Abstract
Window glass is a common artifact found on many historic archaeological sites. Until now, some researchers have believed that crown window glass was used exclusively during the colonial period and early postcolonial period (Tunis 1965; Pepper 1971; Louis Berger and Assoc. 1996; LeeDecker et al. 1997; Bedell et al. 2002). Broad window glass had been assigned a terminus post quem of 1820, eventually replacing crown window glass by around 1840 (Louis Berger and Assoc. 1996). However, recent excavations at the First Baptist Church and Old Scots Meetinghouse sites in Monmouth County, New Jersey, past excavations at St. Mary’s City, Maryland, and historic documentation indicate that broad glass was manufactured and used in America during the colonial period, possibly as early as the 17th century. This paper will examine the production processes for both crown and broad window glass as well as the physical evidence for the use and production of broad window glass alongside crown window glass during the early colonial period.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bedell, John, Ingrid Wuebber, Meta Janowitz, MarieLorraine Pipes, Gerard P. Scharfenberger, and Charles LeeDecker 2002 An Ordinary Family in Eighteenth-Century Delaware: Excavations at the Dawson Family Site. Deldot Archaeology Series, No. 161. Delaware Department of Transportation, Division of Highways Location and Environmental Studies Office, Dover.
Carson, Cary 1994 The Consumer Revolution in Colonial British America: Why Demand? In Of Consuming Interests: The Style of Life in the Late-Eighteenth Century, Cary Carson, Ronald Hoffman, and Peter J. Albert, editors, pp. 483–697. University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville.
Chappell, Edward A. 1994 Housing a Nation: The Transformation of Living Standards in Early America. In Of Consuming Interests: The Style of Life in the Late-Eighteenth Century, Cary Carson, Ronald Hoffman, and Peter J. Albert, editors, pp. 167–232. University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville.
Charleston, R. J. 1984 English Glass and the Glass Used in England, circa 400–1940. George Allen and Unwin, London.
Davies, Isabel 1973 Window Glass in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg. In Five Artifact Studies, Ivor Noël Hume, editor, pp 78–99. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Colonial Williamsburg, VA.
Davis, Pearce 1949 The Development of the American Glass Industry. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Dodsworth, Roger 1996 Glass and Glassmaking. Shire Album 83. Shire Publications, Ltd., Buckinghamshire, England.
Ellis, Franklin 1885 History of Monmouth County. R. T. Peck & Co. Philadelphia.
Henretta, James A., W. Elliot Brownlee, David Brody, and Susan Ware 1993 America’s History: Vol. 1 to 1877. Worth, New York.
Landsman, Ned C. 1985 Scotland and Its First Colony 1683–1765. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Lanier, Gabrielle M., and Bernard L. Herman 1997 Everyday Architecture of the Mid-Atlantic. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.
LeeDecker, Charles H., Richard J. Dent, Meta Janowitz, MarieLorraine Pipes, Ingrid Wuebber, Mallory A. Gordon, Henry M. R. Holt, Christy Roper, Gerard P. Scharfenberger, and Sharla Azizi 1997 Archaeological and Historical Investigation of the Metropolitan Detention Center Site (36 PH 91) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Volume I: Technical Report. Report to the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC, from Louis Berger and Associates, East Orange, NJ.
Louis Berger and Associates, Inc. 1996 Analytical Coding System for Historic Period Artifacts. The Cultural Resource Group, Louis Berger & Associates, Inc., East Orange, NJ. [Prepared by Sharla Azizi, Diane Dallal, Mallory A. Gordon, Meta F. Janowitz, Nadia N.S. Maczaj, and Marie-Lorraine Pipes.]
McKearin, Helen, and Kenneth M. Wilson 1978 American Bottles and Flasks and Their Ancestry. Crown Publishing, New York.
Middle Atlantic Archaeological Research Associates 1986 Data Recovery at 28-Ca-50 Gloucester City, New Jersey. Report prepared for the National Park Service, Philadelphia, PA, from the Middle Atlantic Archaeological Research Associates, Newark, DE.
Miller, Henry 1978 An Analysis of Window Glass and Turned Lead from the St. John’s Site. Manuscript, The Department of Research, Historic St. Mary’s City, St. Mary’s City, MD.
Moran, Geoffrey P., Edward F. Zimmer, and Anne E. Yentsch 1982 Archaeological Excavations at the Narbonne House. Cultural Resources Management Study, No. 6. National Park Service, Denver Service Center, CO.
Neumann, Florin 1996 Glass: Liquid or Solid: Science vs. an Urban Legend. University of Alberta, Canada <http://www.ualberta.ca/~bderksen/florin.html>.
New Jersey Pinelands Commission 1983 Pinelands Cultural Resource Management Plan for Historic Period Sites [Draft]. New Jersey Pinelands Commission, New Lisbon, NJ.
New Jersey Pinelands Commission 1991 Pinelands Cultural Resource Management Plan for Historic Period Sites [Final]. New Jersey Pinelands Commission, New Lisbon, NJ.
Noël Hume, Ivor 1991 A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
O’Herron, Sean 2003 The 1798 Direct Tax in New Jersey as a Study in Local Architecture. Manuscript, Monmouth University, Long Branch, NJ.
Pepper, Adeline 1971 The Glass Gaffers of New Jersey and Their Creations from 1739 to the Present. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York.
Persson, Rune 1969 Flat Glass Technology. Plenum Press, New York.
Plumb, R. C. 1989 Antique Windowpanes and the Flow of Supercooled Liquids. Journal of Chemical Education, 66(12): 994–996.
Roenke, Karl G. 1978 Flat Glass: Its Use as a Dating Tool for Nineteenth-Century Sites in the Pacific Northwest and Elsewhere. Northwest Anthropological Research Notes, Memoir No. 4. University of Idaho, Moscow.
Scharfenberger, Gerard P. 2000 The Baptists of New Jersey: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of New Jersey’s Earliest Congregation. Masters Thesis, Hunter College, New York.
Scharfenberger, Gerard P., and Sherene Baugher 2000 Preliminary Archaeological Report on the Old First Church Site, Middletown, New Jersey. Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey, 55:44–56.
Schoen, Christopher M. 1990 Window Glass on the Plains: An Analysis of Flat Glass Samples from Ten Nineteenth-Century Plains Historic Sites. Central Plains Archaeology, 2(1):57–90.
Starbuck, David R. 1986 The New England Glassworks: New Hampshire’s Boldest Experiment in Early Glassmaking. The New Hampshire Archeologist, 27(1):6–129.
Stone, Garry Wheeler 1974 St. John’s: Archaeological Questions and Answers. Maryland Historical Magazine, 69(2):146–168.
Stone, Garry Wheeler 1986 Seventeenth-Century Wall Tile from St. Mary’s City Excavations 1971–1986. St. Mary’s City Research Series, No. 3. Historic St. Mary’s City, MD.
Sweeney, Kevin M. 1994 High-Style Vernacular: Lifestyles of the Colonial Elite. In Of Consuming Interests: The Style of Life in the Eighteenth Century, Cary Carson, Ronald Hoffman, and Peter J. Albert, editors, pp. 1–58. University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville.
Symmes, William 1904 History of the Old Tennent Church. George W. Burroughs, Cranbury, NJ.
Tunis, Edwin 1965 Colonial Craftsmen and the Beginnings of American Industry. World Publishing Co., New York.
Watkins, Lura Woodside 1950 American Glass and Glassmaking. Cracker Barrel, Southampton, New York.
White, Margaret E. 1964 The Decorative Arts in Early New Jersey. D. Van Nostrand Co., New York.
Wilson, Budd 1971 The Batsto Window Light Factory Artifacts. Bulletin of the Archeological Society of New Jersey, 27:11–18.
Wilson, Kenneth M. 1969 Glass in New England. Old Sturbridge Booklet Series. Old Sturbridge, Inc., Sturbridge, MA.
Wilson, Kenneth M. 1972 New England Glass and Glassmaking. Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York.
Wilson, Kenneth M. 1976 Window Glass in America. In Building Early America, Charles E. Peterson, editor, pp. 150–164. Astragal Press, Mendham, NJ.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Scharfenberger, G.P. Recent Evidence for Broad Window Glass in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century America. Hist Arch 38, 59–72 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376669
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376669