Archaeological Insights Into the Impact of British Ceramics in North America

The Anthropology Department welcomes Teresita Majewski to deliver her lecture “Archaeological Insights Into the Impact of British Ceramics in North America.”

British ceramics dominated the North American consumer market from the 18th through the late 19th centuries. They are ubiquitous on archaeological sites dating to this time in places where the British were trading or had settled all over the world. What does an understanding of the distribution of 18th and 19th century British ceramics in western America contribute to our knowledge of the British ceramic export industry?

The answer to this question is part of a larger consideration of how ceramics were selected and distributed to frontier markets by manufacturers in Staffordshire, England, and importers and other entrepreneurs in American cities, and is intimately tied to the history of settlement and transportation developments. Majewski's examination uses ceramic evidence as an independent source of information to test the analytical framework developed by Neil Ewins in his seminal work on Staffordshire ceramics and the American market. Majewski's examination also uses ceramic evidence as an independent source of information to test a framework developed through documentary research. This framework can be used wherever British ceramics are found through the world, depending on the strength of the documentary and archaeological evidence.

Teresita (Terry) Majewski, Ph.D., RPA, FSA, is the senior archaeologist and executive vice president of Statistical Research Inc. (SRI).