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Destitute Women and Smoking at the Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, Australia

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Abstract

The Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney, Australia, was established in 1819 to accommodate male convicts, but in later years the building served as a depot for immigrant women (1848–86) and as an asylum for destitute women (1862–86). The occupation of the latter group in particular resulted in the loss of large numbers of clay tobacco pipes under the floorboards. The quantity and distribution of the pipes is used here to examine smoking behavior among the destitute female inmates, and to assess their relationships with each other and the institution in which they were confined.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is part of a broader research project, “An Archaeology of Institutional Confinement: the Hyde Park Barracks 1848–1886,” funded and supported by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales and the Australian Research Council. This project extends earlier work carried out on the Hyde Park Barracks as part of the “Exploring the Archaeology of the Modern City Project” by Tim Murray, Penny Crook, and Laila Ellmoos. Further information and publications are available at http://www.latrobe.edu.au/archaeology/hyde-park-barracks/index.html and http://www.hht.net.au/museums/hyde_park_barracks_museum. I would like to thank Tim Murray, Susan Lawrence, Denis Gojak, Gary Crockett, and two anonymous reviewers for their critical comments on earlier drafts of this paper. All opinions and mistakes expressed here remain my own.

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Davies, P. Destitute Women and Smoking at the Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, Australia. Int J Histor Archaeol 15, 82–101 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-010-0134-6

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