified narratives provided by company and union policy,
media and retrospective oral history. In this case, the archaeology’s capacity to amalgamate
systematic quantitative analysis and historical documentary evidence is exemplified in the
manner in which material culture data from multiple sites is made comparable. In this way,
archaeology exercises systematic methods to answer complex questions.
In regards to the question of visibility in the record of ethnicity, archaeologist Paul Reckner
(2009) found that evidence for some distinctive ethnic-associated items cited conspicuously in
the oral history record were, to some extent, present in the archaeological record such as an
accordion fragment, religious medallions, and olive oil jars in the case of Italian domestic
settings (Reckner 2009:471, Simmons and Simmons 2008: 24). These objects in combination
with other objects with explicit ties to certain ethnic origins, such as a particular Italian-made
bitters bottle or a medicinal bottle with the Spanish designation “ACEITE MEXICANO,”
establish that material distinctions between ethnic groups are partially visible in the
archaeological record (2009:465-468). At the same time, the overall homogeneity of many
everyday objects such as inexpensive ironstone ceramics suggests that “utilitarian objects cross-
cut ethnic/national and racial identities, contributing to a common experience of material life in
the tent colony” (Reckner 2009:479-480). While the evidence of interethnic sharing is not
documented in the archaeological record, the wide distribution of particular items of everyday
life marked in the oral histories as playing a major role in this social function such as coffee, tea
and alcohol-related serving items, musical instruments, and large cuts of meat suggest that the
means for this kind of sharing was well distributed. In all accounts, such interethnic sharing
within the constraints of precarious strike conditions played a major role in the development of
solidarity (Reckner 2009: 479-480).
A feature representing a shared disposal pit in one area of the camp provided evidence for
integrated residency of ethnic groups. In comparison to the main disposal area serving the
majority of the camp, the distinctive pattern of this residential pit suggested it served the habitual
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use of a particular residential group. A mixture of materials associated with ethnic groups found
in this pit suggests that groups were, at this geographical scale, not divided by ethnic group
(Reckner 2009:467-468). Reckner (2009:470) concludes based upon this and other evidence
that, “integrated residency patterns at Ludlow stand in contrast to the union's official system of
ethnic representatives, and to housing patterns in the coal camps prior to [the coal company’s]
forced housing integration programs… the physical landscape of the community was crafted to
intentionally deny the significance of those differences.”
In regards to whether the archaeology confirmed, deny, or elaborate upon certain historical
accounts of the event, the archaeology, even within the limited scope of the sample, produced
some insights. One major account of the companies contended that tent cellars were used by
strikers to hold ammunition or as defensive measures. Of the seven cellars excavated, unfired
ammunition was found in all, with the majority coming from excavated four cellars. Two cellars
contained quantities of .22 and .30 caliber cartridges. Nearby archaeologists found several .30
caliber cartridges fired from the same rifle suggesting that the ammunition fired likely came from
the cellar cache. In this instance, archaeology confirmed the use of the cellars in some cases to
store ammunition (Simmons and Simmons 2008: 25). At the same time, the presence of
significant domestic remains in the cellars indicates, in contrast to the suggestion that the
function of cellars was as a defensive measure, this was far from their exclusive function (Saitta
et al. 2005). An interesting finding that connects all three research questions cited above is the
association of the Greek strikers and rifles in the oral history documentation of the camps. The
recovery of an abundance of ammunition in cellars associated with Italian occupation challenges
the simplicity of this association (Reckner 2009:471-472).
The successful utilization of the Thematic Framework to formulate research questions to address
NHL Criteria makes the Ludlow Tent Colony Site an important example for researchers
considering compiling a NHL nomination under the theme of Labor Archeology of the Industrial
Era. The research conducted at the site also provides an innovative methodology for integrating
the rich documentary record which often accompanies twentieth-century sites in a way which
utilizes the particular kinds of evidence archaeology produces to great effect.
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APPENDIX A
List of Properties Identified as Potential NHLs for Significance to Labor Archeology and
Associated Themes:
Sunrise City Historic District, Kenai-Borough Peninsula, Alaska, #97000892:
Developing the American Economy:
Extraction
Workers and work culture
Expanding Science and Technology:
Technological applications
Peopling Places:
Family and the life cycle
Health, nutrition, and disease
Migration from outside and within
Community and neighborhood
Areas of interest: Effect of work and location of workers and Change from hand-mining
to mechanized-mining
Chinese Camp, Tuolumne County, California (not NR):
Developing the American Economy:
Extraction
Workers and work culture
Peopling Places:
Family and the life cycle
Health, nutrition, and disease
Migration from outside to within
Community and neighborhood
Ethnic homelands
Encounters and conflicts
Areas of interest: Ethnic and class differences and divisions
Moore Gulch Chinese Mining Site, Clearwater County, Idaho, #83000285:
Developing the American Economy:
Extraction
Workers and work culture
Peopling Places:
Family and the life cycle
Health, nutrition, and disease
Migration from outside to within
Community and neighborhood
Ethnic homelands
Encounters and conflicts
Areas of interest: Ethnic and class differences and divisions
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Chinese Mining Camp Archeological Site, Idaho County, Idaho, #94001018:
Developing the American Economy:
Extraction and production
Workers and work culture
Peopling Places:
Family and the life cycle
Health, nutrition, and disease
Migration from outside to within
Community and neighborhood
Ethnic homelands
Encounters and conflicts
Areas of interest: Class and ethnic differences and divisions
Lower Salmon River Archeological District, Idaho County, Idaho, #86002170:
Developing the American Economy:
Extraction and production
Workers and work culture
Peopling Places:
Family and the life cycle
Health, nutrition, and disease
Migrations from outside to within
Ethnic homelands
Encounters and conflicts
Areas of interest: Class and ethnic differences and divisions
Julien Dubuque's Mines, Dubuque, Iowa, #88002664:
Developing the American Economy:
Extraction and production
Workers and work culture
Peopling Places:
Family and the life cycle
Health, nutrition, and disease
Migration from outside to within
Community and neighborhood
Ethnic homelands
Areas of interest: Ethnic and class differences and divisions
Buxton Historic Townsite, Monroe County, Iowa, #83000392:
Developing the American Economy:
Extraction
Workers and work cultures
Peopling Places:
Family and the life cycle
Health, nutrition, and disease
Migration from outside and within
Community and neighborhood
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Encounters and conflicts
Areas of interest: Ethnic and class differences and divisions
Lowell Historic District, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, #78003149:
Peopling Places:
Health, nutrition, and disease
Developing the American Economy:
Production
Workers and work culture
Labor organizations and protest
Expanding Science and Technology:
Technological applications
Effects on lifestyle and health
Shaping the Political Landscape:
Parties, protests, and movements
Creating Social Institutions and Movements:
Clubs and organizations
Reform movements
Areas of interest: Worker protest, Transition to industrialization, Company town with
factory layout, Behavior regulations, and Social, cultural, economic inferences from
workers'
Blackstone Canal Historic District, Worchester County, Massachusetts, #95001004:
Developing the American Economy:
Transportation and communication
Workers and work culture
Peopling Places:
Family and the life cycle
Health, nutrition, and disease
Migration from outside to within
Community and neighborhood
Areas of interest: Community developed out around industry needs
Blackstone Manufacturing Company Historic District, Worchester County, Massachusetts,
#95001038:
Developing the American Economy:
Production
Distribution and consumption
Workers and work culture
Creating Social Institutions and Movements:
Reform movements
Areas of interest: Gender issues and Development of factory culture
Fayette, Delta County, Michigan, #96001480 (boundary increase):
Developing the American Economy:
Production
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Distribution and consumption
Workers and work culture
Areas of interest: Development of factory culture
Goldfield Historic District, Esmeralda County, Nevada, #82003213:
Developing American Economy:
Extraction and production
Workers and work culture
Peopling Places:
Family and the life cycle
Health, nutrition, and disease
Migration from outside to within
Community and neighborhood
Areas of interest: Commercial and social aspects of frontier mining
Kate Mullany House, Troy County, New York, #98000453:
Developing the American Economy:
Workers and work culture
Labor organizations and protests
Shaping the Political Landscape:
Parties, protest, and movements
Political ideas, cultures, and theories
Areas interest: Gender issues
Hope Mills Historic District, Cumberland County, North Carolina, #85001515:
Developing the American Economy:
Production
Distribution and consumption
Workers and work culture
Governmental policies and practices
Expanding Science and Technology:
Technological applications
Effects on lifestyle and health
Creating Social Institutions and Movements:
Reform movements
Areas of interest: Transition from slave-based industry to free-labor and Ethnic and class
differences and divisions
Cairnbrook Historic District, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, #94000523:
Developing the American Economy:
Production
Distribution and consumption
Workers and work culture
Peopling Places:
Family and the life cycle
Health, nutrition, and disease
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Migration from outside to within
Areas of interest: Community development from industry need
Coopersville Ironworks Site, Cherokee County, South Carolina, #76001699:
Developing the American Economy:
Extraction and production
Workers and work culture
Governmental policies and practices
Areas of interest: Transition from slave-based industry to free labor and Ethnic and class
differences and divisions
Thurber, Erath County, Texas, #79002936:
Developing the American Economy:
Extraction and production
Workers and work culture
Labor organizations and protests
Governmental policies and practices
Shaping the Political Landscape:
Parties, protest, and movements
Areas of interest: Labor protest and Ethnic and class differences and divisions
Harpers Ferry National Historic Park, Harpers Ferry Historic District, Jefferson County, West
Virginia, #66000041, #79002584:
Developing the American Economy:
Production
Distribution and consumption
Workers and work culture
Labor protests
Governmental policies and practices
Expanding Science and Technology:
Experimentation and invention
Technological applications
Effects on lifestyle and health
Creating Social Institutions and Movements:
Reform movements
Areas of interest: Company town with factory layout, Transition to factory discipline,
Behavior regulations, Effect of labor and changing labor practices on Worker protests
Examples of Properties Rejected:
Black Diamond Mines, Contra Costa County, California, #91001425
Winehaven, Contra Costa County, California, #78000658
Antioch Potash Plants, Sheridan County, Nebraska, #79001455
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APPENDIX B
National Register and National Historic Landmark Properties Reviewed for the
Development of Labor Archeology Property Types:
Alabama
Fort Mitchell Site, Russell County
Alaska
Kolmakov Redoubt Site, Bethel Borough-Census Area
Fort Durham Site, Juneau Borough-Census Area
Sunrise City Historic District, Kenai Peninsula Borough-Census Area
ARHS Site KOD-207, Kodiak Island Borough-Census Area
Kodiak 0 It Site, Kodiak Island Borough-Census Area
Avalitkuk, North Slope Borough-Census Area
Negilik Site, North Slope Borough-Census Area
Arizona
Archeological Site No. AR-03-04-03-81 0, Coconino County
Archeological Site No. AR-03-04-05-414, Coconino County
CHARLES H. SPENCER Hulk, Coconino County
Clifton Townsite Historic District, Green lee County
Growler Mine Area, Pima County
Kentucky Camp Historic District, Pima, Santa Cruz County
Lynx Creek District, Yavapai County
Arkansas
Bayou Sel, Clark County
Jones Mill Site (3HS28), Hot Spring County
Rush Historic District, Marion County
California
Black Diamond Mines, Contra Costa County
Winehaven, Contra Costa County
Green Brae Brick Yard, Marin County
Pierce Ranch Marin County
Round Valley Flour Mills, Mendocino County
Griffith Quarry, Placer County
SS RIO DE JANEIRO Shipwreck, San Francisco County
Bourn-Roth Estate, San Mateo County
White's Gulch Arrastra, Siskiyou County
STAMBOUL (Whaling Bark) Solano County
Colorado
Lamb Spring, Douglas County
Cardiff Coke Ovens, Garfield County
Holden Mining and Smelting Company, Pitkin County
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West Stoneham Archeological District, Weld County
Connecticut
Hugh Cain Fulling Mill and Elias Glover Woolen Mill Archeological Site, Fairfield County
Cos Cob Power Station, Fairfield County
New York Belting and Packing Company Fairfield County
Nichols Satinet Mill Site, Fairfield County
Old Mine Park Archeological Site, Fairfield County
Rockrimmon Rockshelter, Fairfield County
Hazardville Historic District, Hartford County
Pitkin Glassworks Ruin, Hartford County
Simeon North Factory Site, Hartford County
Beckley Furnace, Litchfield County
Harvey Brooks Pottery Shop and Kiln Site, Litchfield County
Gillette's Grist Mill, Litchfield County
Kent Iron Furnace, Litchfield County
Milton Center Historic District, Litchfield County
Mount Riga Ironworks Site, Litchfield County
Northfield Knife Company Site Litchfield County
Rockbury Iron Mine and Furnace Complex, Litchfield County
Sharon Valley Historic District, Litchfield County
West Goshen Historic District, Litchfield County
Crittenden Wilcox Mill, Middlesex County
Hammanasset Paper Mill Site, New Haven County
Waterbury Brass Mill, New Haven County
Eli Whitney Gun Factory, New Haven County
Coventry Glass Factory Historic District, Tolland County
Gurleyville Historic District Tolland County
Valley Falls Cotton Mill Site, Tolland County
Daniel s Village Archeological Site, Windham County
New Roxbury Ironworks Site, Windham County
Delaware
J.H. Wilkerson and Son Brickworks, Kent County
Duncan Beard Site, Kent County
Brandywine Village Historic District, Kent County
Phi lip Reading Tannery, Kent County
Wooddale Historic District, Kent County
Lewes Historic District, Sussex County
Pine Grove Furnace Site, Sussex County
Florida
Arch Creek Historic and Archeological Site, Dade County
Kingsley Plantation Duval County
North Hill Preservation District, Escambia County
Bulow Plantation Ruins, Flagler County
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Escambe, Leon County
Roberts Farm Historic and Archeological District Leon County
Cedar Keys Historic and Archeological District, Levy County
Arcadia Sawmill and Arcadia Cotton Mill Santa Rosa County
Ross Hammock Site, Volusia County
Wakulla Springs Archeological and Historic District Wakulla County
Georgia
Etowah Valley District Bartow County
John Houstoun McIntosh Sugarhouse, Camden County
Bums Quarry, Carroll County
Athens Factory, Clarke County
Ruffs Mill and Concord Covered Bridge, Cobb County
Sope Creek Ruins, Cobb County
Cole Town District, Coweta County
Tanner's Mill, Hall County
Jewell Historic District, Hancock County, Warren County
John M. War Sr. House, Heard County
Dahlonega Consolidated Gold Mine, Lumpkin County
Fort King George, McIntosh County
Watson Mill Covered Bridge and Mill Historic District, Oglethorpe County
John Frank Mathews Plantation, Talbot County
Lee and Gordon Mill, Walker County
Nacoochee Valley, White County
Hawaii
Mauna Kea Adze Quarry, Hawaii County
Idaho
Barber Dam and Lumber Mill, Adams County
Hells Canyon Archeological District, Adams County, Idaho County, Nez Perce County
Fort Hall, Bannock County
Sawtooth City, Blaine County
Moore Gulch Chinese Mining Site (10-CW-159), Clearwater County
Chinese Mining Camp Archeological Site, Idaho County
Lower Salmon River Archeological District, Idaho County, Lewis County, Nez Perce County
Illinois
Grand Tower Mining, Manufacturing, and Transportation Company Site, Jackson County
Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island County
Indiana
Muskegon Shipwreck Site, La Porte County
Iowa
Spring Branch Butter Factory Site, Delaware County
NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
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117
Dubuque Trading Post-Village of Kettle Chief Archeological District, Dubuque County
Mines of Spain Lead Mining Community Archeological District, Dubuque County
Kentucky
Martin-Holder-Bush Mill, Clark County
F. Taylor Mill, Clark County
Red River iron Furnace, Estill County
Archeological Site LSI1r52, Franklin County
Kelly's Suwanee Furnace Office, Lyon County
William Suggett Agricultural and Industrial District, Scott County
Center Furnace, Trigg County
Lost River Archeological Cave, Warren County
Louisiana
Barataria Unit of Jean Lafitte Historical Park Historic District, Jefferson Parish
Fullerton Mill and Town, Vernon Parish
Maryland
Linwood Historic District Carroll County
Hartford Furnace Historic District, Hartford County
Husband Flint Mill Site, Hartford County
Lower Deer Creek Valley Historic District, Hartford County
Brookeville Woolen Mill and House, Montgomery County
Woodyard Archeological Site, Prince George's County
Antietam Furnace Complex Archeological Site, Washington County
Massachusetts
Sandy Neck Cultural Resources District, Barnstable County
Samuel Smith Tavern Site, Barnstable County
Mill River Historic District, Berkshire County
Borderland Historic District, Bristol County
Furnace Village Historic District, Bristol County
Russells Mills Villages Historic District, Bristol County
Newburyport Historic District Essex County
Turner Falls Historic District Franklin County
Spot Pond Archeological District, Middlesex County
Borderland Historic District, Norfolk County
Lyon's Turning Mill, Norfolk County
Massachusetts Hornfels-Braintree Slate Quarry, Norfolk County
Stoughtonham Furnace Site, Norfolk County
John Winthrop Jr. Iron Furnace Site, Norfolk County
Town Brook Historic and Archeological District, Plymouth County
Boston Naval Shipyard, Suffolk County
Dorchester Pottery Works, Suffolk County
Blackstone Canal Historic District, Worcester County
Blackstone Manufacturing Company Historic District, Worcester County
NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
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118
Matthews Fulling Mill Site, Worcester County
Rogers House, Worcester County
Michigan
Campbell Farm Site, Cheboygan County
Fayette, Delta County
Minong Mine Historic District, Keweenaw County
F.T. BARNEY, Shipwreck, Presque Isle County
Minnesota
Buena Vista Archeological Historic District, Beltrami County
Old Backus, Cass County
St. Anthony Falls Historic District, Hennepin County
NIAGRA Shipwreck Site Lake County
Mississippi
Plymouth, Lowndes County
Missouri
Pearson Creek Archeological District Greene County
Crescent Quarry Archeological Site, St. Louis County
Williams Creek Archeological Site, St. Louis County
Kreilich Archeological Site, Ste. Genevieve County
Troyer Site, Seward County
Antioch Potash Plants, Sheridan County
Montana
Pretty Creek Archeological Site, Carbon County
Nebraska
Antioch Potash Plants, Sheridan County
Nevada
Sand Springs, Churchill County
Homestake Mine, Clark County
Goldfield Historic District, Esmeralda County
Bristol Wells Town Site, Lincoln County
Belmont, Nye County
Johnson Lake Mine Historic District, White Pine County
New Hampshire
Harrisville Rural District, Cheshire County
Pottersville District, Cheshire County
Mt. Jasper Lithic Source, Coos County
Contoocook Mills Industrial District Hillsborough County
New England Glassworks Site, Hillsborough County
NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
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119
Old County Road South Historic District, Hillsborough County
Wiswall Falls Mills Site, Strafford County
New Jersey
Estellville Glassworks Historic District, Atlantic County
Hopper Gristmill Site, Bergen County
Eayres Plantation and Mill Site, Burlington County
Hanover Furnace, Burlington County
Vincentown Historic District, Burlington County
Dennisville Historic District, Cape May County
Dart's Mill Historic District, Hunterdon County
Everittstown Historic District, Hunterdon County
Potterville Village Historic District, Hunterdon County
G.W. Helme Snuff Mill District, Middlesex County
Tinton Falls Historic District, Monmouth County
Pottersville Village Historic District, Morris, Somerset County
Ringwood Manor, Passaic County
Millville Historic and Archeological District, Sussex County
Feltville Historic District, Union County
Shippen Manor, Warren County
New Mexico
Dawson Cemetery, Colfax County
Hopeful Lode, Lincoln County
Holiday Mesa Logging Camp, Sandoval County
Tonque Pueblo, Sandoval County
Virgin Canyon Logging Camp No.1, Sandoval County
Virgin Mesa Logging Camp No. I, Sandoval County
Virgin Mesa Logging Camp No.2, Sandoval County
Virgin Mesa Logging Camp No. 3, Sandoval County
New York
Stuyvesant Falls Mill District, Columbia County
Adirondack Iron and Steel Company, Essex County
Morganville Pottery Factory Site, Genesee County
Sterlingville Archeological District, Jefferson County
Wood's Grist Mill, Jefferson County
Alpina Archeological District, Lewis County
Lewisburg Archeological District, Lewis County
Brown's Race Historic District, Monroe County
Chili Mills Conservation Area, Monroe County
Elbridge Hydraulic Industry Archeological District, Onondaga County
Burden Iron Works Site, Rensselaer County
Poesten Kill Gorge Historic District, Rensselaer County
Peebles (Peobles) Island Saratoga County
Fall Street-Trinity Lane Historic District, Seneca County
NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
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120
West Stockholm Historic District, St. Lawrence County
Nicoll Halsey House and Halseyville Archeological Sites, Tompkins County
Ithaca Pottery Site, Tompkins County
North Carolina
Robert Harvey Morrison Farm and Pioneer Mills Gold Mine, Cabarrus County
Yoder's Mills Historic District, Catawba County
Hadley House and Grist Mill, Chatham County
Edenton Historic District, Chowan County
Hope Mills Historic District, Cumberland County
West Point on the Eno, Durham County
Bethania Historic District, Forsyth County
Single Brothers Industrial Complex Site Forsyth County
Henry Turner House and Caldwell-Turner Mill Site, Iredell County
Taylor's Mill, Nash County
Wilmington Historic and Archeological District, New Hanover County
Franklinville Historic District, Randolph County
Mount Shepherd Pottery Site, Randolph County
Troublesome Creek Ironworks, Rockingham County
Bechtler Mint Site, Rutherford County
Walnut Hill Cotton Gin, Wake County
Ohio
North Union Shaker Site, Cuyahoga County
Kellys Island Historic District (Boundary Increase), Erie County
Rock Mill, Fairfield County
Berry Brothers Bolt Works, Franklin County
Walter Ring House and Mill Site, Monroe County
Benjamin F. Hopkins Stone Building, Portage County
Zoar Historic District (Boundary Increase), Tuscarawas County
Marietta Historic District, Washington County
Oklahoma
Arrastra Site, Comanche County
Haley's Point Site, Marshall County
Oregon
Isabella, Clatsop County
Champoeg State Park Historic Archeological District, Marion County
Joseph Despard Cabin Site, Marion County
Hudson's Bay Company Granary and Clerk s House Site, Marion County
Sunken Village Archeological Site (35MU4), Multnomah County
Pennsylvania
Bradys Bend Iron Company Furnaces, Armstrong County
Dale Furnace and Forge Historic District Berks County
NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
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121
Dreibelbis Mill, Berks County
Geiger Mill, Berks County
Guldin Mill, Berks County
Nicholas Johnson Mill, Berks County
Kauffman Mill, Berks County
Knabb-Bieber Mill, Berks County
Robesonia Furnace Historic District, Berks County
Yoder Mill, Berks County
Etna Furnace, Blair County
Holicong Village Historic District, Bucks County
North Warwick Historic and Archeological District, Chester County
Robert Wilson House, Chester County
Chester Creek Historic District, Delaware County
Ridley Creek State Park, Delaware County
Alliance Furnace, Fayette County
Brown-Moore Blacksmith Shop, Fayette County
Smock Historic District, Fayette County
Rice's Landing Historic District, Greene County
Barree Forge and Furnace, Huntingdon County
Greenwood Furnace, Huntingdon County
Monroe Furnace, Hunti11gdon County
Robe1tsdale Historic District, Huntingdon County
Mount Hope Estate, Lancaster County
Mill Creek Historic District, Montgomery County
Jacobsburg Historic District, Northampton County
Lehigh Canal: Eastern Section Glendon and Abbott Street Industrial Sites, Northampton County
Boswell Historic District Somerset County
Cairnbrook Historic District, Somerset County
Slickville Historic District, Westmoreland County
Codorus Forge and Furnace Historic District, York County
Kise Mill Bridge Historic District, York County
Muddy Creek Forks Historic District York County
York Iron Company Mine, York County
Puerto Rico
Hacienda Buena Union, Mayaguez Municipality
Central Playa Grande, Vieques Municipality
Resolución Historic District, Vieques Municipality
Rhode Island
Tillinghast Mill Site, Kent County
Furnace Carolina Site Providence County
Furnace Hill Brook Historic and Archeological District, Providence County
McGonagle Site, RU-1227, Providence County
George Fayerweather Blacksmith Shop Washington County
Fisherville Historic and Archeological District, Washington County
NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
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United States Department of the Interior- National Park Service
122
Hallville Historic and Archeological District, Washington County
Hillsdale Historic and Archeological District Washington County
Hope Village Historic District Washington County
Silas Mumford Site (Tappan Site RI--705), Washington County
Parris Brook Historic and Archeological District, Washington County
Sodom Mill Historic and Archeological District, Washington County
South Carolina
Pendelton Historic District, Anderson County
Fort Lyttelton Site, Beaufort County
Coopersville Ironworks Site (38CK2) and Susan Furnace Site (38.CK 67), Cherokee County
Cowpens Furnace Site (38CK 73) Cherokee County
Ellen Furnace Site (38CK71), Cherokee County
King's Creek Furnace Site (38CK69), Cherokee County
Nesbitt's Limestone Quarry (38CK69) Cherokee County
Thicketty Mountain Ore Pits (38CK74), Cherokee County
Pottersville, Edgefield County
Pelham Mills Site (38GR165), Greenville County
Trapp and Chandler Pottery Site (38GN169), Greenwood County
Darn Gold Mine, McCormick County
Pendleton Historic District~ Oconee County Pickens County
Columbia Canal, Richland County
Jackson's Furnace Site (38YK217), York County
Tennessee
Patterson Forge (40CH87), Cheatham County
Sycamore Mills Site, Cheatham County
Turnbull forge (40CH97), Cheatham County
Cascade Distillery Site Coffee County
Archeological Site No. 40DV35 Davidson County
Brownsport I Furnace (40DR85), Decatur County
Brownsport II Furnace (40DR86), Decatur County
Decatur Furnace (40DR84), Decatur County
Bellview Furnace (40DS23), Dickson County
Cumberland Furnace Historic District (40DS22), Dickson County
Jones Creek Forge (40DS30), Dickson County
Laurel Furnace (40DS4), Dickson County
Valley Forge (40DS28), Dickson County
White Bluff Forge, Dickson County
East Tennessee Iron Manufacturing Company Blast Furnace, Hamilton County
Tanyard Branch Furnace (40HR121), Hardin County
Lee and Gould Furnace (40HI125), Hickman County
New Aetna Furnace Historic District (40HI 149), Hickman County
Oakland Furnace and Forge (40HI146), Hickman County
Old Aetna Furnace (40H1148), Hickman County
Standard Furnace (40HI145), Hickman County
NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
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United States Department of the Interior- National Park Service
123
Fairchance Furnace (40HS 168), Humphrey County
T. D. Davenport Forge (40Lr14), Lawrence County
Napier Furnaces Historic District (40LS14), Lewis County
Steele's Iron Works (40LS15), Lewis County
Rockdale Furnace Historic District (40MU487), Maury County
Gracey-Woodward Furnace (40MT378), Montgomery County
Lafayette Furnace (40MT372), Montgomery County
Louisa Furnace (40 MT379), Montgomery County
Poplar Spring Furnace (40MT376), Montgomery County
Sailor's Rest Furnace (40MT375), Montgomery County
Tennessee Furnace (40MT383), Montgomery County
Washington Furnace and Forge (40MT382) Montgomery County
Yellow Creek Furnace and Forge (40MT371), Montgomery County
Cedar Grove Furnace (40PY77), Perry County
Bear Spring Furnace (40SW207), Stewart County
Bellwood Furnace (40SW21 0), Stewart County
Brunsoni Furnace (40SW219), Stewart County
Clark Furnace (40SW212), Stewart County
Cross Creek Furnace (40SW217), Stewart County
Dover Flint Quarries, Stewart County
Eclipse Furnace (40SW213), Stewart County
Henry Hollister House, Stewart County
LaGrange Furnace (40SW214), Stewart County
Rough and Ready Furnace (40SW215), Stewart County
Big bone Cave, Van Buren County
Forty-eight Forge (40WY63), Wayne County
Marion Furnace (40WY61), Wayne County
Harpeth Furnace (40WM83), Williamson County
Texas
Maverick-Altgelt Ranch and Fenstermaker-Fromme Farm, Bexar County
Terlingua Historic District, Brewster County
Old Brulay Plantation, Cameron County
Cranston Site, Denton County
Roark-Griffith Site, Denton County
Thurber Historic District, Erath County
Marshall Arsenal CSA, Harrison County
El Sal del Rey Archeological District, Hidalgo County
Kirbee Kiln Site, Montgomery County
Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, Potter County
McKinney Homestead, Travis County
Utah
Howe Flume Historic District, Summit County
Soldier Creek Kilns, Tooele County
NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
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United States Department of the Interior- National Park Service
124
Vermont
Battery Street Historic District, Chittenden County
Crystal Lake Falls Historic District, Orleans County
Virgin Islands
Bethlehem Middle Works Historic District, St. Croix Island
Estate La Reine, St. Croix Island
Fairplain Historic and Archeological District, St. Croix Island
Slob Historic District, St. Croix Island
Strawberry Hill Historic District, St. Croix Island
Dennis Bay Historic District, St. John Island
Jossie Gut Historic District, St. John Island
L'Esperance Historic District, St. John Island
More Hill Historic District, St. John Island
Rustenberg Plantation South Historic District, St. John Island
Trunk Bay Sugar Factory, ST. John Island
Hassel Island Historic District, St. Thomas Island
Virginia
Lee-Fendall House, Alexandria Independent City
Longdale Furnace Historic District, Alleghany County
Pamplin Pipe Factory, Appomattox County
Falling Creek Ironworks Archeological Site, Chesterfield County
Danville Tobacco Warehouse and Residential District, Danville County
Brooklyn Tobacco Factory, Halifax County
Chickahominy Shipyard Archeological Site, James City County
Kentland Farm Historic and Archeological District, Montgomery County
Michael Kinzer House, Montgomery County
Petersburg Old Town Historic District, Petersburg County
Kennedy-Wade Mill, Rockbridge County
Port Republic Historic District, Rockingham County
Tubal Furnace Archeological Site, Spotsylvania County
Accokeek Furnace Archeological Site (44ST53), Stafford County
Morgan Jones 1677 Pottery Kiln, Westmoreland County
College Landing, Williamsburg Independent City
Washington
Cape Disappointment Historic District, Pacific County
North Bonneville Archeological District, Skamania County
Cowley Park, Spokane County
Hudsons Bay Gristmill Site on Colville River, Stevens County
Tumwater Historic District, Thurston County
Weyerhaeuser South Bay Log Dump Rural Historic Landscape, Thurston County
West Virginia
Darkesville Historic District, Berkeley County
NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
Labor Archeology Theme Study
United States Department of the Interior- National Park Service
125
Mill Creek Historic District, Berkeley County
Tuscarora Creek Historic District Berkeley County
Union Bryarly's Mill, Berkeley County
Peter Tarr Furnace Site, Hancock County
Harpers Ferry Historic District, Jefferson County
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, Jefferson County
Malden Historic District, Kanawha County
Wisconsin
Trout Point Logging Camp, Ashland County
Potosi Badger Huts Site, Grant County
Wyoming
Black Mountain Archeological District, Big Horn County
Obsidian Cliff Park County
Patteen Creek Site (48PL68), Platte County
NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
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126
APPENDIX C
Applicable Multiple Property Submissions
Appendix C lists potentially applicable Multiple Property Submission cover documents or MPS
for labor archaeology of the industrial era. MPS cover documents are currently used by the
National Register for multiple property documentation, together with individual registration
forms. The National Register has used the Multiple Resource Area (MRA) and Thematic Group
Resources (TR) formats in the past. The following list represents MPS, MRA, and TR
documents listed as of October 1, 2011 that specifically address industry or resources connected
to labor (see Little et al. 2000:62-64). Other specific or more current MPS documents maybe
applicable.
Table C1: National Register of Historic Places Potentially Applicable Multiple Covers as of
October 1, 2011
State or
Territory
Reference
Number
Resource
Name
AK
64500001 CCC Historic Properties in Alaska MPS
AK
64500980 Entrepreneurship and Exploitation along the Fairweather Coast and
the Glacier Bay Vicinity
AR
64500019 Facilities Constructed by the CCC in Arkansas MPS
AR
64500022 Historic Railroad Depots of Arkansas MPS
AR
64500959 New Deal Recovery Efforts in Arkansas MPS
AZ
64500777 Cattle Ranching in Arizona MPS
AZ
64501032 Cattle Ranching in Arizona in the Modern Era, 1945-1970
AZ
64500036 Depression-Era USDA Forest Service Administrative Complexes in
Arizona MPS
AZ
64500041 Logging Railroad Resources of the Coconino and Kaibab National
Forests MPS
CA
64501116 Late 19th and Early 20th Century Development and Architecture in
Pasadena MPS
CO
64500068 Hinsdale County Metal Mining MPS
CO
64000074 Lafayette Coal Mining Era Buildings TR
CO
64500997 Metal Mining and Tourist Era Resources of Boulder County AD MPS
CO
64500071 Metal Mining and Tourist Era Resources of Boulder County MPS
CO
64501020 Mining Industry in Colorado, MPS
CO
64501107 Mining Resources of San Juan County, Colorado MPS
NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
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127
State or
Territory
Reference
Number
Resource
Name
CO
64500970 New Deal Resources on Colorado's Eastern Plains MPS
CO
64500743 Railroads in Colorado, 1858-1948 MPS
CO
64500744 Ranching Resources of South Park, Colorado MPS
CT
64000087 Connecticut State Park and Forest Depression-Era Federal Work
Relief Programs Structures TR
CT
64000094 Historic Industrial Complexes of Southington TR
CT
64000095 Historic Industrial Complexes of Southington TR (AD)
DC
64500948 Streetcar and Bus Resources of Washington, DC MPS
DC
64500969 Telecommunications Resources of Washington DC MPS
FL
64500097 Citrus Industry Resources of Theodore Strawn, Inc., MPS
FL
64500105 Fish Cabins of Charlotte Harbor MPS
FL
64500918 Florida's New Deal Resources MPS
IA
64500146 CCC Properties in Iowa State Parks MPS
IA
64500150 Commercial & Industrial Development of Cedar Rapids MPS
IA
64500156 Flour Milling in Iowa MPS
IA
64000151 Houses of Mississippi River Men TR
IA
64500169 Louden Machinery Company, Fairfield Iowa MPS
IA
64500171 Mines of Spain Archeological MPS
ID
64500188 Chinese Sites in the Warren Mining District MPS
IL
64500877 Illinois Waterway Navigation System Facilities MPS
IN
64500212 Grain Mills in Indiana MPS
IN
64500215 New Deal Resources in Indiana State Parks MPS
IN
64500216 New Deal Resources on Indiana State Lands MPS
IN
64500942 New Deal Work Relief Projects in St. Joseph County, Indiana MPS
KS
64501117 Commercial and Industrial Resources of Hutchinson MPS
KS
64500889 Commercial and Industrial Resources of Hutchinson MPS
KS
64500797 New Deal-Era Resources of Kansas MPS
KS
64500223 Railroad Resources of Kansas MPS
KS
64501087 World War II-Era Aviation-Related Facilities of Kansas
KY
64000245 New Deal Era Construction in Kentucky MRA
KY
64000256 Textile Mills of Louisville TR
LA
64000268 Thibodaux MRA
MA
64500254 Water Supply System of Metropolitan Boston MPS
MN
64000380 Cold Spring Brewers' Houses TR
MN
64500278 Commercial Logging in Minnesota MPS
MN
64000350 Cuyuna Iron Range Municipally-Owned Elevated Metal Water Tanks
TR
MN
64500279 Federal Relief Construction in Minnesota MPS
MN
64500805 Federal Relief Construction in Minnesota MPS AD
MN
64500751 Grain Elevator Design in Minnesota MPS
NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
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United States Department of the Interior- National Park Service
128
State or
Territory
Reference
Number
Resource
Name
MN
64500281 Minnesota Hydroelectric Generating Facilities MPS
MN
64500285 Minnesota State Park CCC/WPA/Rustic Style MPS
MO
64000398 Missouri Lumber and Mining Company MRA
MO
64501090 Railroad Related Historic Commercial and Industrial Resources in
Kansas City, MO MPS
MO
64500308 Railroad Related Historic Commercial and Industrial Resources in
Kansas City, Missouri MPS
MO
64500914 South St. Louis Historic Working and Middle Class Streetcar Suburbs
MPS
MO
64500882 Working Class Hotels at 19th and Main Streets, Kansas City, Missouri
MPS
MO
64500993 Working-Class and Middle-Income Apartment Buildings in Kansas
City, Missouri MPS
MS
64500330 State Parks in Mississippi built by the CCC MPS
NC
64000467 Slater Industrial Academy Houses TR
NC
64500884 Tapoco Hydroelectric Project MPS
NE
64500895 Petroleum Marketing by the Standard Oil Company (Nebraska) MPS
NH
64000483 Amoskeag Manufacturing Company Housing Districts TR
NJ
64000496 Operating Passenger Railroad Stations TR
NM
64500410 Auto-oriented Commercial Development in Albuquerque MPS
NM
64500421 Mining Sites in the Nogal Mining District of the Lincoln National
Forest MPS
NM
64500423 New Deal in New Mexico MPS
NM
64500424 Public Works of the CCC in the Lincoln National Forest MPS
NM
64500426 Railroad Logging Era Resources of the Canon de San Diego Land
Grant in North--Central New Mexico MPS
NM
64500427 Railroad Logging Sites of the Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico
MPS
NY
64500843 Buffalo Grain and Materials Elevator MPS
NY
64500925 Historic and Engineering Resources of the Chenango Canal MPS
NY
64501060 Hydraulics/Larkin Neighborhood, Buffalo, Erie County, NY
NY
64500965 Industrial Development in the Oaks Creek Valley, Otsego County,
New York MPS
NY
64501069 Industrial Resources in the City of Syracuse, Onondaga County, NY
MPS
NY
64000566 Interborough Rapid Transit Subway Control Houses TR
NY
64500900 New York City Subway System MPS
NY
64500825 Red Potsdam Sandstone Resources Taken from Raquette River
Quarries MPS
OH
64500475 Canal Winchester MPS
OH
64500802 Canal, Railroad, and Industrial Resources of the Village of
Clinton/Warwick, Ohio MPS
NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
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United States Department of the Interior- National Park Service
129
State or
Territory
Reference
Number
Resource
Name
OH
64500759 Gates Mills MPS
OH
64500478 Historic Mill-Related Resources of Delaware and Liberty Townships
MPS
OH
64501068 Historic Resources of the Cincinnati Park and Parkway System 1817-
1959
OH
64000640 Ohio and Erie Canal TR
OK
64000665 Clay Tile Grain Elevators in Northwestern Oklahoma TR
OK
64500491 Energy-Related Properties in Northeastern Oklahoma MPS
OK
64500492 Grain Storage and Processing Facilities in Western Oklahoma MPS
OK
64000690 WPA Public Bldgs., Recreational Facilities and Cemetery
Improvements in Southeastern Oklahoma, 1935--1943 TR
OK
64000691 WPA Public Bldgs., Recreational Facilities and Water Quality
Improvements in Northwestern Oklahoma, 1935--1943 TR
OK
64500495 WPA Resources in Lincoln County MPS
OK
64000692 Woodframe Grain Elevators of Oklahoma Panhandle TR
OR
64500517 USDA Forest Service Administrative Buildings in Oregon and
Washington Built by the CCC MPS
PA
64500521 Allegheny Portage Railroad MPS
PA
64500522 Allegheny River Navigation System MPS
PA
64500523 Aluminum Industry Resources of Southwestern Pennsylvania MPS
PA
64500524 Anthracite--Related Resources of Northeastern Pennsylvania MPS
PA
64500525 Bituminous Coal and Coke Resources of Pennsylvania MPS
PA
64000724 Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) Architecture in Pennsylvania
State Parks: 1933-1942, TR
PA
64500531 Industrial Resources of Huntingdon County, 1780--1939 MPS
PA
64500532 Iron and Steel Resources of Pennsylvania MPS
PA
64500535 Oil Industry Resources in Western Pennsylvania MPS
PA
64000729 Pennsylvania Railroad Rolling Stock TR
PA
64500537 Railroad Resources of York County MPS
PR
64500995 New Deal Era Constructions in the Forest Reserves in Puerto Rico
PR
64501052 Rum Industry in Puerto Rico MPS
RI
64000756 Public Works and Utilities--Sewage Treatment Facilities in
Providence, 1895--1935 TR
SC
64000770 Early Ironworks of Northwestern South Carolina TR
SC
64000771 Early Ironworks of Northwestern South Carolina TR (AD)
SC
64500573 Textile Mills designed by W.B. Smith Whaley MPS
SD
64500578 Federal Relief Construction in South Dakota MPS
TN
64500606 Iron Industry on the Western Highland Rim 1790s--1920s MPS
TN
64500607 Iron Industry on the Western Highland Rim 1790s--1920s MPS (AD)
TN
64500906 Lime Industry of Houston County, Tennessee
TN
64000818 Omohundro Waterworks System TR
NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
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130
State or
Territory
Reference
Number
Resource
Name
TN
64000819 Omohundro Waterworks System TR (AD)
TN
64500614 Pre-TVA Hydroelectric Power Development in Tennessee MPS
TN
64000823 State Parks in Tennessee Built by the CCC and the WPA, 1934--1942,
TR
TN
64500621 Transportation-Related Properties of Jackson MPS
TX
64000826 19th Century Pottery Kilns of Denton Co. TR
TX
64500632 Early Logging Industry in East Texas MPS
TX
64500633 Early Twentieth Century Logging Industry Historic Resources on the
National Forests and Grasslands in Texas MPS
UT
64500664 Electric Power Plants of Utah MPS
UT
64000866 Mining Boom Era Houses TR
UT
64000871 Public Works Buildings TR
UT
64500669 Residences of Mining Boom Era Park City MPS
UT
64000875 Tintic Mining District MRA
VA
64501126 Virginia State Parks built by New Deal Programs MPS
VT
64500899 Hydroelectric Generating Facilities in Vermont MPS
WA
64500700 Grain Production Properties in Eastern Washington MPS
WA
64500703 Hydroelectric Power Plants in Washington State, 1890--1938 MPS
WA
64000908 Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Shore Facilities TR
WA
64500712 USDA Forest Service Administrative Buildings in Oregon and
Washington Built by the CCC MPS
WI
64000914 19th Century Grist and Flouring Mills of Sheboygan County TR
WI
64500774 Historic Logging Industry in State Region 2 and the Nicolet NF MPS
WI
64000942 Lime Kilns of Waukesha County TR
WI
64000944 Mills of Grafton TR
WI
64501057 Milwaukee County Parkway System
WI
64500721 Racine Workers' Cottages MPS
WI
64000948 Speculative Commercial Blocks of Superior's Boom Period 1888--
1892 TR
WI
64000953 Water Works Structures of Rock County - 19th Century TR
WV
64500726 Coal Company Stores in McDowell County MPS
WV
64501099 New Deal Resources in West Virginia State Parks and Forests MPS
WY
64500736 Depression-Era USDA Forest Service Administrative Complexes on
Medicine Bow NF MPS
WY
64500864 Industrial Facilities Served by Railroad in Cheyenne, Wyoming MPS
WY
64501124 Motor Courts and Motels in Wyoming MPS
WY
64501096 Ranches, Farms, and Homesteads in Wyoming, 1860-1960 MPS
