Children’s Ceramic Items

Louis Berger and Associates, Inc. discovered this pearlware child’s mug during the excavation of Feature 19, for the Metropolitan Detention Center (36Ph91). Feature 19 is a brick lined shaft located at the rear of 702 Arch Street, possibly the remains of a privy.

The available census records place Charles Clayton and his family at 700/702 Arch Street from 1804 until 1818. Artifact dates from this feature suggest that the Clayton household was responsible for its fill. In 1810 theses same records list the occupants of the Clayton household as Charles, his wife Eleanor, three girls, one boy and five men. Unfortunately the records do not list the first names of the Clayton children but it is believed that the mug may have been a gift for one of the daughters. During the early nineteenth century there was an increase in the production of ceramic items specifically manufactured for the children of the more affluent middle class.

For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .