Sponsor
Portland State University. School of Urban Studies
First Advisor
Carl Abbott
Term of Graduation
Summer 2002
Date of Publication
Summer 7-18-2002
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Urban Studies
Department
Urban Studies
Language
English
Subjects
Neighborhoods -- Nevada -- Virginia City, Historic sites -- Nevada -- Virginia City, Archaeology -- Nevada -- Virginia City
Physical Description
1 online resource (x, 547 pages)
Abstract
Archaeologists and historians have conducted a limited number of 19th century western neighborhood studies. The small number of inquiries into the urban past has left research on western working and middle class neighborhoods, along with their ethnic and class composition, relatively untouched by modern scholars. Although eastern immigrant neighborhood studies by historic archaeologists are currently increasing, western immigrant neighborhood research projects continue to be underrepresented in the literature. Perceiving an absence of western urban neighborhood studies, an intensive study on an ethnically heterogeneous working and middle class neighborhood was conducted in Virginia City, Nevada.
The community was situated adjacent to the red light district, Chinatown, and mining industry in a city that loosely adhered to the human ecologist's model of city anatomy. The neighborhood in Virginia City was relatively short lived. Within thirty years the area evolved from a well paid and skilled worker population to an area that supported working class laborers. The decline of the neighborhood was a result of a severe and indefinite drop in the mining economy by 1877.
The archaeological remains of the neighborhood provided clues on the former occupant's class, ethnicity, diet, and personal preferences. Faunal remains from the neighborhood revealed mutton was the most common meat consumed. The residents ate from a variety of Gothic and undecorated white improved earthenware dishes that were common in urban households of working class and middle class Victorian homes across America.
Rights
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Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43049
Recommended Citation
Schablitsky, Julie Marie, "The Other Side of the Tracks: The Archaeology and History of a Virginia City, Nevada Neighborhood" (2002). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 6762.
Comments
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