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Landscapes of Power: Middle Class and Lower Class Power Dynamics in a New York Charitable Institution

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Abstract

Archaeological and historical research at Sailors’ Snug Harbor uncovered material on this landscape of power. Sailors’ Snug Harbor, located in New York City, was established in 1831 as a private institution for retired and injured seamen who were economically impoverished. In the nineteenth century, between 400 and 800 seamen lived at Snug Harbor, supported by a director (called the governor), an assistant director (the steward), a doctor, a chaplain, and a large support staff. There were rivalries between the middle class administrators of institution especially during the reign of Thomas Melville (1867–84). Because over twenty percent of the retired seamen were former ship captains, in addition to numerous officers such as first mates, there were intense power dynamics between Melville (a former clipper ship captain) and the retired seamen (inmates). The design of the buildings and grounds, the archaeological material, and the primary source documents reveal middle class and lower class power dynamics that existed in this closed community.

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Acknowledgments

I thank all archaeology staff and volunteers with the City Archaeology Program who worked on these excavations. Barnett Shepherd, who has authored works on the architecture of Snug Harbor, provided very helpful suggestions regarding primary and secondary sources pertaining to Sailors’ Snug Harbor. For their generous help with the voluminous primary sources from Sailors’ Snug Harbor, I thank the archivists and library staffs in archives of the Noble Maritime Museum, Stephen B. Luce Library at the State University of New York-Maritime College, Staten Island Historical Society, and the Staten Island Museum. The comments and suggestions from the anonymous reviewers were very helpful. I really appreciate Suzanne Spencer-Wood’s very valuable suggestions to various drafts of this article. I thank my husband, historian Robert W. Venables, for reading numerous drafts of this article, providing excellent comments and suggestions, and for helping me to better understand the hierarchy that has and continues to exist in maritime society.

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  1. Department of Landscape Architecture, Cornell University, 400 Kennedy Hall, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Sherene Baugher

  2. Cornell University Archaeology Program, 261 Mc Graw Hall, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Sherene Baugher

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Correspondence to Sherene Baugher.

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Baugher, S. Landscapes of Power: Middle Class and Lower Class Power Dynamics in a New York Charitable Institution. Int J Histor Archaeol 14, 475–497 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-010-0120-z

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