discovery of downtown chicago dump provides insight into the lives of mid-19th century chicagoans

a recent dig site has proven to be a fruitful source for 19th century bottles and artifacts. the site, along the north branch of the chicago river, is unassuming, sitting in a dead space between a glass and steel skyscraper and an industrial warehouse undergoing extensive restoration.

while discussing the site with a friend who has been digging around chicago for decades, i further investigated the area, which supposedly yielded at least two early aqua lomax blobtop soda bottles years ago, when he was there with a city street and sanitation work crew that mentioned to him that the site was apart of a larger city dump dating as far back as the late 1850's. with several bottle fragments with iron-pontiled bases found within the refuse, there was now concrete evidence that the dumping ground likely dates back to 1855-1859. this time around, with wreckers digging into the earth 20 feet below grade, a number of 19th century shoes, china and/or earthenware, heavily corroded iron and brass toys and tools, etc. were uncovered before also finding intact glassware (e.g., soda, ale and medicinal bottles).

the stench of the pit was undeniably from a prior century, and required descending a ladder into the repository of 19th century artifacts. perhaps most impressive, unearthed at that site was an intact c. 1852-1854 hutchinson stoneware bottle, a merill-patent sided quart in cream color, albany-slipped above the shoulder and stamped "hutchinson & co." just below tapering neck and collar.

in addition to the hutchinson, an early lomax bottle was also unearthed. the following image gallery represents findings of this early dump site.  research into the history of the dumpsite and anaylsis if its recovered contents is ongoing, which i hope will be revisited in greater depth in a future post.