Wisconsin approved “An Act to Legalize Dissection” in 1868, which declared unclaimed bodies could be sent to medical societies for anatomical examination. In Milwaukee, cadavers could be buried at the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery (MCPFC). Based on osteological assessment, a total of 28/160 (17.5%) females have documented craniotomies and/or postcranial cut marks. To further contextualize these results, archival data from the Register of Burials at the MCPFC (RBMC) was analyzed for postmortem alterations (e.g., autopsy and/or medical cadaver) to female bodies. In total, 139/609 (22.8%) females were used as medical cadavers, 22/609 (3.61%) had an autopsy, and 3/609 (0.49%) had both. The objectification of marginalized women’s bodies is an increasingly visible contemporary issue. By studying the treatment of female cadavers in historic Milwaukee, anthropologists can highlight the role of western medicine in shaping this objectification.

Operating under the Wisconsin Burial Site Preservation Statute 157.70, two archaeological excavations occurred at the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery (MCPFC) 2 (1882 – 1925). Recently awarded grant funding has facilitated the completion of osteological documentation at the level of the archaeological individual for over 500 nonadults from the first excavation cohort. This poster presents a summary of our findings, integrating osteological data with previously reported archaeological data. Nonadults and their burials are under-represented in discussions of both Milwaukee’s history and archaeological pauper cemeteries. Our objective is to generate holistic insights and understandings of the individuals, histories, and narratives of those interred at the MCPFC 2. Further, the completion of this data collection provides critical information for our work to produce provisional identifications of nonadults, associating archaeological individuals with historical records.

More than 50 poorhouses were in operation across New York State at the turn of the twentieth century. State law required the gathering of information about each resident. The New York State Archives has made this data accessible through Ancestry.com and Vassar College students are transcribing those records. The resulting New York Poorhouse Geodatabase facilitates analyses. This poster focuses on the “cause of dependence” as listed on forms between 1900 and 1915. From those data we interrogate stereotypes about county poorhouse residents. Preliminary analyses show that 25% of the population were experiencing limb injuries, rheumatism, and paralysis including those labeled as crippled. Social causes for poverty, including joblessness and abandonment comprised about 4% of the population. While 26% of residents were listed as homeless or destitute, the majority also include a medical cause. The state’s poor were too sick to be employed therefore poorhouse studies should overlap with disability studies.

The Oak Grove Colored Cemetery in Graham, Texas served as the primary burial ground for the African American community in Young County Texas beginning in 1925. The last known burial at Oak Grove occurred in the late 1960s but records for all individuals interred here are scarce. Recent archaeological work at the site in collaboration with the descendant community has documented the shifting property lines that have significantly encroached on cemetery land. With the aid of GIS, historical and recent maps, and oral histories, the slow erasure of this cemetery is now being documented and past discriminatory practices that led to these encroachments exposed.

The town of Tucson, Arizona opened a new cemetery at the north edge of town in 1875. Over the next 34 years over 8,000 individuals were buried in what is today called the Court Street Cemetery. Newspapers described the cemetery in unflattering articles, primarily because the hard soil and lack of water prevented the planting of decorative greenery. Area businessmen and the Catholic Church opened new cemeteries in 1907 and people were directed to arrange for the removal and reburial of family members and friends. However, many people were left behind and now lie under houses, businesses, streets, and sidewalks. Numerous burials have been located by home owners and during utility projects. This poster discusses the human remains, clothing, personal possessions, and coffins that have provided insights into late 19th century mortuary behavior in the American Southwest.

Through bioarchaeological analyses, archival research, and community engagement, we explore the lives and deaths of individuals interred at the Brentwood Poor Farm in Brentwood, NH (1841-1868). The site of the town Poor Farm and the accompanying unmarked burial ground are under private ownership. The space has been documented by the State and will be protected in perpetuity so that no other burials are disturbed; reburial of the disturbed remains is imminent. Our skeletal analysis is contextualized within the history of the American poor farm system and compared to similar skeletal samples across the country. This work demonstrates that analyses of small, fragmentary, and commingled samples can provide nuanced accounts of marginalization and institutionalization. Aside from gaining more insight into the lives of historic, rural, and disenfranchised New Englanders, this project also demonstrates the power of collaborative work with engaged stakeholders (e.g., local town historians, cemetery superintendents, landowners, and students).

This work details a major salvage effort at the historic Cypress Grove Cemetery #1 in New Orleans, Louisiana. For decades, an area of wall vaults housing hundreds of burials dating from the mid-1800s to the 1920s has been overgrown and in disrepair. In 2022, the cemetery was allowed to begin work to repair these vaults. The remains – in various states of decomposition and degradation – were removed, bagged, and stored on site and plans are in place to rebury them in a mausoleum that is currently under construction. The authors were brought in to de-commingle the remains, determine the number of individuals, and to help the cemetery understand who was disinterred in an effort to respectfully and efficiently reinter these individuals. The research presented here documents the process of establishing the minimum number of individuals (currently 706) and thoughts about the ethics of cemetery removal of burials.

Historical cemeteries and individual burials with limited documentation often must rely on mortuary artifacts for temporal evidence. Coffin hardware can provide this data and insight into individual and community socioeconomic status, religious affiliation, and social identity. The descendant community of the Old Canaan Baptist Cemetery, located in Marshall, Texas, initiated an investigation into the cemetery. Due to racially motivated intimidation tactics, access was lost to the cemetery in the 1930s leaving the descendants with limited information on where their ancestors rest. In 2021, 2023, and 2024, the anthropology faculty and students at Texas Tech University excavated 13 burials at the community’s request. This research utilizes coffin hardware to determine burial date ranges and infer the socioeconomic status of each individual. Additionally, this research compares the hardware to that found in three other cemeteries to explore the socioeconomic status of the community.

Due to the previous identification of unmarked burials on the 3300 block of historic Georgetown, New South Associates, Inc. was contracted to monitor the construction of an addition to one of the residences by the property owners. The investigation resulted in the identification of 52 partial grave shaft features within the construction footprint. This poster will present the findings based on the recovery of these individuals and what it can tell us about this previously forgotten population.

Recently, a fair amount of attention in historic mortuary literature has been paid to burial container hardware, and to a lesser extent, to the influence of hardware on the socioeconomics of the funeral and burial. However, base surface treatments, such as painting, varnishing, cloth-covering, etc. also influenced social perception and cost. Relatively little has been systematically presented in the published archaeological literature about the types of interior and exterior surface treatments used historically and encountered during historic cemetery/burial relocations. This is largely due to the fact that surface treatments often don’t preserve. Degree of preservation does limit the scope of observation, but absence of evidence does not necessarily indicate absence of practice and surface treatments can preserve in certain situations. Close attention to this evidence is required for it to contribute to the archaeological record of historic mortuary sites.