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Historic Artifact Handbook
by
Jonathon C. Horn Alpine Archaeological Consultants, Inc. PO Box 2075 Montrose, CO 81402
March 2005
The intent of this handbook is to provide site recorders with little or no background in historic artifact identification sufficient information so that they can provide consistent descriptive information about the artifacts and site features they are observing. Good description of observed features and artifacts is essential for functional and chronological determinations to be made, thereby insuring that sites or site components are evaluated for significance using the proper thematic context. Regardless of whether or not an individual has the expertise to interpret the evidence present at a particular site, anyone carrying out site recordation has the obligation and should have the ability to provide good descriptive information.
A large portion of this handbook is composed of illustrations. For the most part, these are self- explanatory and little text will be written to accompany them. Many artifacts will not be described whatsoever. A list of references is also provided. The focus of the handbook will be on commonly found artifacts that are particularly useful in providing dating information. Historic artifacts from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries are particularly time sensitive, because of the rapid growth and change of technology. Using an assemblage of historic artifacts, it is not uncommon to be able to date a site to a 5 or 10-year time period. Functional interpretations can also be quite accurate using the artifacts alone. When coupled with well-directed historical research, the information that can be learned from a historic site can be very illuminating, not only from a historical perspective, but from anthropological, behavioral, technological, and socioeconomic viewpoints as well.
When classifying historic artifacts, the preferred method is by function. Classifying artifacts by material type makes functional interpretations very difficult and is inherently troublesome because many historic artifacts are composed of a variety of materials. A classificatory system for artifacts in museum collections was devised Robert G. Chenall (1978) and updated by Blackaby and Greeno (1988). This system is used by the National Park Service for their museum collections and works very well, especially when reference is made to Sprague (1981). Reuse of artifacts for purposes other than their original intention is very important data and should be recorded, but is problematic.
Vessel Glass
Vessel glass includes all glass containers such as food and household chemical bottles and jars, beverage bottles, and canning jars. It also includes glass service wares such as drinking glasses and dishes. Glass color is a very good indicator of a vessel's age.
White Milkglass ca. 1890s-present Aqua ca. 1800-1920s Green ca. 1860s-present Amber or Brown ca. 1860s-present Cobalt Blue ca. 1890s-present Purple ca. 1885- Yellowish ca. 1918-1920s
Purple glass is one of the best time markers to be found on archaeological sites. Use of manganese as a clearing agent in glass became very commonplace by 1885, perhaps beginning as early as 1880. Although the vessels started out clear in color, exposure to the sun resulted in a purple tint, varying in intensity depending on the amount of manganese used. The main source of manganese, Germany, was cut off as a result of World War I. Supplies on hand may have lasted into the very early 1920s, though in very limited quantities. Selenium replaced manganese as a clearing agent. It also changed color with exposure to the sun, this time to a yellowish hue, never getting dark enough to be confused with amber or brown glass.
Care must be taken when assigning a disposal date for a particular piece of glassware. Common food or household vessels were most usually disposed of immediately or soon after their contents had been used up. Canning jars and table service, especially fancy glassware, were used over and over again and were not discarded until unusable. Other glassware fragments, such as lamp chimneys or lantern globes, may be mistaken for short-lived vessels but in reality were used until broken.
Makers marks are very commonly found on the bases of food or household bottles and jars and the name or trademark of the product manufacturer is also frequently embossed on containers or lids. These marks and names should always be recorded as accurately as possible, even if fragmentary, because they can be looked up with relative ease, providing dates and other information. Here are four of the most common makers marks:
- Mark of the Illinois Glass Company of Alton, Illinois in use between 1916 and 1929 (Toulouse 1971:264-268).
- Mark of the Owens Bottle Company in use between 1911 and 1929 (Toulouse 1971:393).
- Mark of the Owens Illinois Glass Co. of Toledo, Ohio used upon the merger of the Owens Bottle Company and the Illinois Glass Company in 1929 and used until 1954 (Toulouse 1971:403-406). Associated with this mark will be numbers to the left, right, and bottom. The number to the left indicates the manufacturing plant. The number to the bottom is the mold number. The number to the right is the date number and can usually be added to 1929 to get the year of manufacture. However, care should be taken with the number 0, 1, and 2. The 0 may indicate manufacture in 1940 and the 1 and 2 may indicate manufacture in 1930 and 1931 or 1941 and 1942. Beginning in 1942, the last two digits of the year were used.
- Mark of the Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. of Wheeling, West Virginia. This mark was in use from 1920 to 1964 (Toulouse 1971:239). According to the U.S. Patent Office, the trademark was registered in 1924.
Other marks also seem to have date numbers in association, particularly beer bottles beginning in the 1940s. These are not well documented, so assumptions of dates by numbers on bottle bases should be considered relative to other artifacts on a site. Plastic bottles may also have date numbers.
Vessel manufacturing attributes should be recorded as well. The attached dating key and illustrations provide the technical information necessary for providing this information.
Depression glass comes in a variety of colors and shapes. It was usually inexpensive dime-store dishware and was often given away in advertising promotions. Patterns can often be identified and frequently have restricted periods of production. On occasion, decorative glass table service or housewares came in purple. Consideration should be of the type of vessel and its use when purple glass is concerned as curated items or items considered for long use were sometimes manufactured of purple glass that, without close observation, can be confused with fragments of jar or bottles of an earlier age.
noteworthy. On occasion, cans may be found that have the sides fitted around the ends. More frequently, cans with two vent holes and two lead spots on the filler caps may be observed.
Hole-in-cap cans were in production by the 1820s. A stamping machine for the manufacture of can ends was patented in 1847. Can ends began being soldered by machine in the mid-1870s and a machine for soldering side seams was introduced in 1883. Rectangular hole-in-cap cans for canned corned beef were introduced in 1875 (Rock 1984:102-103). Inventions for crimping the seams of cans, eliminating the need for solder, leading to the development of "sanitary" cans, began in 1888, but sanitary cans as we know them did not come onto the market until 1904. By 1911, sanitary cans had dominated the can market (Rock 1984:105-106). In general, hole-in-cap cans on a site indicate a date of occupation prior to 1914 and an absence of sanitary cans suggests a pre-1904 date. One exception should be noted. Large hole-in-cap bulk food cans provided by the U.S. government to Civilian Conservation Corps camps, and possibly for military use, have been noted dating to the 1930s.
Hole-in-top cans closely resemble hole-in-cap cans but do not have filler holes. The tops of these cans may be stamped with ridges that mimic filler holes, but lack the solder ring. They do have a pin hole vent sealed with a spot of lead. Hole-in-top cans were introduced in 1900 by Carnation for evaporated milk (Rock 1984:104). These cans were still in use until the early 1990s. Prior to the introduction of hole-in-top cans (by 1885), evaporated milk was canned in hole-in-cap cans.
Sanitary cans are the cans in use today. These were the result of innovations in seam crimping machinery. In 1897, machinery was developed that could crimp the can ends to the sides with a double seam sealed with a rubber compound. By 1904, sanitary cans were in full production, completely dominating the market by 1911.
Other Can Innovations of Note
During the late 1890s and early 1900s, many new innovations were attempted to modernize food cans. These innovations appear as cans with unusual attributes. For instance, some lead-sealed cans have been observed with crimped ends similar to sanitary cans with lead spots over vent holes similar to hole-in-top cans. Some hole-in-cap cans have been observed with lead spots over two vent holes through the filler caps.
Prince Albert tobacco tins appear to have been first manufactured in 1907 or 1908 (Rock 1989:166; Periodical Publishers Association 1934:74). They had a simple friction-type lid with a loose pin hinge. In 1948, the lid was changed to be more airtight. The edge of the can was doubled over and the lid was made with a U-shaped lip into which the can edge fit and ran the full length of the lid. This is the closure still used (Kirkpatrick and Duran 1981:53).
Round quart-sized motor oil cans were introduced in 1933 (Rock 1989:147).
Sardine cans: three-piece body – 1810-1880; one-piece body – 1880-1918; depressed lid – 1884-present; double seamed – 1918-present (Gillio et al. 1980:9)
Distribution of canned beer did not begin until 1935. Cone-top cans with crown cap finishes were used on a limited basis from 1935 to 1959 (Rock 1981:25). See Beer Can Table for additional information.
Soft drinks were not successfully canned until 1953 (Rock 1981:27).
Can Openings
The way in which food cans have been opened is an indication of what may have been inside. There appears to be a correlation of the size of the filler hole on hole-in-cap cans to the type of opening technique used. This is not surprising because both are related to the size of the items inside. The opening technique may indicate whether the food inside was liquid, solid, or composed of small or large pieces. Condensed milk cans tend to have two small punched holes or slits for pouring out the contents. Key-wind openings were first introduced in 1866, though they were not widely used. In 1895, the technology was refined for use on meat tins that incorporated a scored strip (Rock 1984:105; Gillio et al. 1980:9). This is the opening technique used until very recently on sardine and coffee cans. Geared rotary can openers were introduced in 1925 for use on sanitary cans. Church- key openers were introduced in 1935 (Gillio et al. 1980:9).
Marks on Cans
For the most part, food cans were identified with paper labels and others with painted labels that rarely survive in archaeological contexts. Certain can types, such as baking powder cans, coffee cans, and others, have embossing identifying their contents and/or manufacturer. It is frequently possible to look these up and refine the date of the artifact. An unusual example is KC Baking Powder cans that give a number of years that the product cost the same. The year of manufacture can be determined by adding the years to 1890. Later cans, such as hole-in-top and sanitary cans, occasionally have markings or codes which may prove to be informative and should be recorded. For instance, the “SANITARY” mark found on some early sanitary cans is probably the mark of the Sanitary Can Company, which began business in 1904 and was purchased by the American Can Company in 1908 (Rock 1989:65).
Plastic
Molded plastic screw caps began to be manufactured in quantity in 1927. Initially, they were used on high-priced toiletries and cosmetics and were black, dark red, or brown in color. New plastics enabled a wide variety of colors to be manufactured in a few years, as well as a wider variety of applications. With improvements in molding equipment, plastic screw caps could be produced at prices competitive with metal caps (Lief 1965:30).
Nails
Nails are the most frequently encountered hardware fasteners at historic archaeological sites. The basic identification of wire (round) and cut (square) nails and their relative frequencies to each other is an important dating tool.
Cut nails have a long history of manufacture. Both hand-made and machine-made cut nails were manufactured in the nineteenth century. Transition from cut nails to wire nails took place between the 1880s to the early 1900s. Wire nails began to be imported in small numbers to America in the 1850s, and the manufacture of wire nails in America began in 1873; large-scale production did not begin until the 1880s. Wire nails were initially most competitive with cut nails in the smaller, finer sizes. It has been estimated that by 1890, approximately 50% of the nails produced were wire nails. In 1894, 70% of the nails produced were wire nails; in 1900, 82% were wire nails; and in 1913, 95% were wire nails (Clark 1929:Vol. 2:351-355, Vol. 3:126; Buckles 1978). In general, if cut nails are found on a site, a date of 1900 or before can be presumed. The rate at which wire nails replaced cut nails may vary throughout the country depending upon the source of supply. In Colorado, it is common for sites as early as 1890 to have a nail assemblage dominated by wire nails. This seems to be because the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company of Pueblo had the capability of producing wire nails by that time and had the ability to ship them by railroad by way of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway. The
Other Artifacts
Buttons and Fasteners - Buttons and other clothing fasteners are commonly found on historic archaeological sites. Describe buttons by how they are attached to clothing and the material they are made of. Common shirt buttons should be described as two or four-hole sew-through buttons. What are usually thought to be white milkglass buttons are in reality Prosser ceramic. On occasion, the backs of buttons will have the name of the manufacturer or other information. Metal buttons similar to those on Levi's frequently have product names stamped or embossed on them. These are generally from overalls or other work clothes. Overall and suspender buckles are generally made of wire, sometimes partly covered with sheet metal. Old catalogs of clothing are very helpful in their identification.
Beads - Beads are found at both historic and post-contact aboriginal sites. Beads should be described by how they were made - drawn or spun (wound), by color, and any other manufacturing attributes they might possess such as grinding, etching, engraving, enameling, or painting. Bead styles can be somewhat time sensitive.
Wire Products - Wire products such as barbed wire, baling wire, and wire rope became widespread after the development of the Bessemer steel manufacturing process in 1876. Prior to the Bessemer process, wire could not be made into long strands of consistent strength and quality. The ability to make long lengths of good quality wire enabled a large number of products to be produced. One of the most frequently encountered products is barbed wire. The number of types of barbed wire manufactured is astounding. The varieties are very well documented, however, and patent dates ascertained if good descriptions are made in the field. Baling wire also became quite prevalent. Early baling machines required hand tying off of the ends of wire around a bale of hay. To facilitate this, a variety of bale ties with distinctive pre-made loop ends were marketed. How long these were available is not known, but they were certainly in use through the 1890s. Wire rope (commonly referred to as "cable") consists of numerous strands of wire braided or twisted into a single unit, sometimes around a core of hemp rope. Wire rope replaced natural fiber rope for use with machinery, especially with the expansion of use of steam power in the late 1880s and 1890s. Consequently, when wire rope is found on a site, it can be presumed that some sort of motive power was in use there.
Animal Shoes - Horse, mule, and oxen shoes are easy to identify. When examining them, however, be sure to note any modifications, especially of horseshoes. Such modifications may indicate use for work or pleasure, orthopedic problems the animal may have had, and use in icy, snowy, or muddy conditions - indicating seasonality.
Stove Parts - Very little information is currently available about stove manufacturers. However, stove parts are usually well marked with casting marks, the name of the stove and its manufacturer, and decorations. Frequently these marks can be identified or interpreted. For instance, some marks may indicate the size of the burner plates and oven. Certain parts may indicate whether a stove was intended to burn coal or wood. It may also be possible to tell if a stove was a cook stove or heating stove. Even when pieces of an actual stove are not present, pieces of stove pipe may reveal that one was there and where it was located. Ash and coal cinders are other indicators.
Hardware - Hardware is a very diverse artifact category that must be handled on an item by item basis. Artifacts in this category include all sorts of tools, equipment, and fasteners. Frequently pieces of a larger item are found which cannot be identified from what is left. Sometimes a single item will be very informative. The best that can be done is to describe hardware artifacts as well as possible. If the function of an item is unknown to you, photograph or draw it. It is usually possible to tell if something is hand or machine made. On machine made items, look for casting marks. These will usually be numbers but occasionally are manufacturer's marks, patent dates, or names.
Bottle seams indicative of mold type, bottle nomenclature, can types, and can opening styles.
Bottle neck finishes from: Fike, Richard E. 1987 The Bottle Book: A Comprehensive Guide to Historic, Embossed Medicine Bottles. Peregrine Smith Books, Salt Lake City.
Bottle base shapes from: Fike, Richard E. 1987 The Bottle Book: A Comprehensive Guide to Historic, Embossed Medicine Bottles. Peregrine Smith Books, Salt Lake City.
Pocketknives, animal shoes, cartridge types, and bale ties.
Cabin and architectural information adapted from: Wilson, Mary 1984 Log Cabin Studies, the Rocky Mountain Cabin, Log Cabin Technology and Typology and Log Cabin Bibliography. U.S. Forest Service, Intermountain Region, Cultural Resource Report No. 9.
