Archaeology at the Site of the Museum of the American Revolution: A Tale of Two Taverns and the Growth of Philadelphia by Rebecca Yamin
Cities are dynamic environments that are constantly evolving and reinventing themselves. Whether the place is Rome, Troy, or Philadelphia, the remains of past urban landscapes lie beneath those that came later, and they are almost always truncated and incomplete. Basements, utility lines, and other disturbances slice through earlier land surfaces and features, leaving only discontinuous portions intact. Urban archaeologists deconstruct and interpret this fragmentary archaeological record as they seek to understand past societies and the urban experience. As Rebecca Yamin wrote in her Digging in the City of Brotherly Love (2008): "it is an archaeology of what makes a city a city in the first place: intense human occupation in a constricted, crowded space" (1).
The challenge of urban archaeology requires both a specialized skill set and an expanded tool kit. Much of this work occurs in connection with public and private redevelopment projects and typically involves monitoring and excavation during the process of construction. Backhoes and other heavy equipment supplement the trowels and whisk brooms that are part of the standard archaeological tool kit. Fieldwork often is done under difficult conditions and impossible schedules, requiring careful planning, flexibility, and the ability to think and work quickly while adhering to professional standards. It is a high-pressure work environment where much is at stake and little comes easy.
The Museum of the American Revolution, opened to the public in 2017, occupies one-quarter of a city block in the oldest part of downtown Philadelphia. Located at the corner of Chestnut and Third streets, it is only two blocks from Independence Hall and directly opposite the First Bank of the United States. The history of the parcel is closely intertwined with the [End Page 303] historical development of the city as a whole. In the late 1600s the land was owned by tanner William Hudson, who later became mayor of Philadelphia. By the mid-eighteenth century it was subdivided into twenty-three narrow lots containing shops, taverns, and businesses of all kinds, each with a privy and well at the rear of the property. Following a devastating fire in 1806 it became a densely packed commercial district of large multistory buildings with deep basements. All buildings were removed when Independence National Historical Park was created in the 1950s, and that visitor center in turn was razed in preparation for construction of the Museum of the American Revolution. Federal historic preservation regulations required that the area be evaluated for potentially significant archaeological resources prior to construction. Enter Rebecca Yamin and her team of archaeologists.
Yamin has devoted much of her career to studying and documenting the history and archaeology of Philadelphia, including many years as senior archaeologist with John Milner Associates, Inc. (now Commonwealth Heritage Group, Inc.). In that capacity she directed many important projects in downtown Philadelphia including National Constitution Center, Liberty Bell Center, and the project that is the focus of her most recent book, the Museum of the American Revolution.
Essentially this volume is a continuation and extension of Digging in the City of Brotherly Love, which described recent excavations performed at Independence Mall and other Philadelphia locations. Yamin is a skilled writer and storyteller who chooses to take a narrative approach to archaeological interpretation, crafting what she calls "narrative vignettes" (27). In Digging in the City of Brotherly Love she explains:
We construct the past; it isn't there to be discovered. We take the fragments—from the ground and from the documents—and weave them into stories of what might have been. It isn't fiction, but it isn't quite science either. It's an interpretive endeavor that seeks to make the most of what we know. In Philadelphia, the challenge is to get beyond what every schoolchild already knows.
(3)
That is the approach that Yamin takes in presenting the results of the 2014 archaeological investigations at the site of the Museum of the American Revolution. The result is an attractive and engaging book that will appeal to the general public as well as avocational and professional archaeologists and those with a particular interest in Philadelphia's history. It is abundantly [End Page 304] illustrated with maps, views of the excavation in progress, and many gorgeous color photographs of recovered artifacts.
The book begins with a foreword by Dr. R. Scott Stephenson, at that time the museum's vice president of collections, exhibitions, and programs, and now its president and CEO.
Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the site and its history, then describes the historical and archaeological techniques used to document it. Typical of urban settings, successive building episodes resulted in severe disturbance that left intact only the bottom of deep shaft features such as wells and privies; yet these features proved to be rich in artifacts, often in undisturbed contexts. Historic maps and other sources pinpointed areas with the greatest archaeological potential. Careful excavation with heavy equipment peeled away thick layers of fill and debris to reveal truncated shaft features and other structural remains, which were then excavated by hand. Meticulous historical research revealed the identity of individuals and households associated with these features and artifacts and shed light on the lifeways of the people who purchased, used, and discarded the consumer goods found at the site.
In chapter 2 we meet some of the neighborhood's mid-eighteenth-century residents such as Samuel Garrigues, proprietor of a weights and measures shop, and his neighbor, tanner William Smith. A privy at the rear of the property contained artifacts associated with the households of both men. Chapter 3 focuses on the Three Tun Tavern, one of the two taverns noted in the book's title. In 1768, when the establishment changed its name and began catering to a more upscale clientele, the management discarded its old utensils in the Garrigues/Smith privy across the street; the recovered tankards, punch bowls, posset cups, chargers, plates, tobacco pipes, and food remains enable Yamin to explore the broader theme of colonial tavern culture. She recounts the stories of two men: tavernkeeper Joseph Yeates and James Oronoco Dexter, an enslaved worker at the tavern who purchased his own freedom and became a leading member of Philadelphia's African American community.
Chapter 4 describes the second tavern of the book's title: an unlicensed back alley establishment run by Mary Humphreys in the 1770s and 1780s until she was charged with "keeping a disorderly house" and sent to prison. An impressive array of artifacts was recovered from the Humphreys privy. Chapter 5 tells the story of Dr. David Jayne, a patent medicine manufacturer whose eight-story granite commercial building was part of the neighborhood's transformation after the 1806 fire. Chapter 6 presents an interesting [End Page 305] discussion of the printing and button-manufacturing industries during the neighborhood's later history, which continue the story right up until the block was cleared for development of Independence National Historical Park. The final chapter of the book is a concise recap and summary linking the investigations of this site to others in Philadelphia.
Archaeology at the Site of the Museum of the American Revolution is a fine introduction to urban historical archaeology directed at a broad readership but it also has much to offer professional archaeologists and historians. It demonstrates how careful scrutiny of one small piece of urban land can contribute to our understanding of the city as a whole. Yamin writes: "All places have a history, but not all places have a buried record of the past that touches on as many significant changes in a city's development. Although far from complete, the archaeological record reveals the history of Philadelphia in microcosm" (119). Through her storytelling Yamin brings the past to life, focusing on the ordinary Philadelphians who lived and worked in the shadow of Independence Hall. Her book showcases these forgotten people and the fragile history that lies beneath our feet.
