We have several examples of these from other sites we have excavated on campus, and a couple fragmentary ones have come off site already. So I was happy to see someone recover this complete bottle of Dr Thomas’ Eclectric Oil, as it is a product that always brings a smile to my face. It seemed to tickle everyone’s fancy as it was voted today’s Artifact of the Day.
This is one of my favourite quackery medicines, and indeed, was Canada’s most popular snake oil medicine of the late 19th century.
What is “Eclectric Oil”?
This was a patent medicine originally formulated by Dr. S.N. Thomas of Phelps, New York in the late 1840s. It contained spirits of turpentine, camphor, oil of tar, red thyme and specially processed fish oil.
Dr. Thomas made like Colonel Sanders and licensed his secret recipe to other producers. Northrup & Lyman was a very successful Canadian pharmaceutical firm who acquired the Canadian licensing rights from the Foster, Milburn & Co., Buffalo, NY.
Northrup & Lyman were established in 1854 in Newcastle, Ontario, and moved to Toronto in the mid-1870s.
The name seems to have piggybacked onto the fascination with electricity and how it related to health. This ad seems to indicate Eclectric is a portmanteau of Electric (or “Electrized” which sounds much fancier) and Selected.
Entirely different than anything ever before made!
This is a tooled-finish bottle, which means it was mouth-blown into a mold and then the mouth was finished by hand. This means this bottle is no younger than about 1915.
It tells you right on the bottle you can use it ExternallyAnd internally!NORTHRUP & LYMAN CO LIMITED / TORONTO ONTDR SH THOMAS / ECLECTRIC OIL
Today’s student choice was a comb recovered from what is looking like a midden context, or in other words, the garbage dump! We started work on this midden area today which is located beside the structure and found all sorts of curious things including the door of a wood-fired kitchen stove, many mouth-blown bottles, parts of shoes, dishes, and lots of bones.
They also recovered this comb, which evidently was thrown out as it was missing a lot of teeth! I like how there are different grades of teeth separation from the left side of the comb to the surviving middle section.
Bakelite comb with “Bull Dog”.
Frustratingly, I have not been able to find out much about this company. The comb does appear to be made of Bakelite, which means it can’t be any older than 1907. If I had to guess my impression would be late 1920s or early 1930s but that is just a hunch based on the lettering style.
As a bonus, here is what would have been my choice for Artifact of the Day. This was found in the structure, near where the tinnie was found.
Bank of Upper Canada, 1852 Half-Penny Bank Token Photo: James Conolly
Under a 1819 charter granted by the Province of Upper Canada, The Bank of Upper Canada was established in the city of York (now Toronto, Ontario) in 1821. In 1841, Upper and Lower Canada were united to form the Province of Canada. It was decided at this time that only the bank that held the government accounts had the right to issue copper tokens. The bank that held these rights from 1841 to 1848 was the Bank of Montreal.
Rioting in Montreal resulting from the passage of the Rebellion Losses Bill in 1849 ended up with the parliament buildings burning down, and the capital of Ontario was moved to Toronto. As a result, the right to issue tokens passed to the Bank of Upper Canada.
An extreme shortage of coins meant the Bank of Upper Canada issued copper penny and half-penny tokens between 1850 and 1857. The 1852 penny shows St. George and the Dragon on the obverse, and is based on Benedetto Pistrucci’s design for the 1817 British sovereign.
1817 British gold sovereign
Here is a less-worn example of the 1852 half-penny token so you can see the finer detail:
The reverse is the Coat of Arms of Upper Canada, which by this time was obsolete!
As a final point of interest, there were two issues of tokens in 1852. Most of the coins were struck at the Royal Mint in London, UK, and were shipped to Canada. Due to a heavy schedule and time pressure, the dies and planchets were transferred to Heaton’s Mint in Birmingham, UK. You can tell which striking you have because of how the dies and planchets were arranged.
These coins have been nicknamed “St. George Pieces” by collectors because of their obverse design.
The Royal Mint issued tokens have the dies in medallic alignment, which means that even if a medal flipped sideways on its ribbon so the back side was showing, it would still be right-side-up. Therefore, both the top of the obverse and the top of the reverse are pointing in the same direction. This is how our modern-day Canadian coins are oriented. The Heaton’s Mint issue have the dies in coin alignment, which means the image on one side of the coin is upside-down relative to the other (this is how US coins are oriented).
The coin recovered today has a medallic alignment, which means it was struck in the first pressing at the Royal Mint in London!
By 1852, Charles Perry had bought this parcel of land from Blayney Mitchell. Perhaps some of this assemblage dates to his early tenure while the mill was being constructed.
Today we got the banner mounted up at the site, and we think it looks great. It was a bit chilly this morning, but we had lots of digging and screening to do in order to keep warm.
Here are some images from today:
Trevor and Faisal are working on clearing back more of Context 2 in Structure 1.Selena M. and Shannon hard at work in the midden.Sam, Emily and Jacob discuss their next steps with Dr Munson after removing the surface layer from Context 7.Dan, Nicholas and Brianne screen for artifacts. Our new screens (made right here on campus by Pat Butler in Trent’s Facilities Management shop) look so shiny and white compared to the veteran ones!Raine and Bjorn also have new screens to break in!Don is excavating a separate trench to see if we can sort out where the walls connect. In the background, Trevor and Selena B. are working on clearing the south wall of Structure 1.Emily, Nicholas and Brianne are investigating another puzzling section of wall.Jacob and Sam also take a turn on the screens.The sun briefly came out, as Don sorts out his trench, Selena B. is working in Structure 1, and Darci, Kendra, and Michael help out Shannon in the midden.Darci is trying to sort out how the midden area relates to the east wall of Structure 1.At the end of the day, Bjorn and Trevor are working on their calculations for elevations they took at various points of the site.
Here are some of the artifacts that did not make the cut for Artifact of the Day:
A very pretty carved shell button.A Bakelite pipe-stem, complete with a nibble mark at the end!A threaded bolt of some kind.
Friday is our scheduled lab day, where we wash and catalogue the artifacts collected during the rest of the week.
While the first thing that most people associate with archaeology is digging up artifacts, this is only one part of archaeological research. Once artifacts are removed from the ground, they aren’t very informative until we analyse them, and that happens in the lab. For some students, they quickly discover that the lab side of things is their true passion. For every day of fieldwork, it is a good rule of thumb that there are at least two days of labwork to deal with the artifacts recovered.
In this part of the world, our weather and seasonality means it is common to ‘make hay while the sun shines’, and thus excavate as much as one can during the window of ground workability and visibility. The winter then becomes lab time, where the artifacts amassed during the spring-fall field season are carefully analysed, documented, and reports are written based on the results from the analysis.
For the field school, however, we try to schedule in lab time each week, and also rotate students through various activities according to their interests and aptitude.
(clockwise, from left to right) Trevor, Nicholas, Jacob, Shannon, Faisal, and Emily are washing artifacts from contexts 2 and 3 of Structure 1.
Today the students worked on washing the artifacts we recovered yesterday, and setting them out on trays to dry. The next scheduled lab day (or rain day if we get rained out), the dry artifacts are separated by material type and analysed. We had a backlog of stuff from earlier fieldwork, so the students also documented that material and applied some of the information that they had learned in their intensive workshop on historical artifacts.
The Arch Centre was buzzing with activity (although only one wasp). (L-R) Jacob, Raine, Kate, Sam, Marielle, Nicholas, Emily, Trevor, Shannon, Faisal, and Darci.
Here’s a sneak peek at a small sample of the artifacts we recovered yesterday. These tray layouts reminded me of I-Spy games, so let’s play a game, and I’ll post the answers Monday.
On this tray can you spot: 1. lice comb; 2. porcelain doll’s leg; 3. pig tusk; 4. rolled-lip food jar; 5. four buttonsHow about on this tray: 1. The Artifact of the Day for May 4th; 2. a chicken leg bone; 3. a bastard file; 4. the key from a key-wind tin; 5. a bone button; 6. bullet casingHow about these: 1. an earthenware jug; 2. three pipe stem fragments; 3. a terracotta flowerpot; 4. two fragments of a Blue Willow plate; 5. three shirt buttons
The rain has really been putting a crimp in our excavation schedule! Yesterday the students were split into two groups, and spent half the day at each activity. One activity was going out to the site with Dr James Conolly and learning about how to map and plan architectural features like walls using tapes and fixed reference points. The other purpose of this exercise was to familiarize everyone with the site and to start thinking about the excavation strategy.
Planning and mapping the visible walls on site using a Dumpy level.
The other activity was located at our wet lab in the Archaeology Centre, where the students got a crash course in identifying and understanding historical artifacts by Dr Marit Munson, who teaches the Historic and Ceramics Lab Methods course (ANTH 3152H) for the Anthropology Department. The students got to see the artifacts recovered from our initial identification and sampling of the site last summer in order to better prepare them for the start of excavation.
Crash course intensive on historical artifacts!
This morning we loaded up the trailer and arrived on site (fondly known as “The Corral”) for 9am. Today’s job was to clear back the surface of the site and begin excavating in the first structure we identified. We are excavating by context, instead of the more familiar 1-metre-square units. That means we are peeling back the layers of the site in the reverse order of how they were formed instead of punching a 1-metre-square hole through part of the site and seeing what is contained in that small window.
We accomplished a lot by 3pm, and found many interesting artifacts, including the Artifact of the Day.
Clearing back Context 1 from the structure. This is mainly the surface weeds, plant debris, and stones and rocks lying over the exposed ground surface.Underneath Context 1 is Context 2 (foreground) and Context 3 (behind yellow string). Context 2 and Context 3 are the fill that is inside the structure walls.As some of the students are digging, others are screening the dirt to recover artifacts.It was a very busy site today!Clearing out the upper layer of fill from the structure.
Tomorrow the rain is supposed to return, but that is fine as Fridays are scheduled lab days in the Archaeology Centre. Tomorrow we will be washing and beginning analysis of the artifacts we recovered today. All in all, today was a very good day!
Each day on site we decide upon the Artifact of the Day, which is voted on by the students. Other notable finds that didn’t make the cut were a carved bone knife handle, a porcelain doll’s leg, and a pocket watch case.
Today’s artifact was a bit of a surprise, to say the least. It is what is known as a ‘tinnie’, which is a general term for a commemorative medal, badge, or pin made from a non-precious metal such as tin, aluminum, zinc, or even plastic.
These articles were meant to be worn on clothing, and were commonly given away or sold at public events to build and reinforce group cohesiveness. The “golden age” of the tinnie was around the Second World War, and USSR and the Nazi party in particular were the most prolific producers of these items.
This particular example is made from aluminum, and is to commemorate the Tag der Deutschen Seefahrt [Day of German Seafaring], a nautical event which occurred in Hamburg, Germany on May 25-26, 1935.
Poster from the Day of German Seafaring, showing the day badge design and “Hamburg Ruft!” [Hamburg Calls!] underneath.To contextualise this artifact, and what the symbolism means, we can break it down into elements:
The design features the national emblem of Nazi Germany, the Reichsadler [Imperial Eagle], an eagle holding a wreath with a swastika in the center.
The motto SEEFAHRT IST NOT is really interesting. This concept was first attributed by Plutarch to the Roman military leader Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus). As Plutarch relates, Pompey was in charge of organizing Rome’s supply of grain from other parts of the Empire. During a severe storm, the sailors coming from Africa did not want to set out due to the danger. Pompey then told them “navigare necesse est, vivere non est necesse” [to sail is necessary; to live is not necessary].
Johann Kinau published a novel under the pseudonym Gorch Fock in 1913 called “Seefahrt ist Not!”, which can be both translated as “seafaring is necessary” but also ambiguously as “seafaring is hardship”. This novel describes the life of the deep sea fishermen of his home island. Fock died on the cruiser SMS Wiesbaden in the Battle of Jutland in 1916. This motto was then taken by the Nazi party and heavily featured as a propaganda concept.
Johann Kinau was born in the fishing village of Finkenwerder, which is now part of Hamburg, Germany.
The ship depicted is likely the Gorch Fock class Nazi tall ship the Horst Wessel, launched 1936. The eponymous ship for the class, the Gorch Fock was launched 3 May 1933, and was the main training vessel for the German Reichsmarine. It is argued that the ship depicted on the badge can’t be the Gorch Fock, because there is an eagle decoration on the prow that the Horst Wessel had but the Gorch Fock did not.
The Horst Wessel was captured by the United States at the end of Word War II. It is now known as the USCG Eagle, and the US Coast guard trains all their cadets on this ship to this day.
Although I was able to uncover a bit of information about this day badge, these questions now remain: who owned this piece; how did it arrive in Nassau Mills from Germany; and how does it relate to the structure we are excavating?
During the course of the field season, we will be featuring contributions from the crew. Today we have a post from one of our Advanced Field Methods students, Shannon, who would like to share her impressions and photographs of a field trip we took today to visit the Hope Mill, a historic sawmill on the Indian River.
The Hope Mill on a chilly rainy morning! Photo: Shannon Dwyer
Upon exiting my classmate’s car at the Hope Mill, my first thought was “man, this weather sucks”. I then turned and looked at the ‘open’ work space and said “holy cow, these mill workers are hardcore”. As I stood there freezing, in my thermal pants in the month of May, it hit me; “imagine this work space in a 19th century winter”. Again, I’m tempted to think that this mill and its workers are hardcore.
Truth is, those currently running and maintaining the Hope Mill have it easy. They have sections of the mill upgraded with electricity and lights, and they even have a tiled floor in their ‘out house’. All in all, the history of Hope Mill, although somewhat restored; bleeds through every aspect of this structure, and its founding families are honored in a variety of ways.
Nearly two hours go by, and I can no longer feel my left hand or my feet.
Literally frozen in my spot, the saw blade starts spinning and the entire mill starts to tremble. The crew of workers take their places and saw dust starts flying. Several minutes later, a wooden plank is sent up a roller belt and is ready for use.
This simple field trip changed my entire view of 2×4’s and I now hold a new appreciation for every picnic table I see. I have gained a new understanding of the historic value of such open workshops and the amount of work put into such structures to ensure production, and safety.
I can’t wait to see what will be uncovered and excavated during the Nassau Mills Project this year.
— Shannon
Turbine gates are open, and the crown gear is whirring away, turning the main drive shaft for the saw. Photo: Shannon DwyerAdjusting the saw carriage in order to cut the correct size plank. Photo: Shannon DwyerThe sawing floor, and rollers to move the waste wood to the cut-off saw. Photo: Shannon DwyerSome members of the Hope family. Photo: Shannon Dwyer
Not only a mill, this was also the Hope family’s house. Photo: Shannon Dwyer
A volunteer is using a pike-pole to grab a log from the millpond to bring it up the jack-ladder via a chain and winch. From there it will be maneuvered by cant hooks to the saw carriage. Photo: Shannon DwyerThe sawdust is collected from under the saw blade and transported out via a conveyor system. Photo: Shannon Dwyer
Today was the first day of the 2017 field school. After a meet and greet at the Archaeology Centre, we were going to go walk around and point out the hidden world that exists on campus. We didn’t get very far—although archaeologists don’t melt in the rain, it helps to have proper rain gear and we were lacking some of that, so the tour will be tomorrow.
Instead, we spent some time looking at some amazing old photographs that show some of the past history of what is now Trent University’s campus. We’ll be featuring some of these in upcoming posts, so stay tuned.
So who is Charles Perry and why is he important?
Charles Perry was born December 7, 1818 in Cobourg to Ebenezer Perry, who was a meat-packer, merchant, and miller. Ebenezer Perry built a mill on the Douro side of the Otonabee River in 1847, and this launched Charles into the lumber business in Peterborough. He had great success in marketing square timber and sawn lumber.
Where this becomes directly relevant to us is because by 1851, Charles began buying up land in Smith Township, including a parcel that is now part of Trent University. In 1853 he was elected Mayor of Peterborough. In 1854 he completed construction of his sawmill at Nassau, directly across the river from Ebenezer’s mill. Charles’s mill was pretty distinctive in its heyday. Charles painted all his buildings red, so the big mill at Nassau is often referred to as the Red Mill. It had 130 saws, including two Yankee Gangs, a Slabber, Stock Gang, and an English Gate. Gang saws were saw blades used together in parallel to make the initial cuts to a log when cutting it into planks.
If you are interested in learning more about the types of saws in a sawmill, please consult page 177 of this exhaustive work, published 1870 by David Craik.
The Red Mill was ravenous for timber, and is recorded as able to cut 90,000 feet of lumber in twelve hours. Unfortunately, Charles Perry’s reach exceeded his grasp, and in 1860, he lost the Red Mill at Nassau as it was seized and sold at a Sherriff’s Auction to cover tax arrears.
At this point, Charles Perry drops out of his connection to our field site, but he lived a pretty interesting life after his crash. The forefeiture of his mill property didn’t seem to really affect his reputation too much as he was again elected Mayor of Peterborough in 1861, a position he held until 1864.
Following his stint as Mayor, he also was elected to the first Canadian Parliament in 1867 as a Conservative MP representing Peterborough West. He served until 1872. After that, he appears to have been a customs collector for Peterborough from 1873 until his death in 1876.
He lived at the French-Second-Empire-style house at 168 Brock St., Peterborough from its construction in 1870 until his death. His widow sold the property in 1892.
The Red Mill at Nassau, about 45 years after construction.
See you Friday with something new (or old!).
![Poster from the Day of German Seafaring, showing the day badge design and "Hamburg Ruft!" [Hamburg Calls!] underneath.](https://nassaumills.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/hamburgruft.jpg)
