Drugs and dirt: The historical archaeology of19th century medicines in Springfield, Illinois

Understanding the way that past peoples interacted with their health and the environment can help build a fuller picture of medical practices and traditions beyond the biomedicine paradigm that is common in the United States. The archaeological record provides valuable data on patterns of consumer procurement, use, and discard of medicines. The applications of scientific research into history can help contribute to a more health and history literate society by presenting a view of the consumers of the past as navigating individual preferences and cultural backgrounds. Insights on the relationships between the consumers, society, and advertising in the past can inform modern healthcare issues, such as regional or socioeconomic group variations in healthcare choices, access, and beliefs. This project focuses on understanding how social dynamics, cultural histories, and consumer preferences shaped consumer health care choices in the latter half of the 19th century in Springfield, Illinois. By examining six households at five archaeological sites within a single community across a 50-year period (1850-1900), the sample set includes Irish, German, and Portuguese immigrants. This project is positioned to provide insight in how individual households and the municipality negotiated the complex topic of healthcare and related beliefs at a pivotal moment in the transformation of American healthcare. Using data from previous excavations, I have created a list of branded and plain medicine bottles found at the sites that can be attributed to specific households. In-depth analysis of the medicinal components and related artifact assemblages allows a more nuanced look at the interplay between the self, societal norms, advertising, and the fledgling field of advertising psychology. I seek to push beyond discussions of consumers or individuals as members of a group and instead focus on individual agency of consumers and citizens in a culturally powered landscape by utilizing the feminist framework outlined by Suzanne Spencer-Wood. By considering the assemblages of Springfield, Illinois within the context of a culturally powered landscape, the project considers how individuals might have disrupted the expected order of things to reach consumable items that best fit their idea of health. The act of buying something as personal as medication is socially and culturally charged, and so understanding how individuals chose what parts of themselves to minimize or emphasize within these contexts can help provide a greater understanding of how people negotiate healthcare choices in the present as the COVID-19 pandemic lays bare the distrust that many people have with the modern American healthcare system. The data indicate that medicine choice was impacted by socio-economic class and cultural background. Preferences based on ethnic identity and ideology are readily apparent in the assemblages as well. The history of medicine and pharmacy is intimately tied with the histories of domesticity, spirituality, and capitalism. The reality of the relationship between our bodies and scientific understanding is a complex schema that is reliant on cultural histories, social contexts, and socioeconomic availability. There is a significant gap in the literature of the history of medicine in the late 19th century and the advent of health-as-morality that archaeological research like this project is positioned to fill. The use of multiple single-context datasets within the same area enables a closer consideration of the impact of consumer preferences and life histories on medicine purchases and highlights the utility of archaeology in contributing to the history of individuals and households.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Anthropology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Verstraete, Emma

Contributors dc:contributor

• Fennell, Christopher
• Frankenberg, Susan
• Clancy, Kathryn
• Ambrose, Stanley

• Historical Archaeology
• History Of Medicine

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Emma Verstraete

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117634

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F117634