sporadic digging for upcoming "unearthing chicago" book yields more finds, deeper insights

when time permits, i'm moving from one excavation site to another to look for pieces of the past before those "time portals" are once again closed when construction begins.

i must admit, i have not "scored" any major privy vaults containing a condensed collection of material to tell a story of chicago life during a given time span, but at the very least, i've come across numerous "ash pits" that offer some insight into what transpired at these locations.

the way i look at it, anything is better than nothing, especially during this critical period of gathering artifacts and data for my next project, "unearthing chicago". i am optimistically looking forward to self-publishing this book (now my second) by the end of the year.

similar to previous digs, the trend is displaying a slew of shards and fragments with only a handful of bottles sprinkled into the mix. nearly all of these finds are from excavation sites located on the west side of chicago. the sites closer to the river tend to produce earlier artifacts that date shortly before the great chicago fire of 1871.

i'm a bit frustrated that i cannot devote more time to this venture since i'm juggling operating a business, giving lectures, managing a museum, salvaging houses and commercial buildings, harvesting and documenting 19th century building materials and on and on, with very little assistance. if only i had a group of devoted interns who could come along to the sites with me! i have so much information to share, yet i feel, more often than not, that i'm talking to a brick wall. again, when you choose to do this on your own terms with your own money, it can be a lonely world.

hopefully in the very near future i will find another privy vault that in and of itself becomes a case study, filled with material reflecting what a family or families left behind long after they passed on along with the house they occupied. my hope is to find another site on par with the completely intact john kent russell privy (1855), with artifacts pulled from surrounding ash pits stretching the time span into the early 20th century. it would be a giant boost to push forward with unwavering confidence and purpose in what i'm doing with this project.

additional finds recovered from the same dig site shortly after i created this blog post. this subtly mottled brown ceramic insulator with the original copper wire still attached was a great find. the wiring and insulator cleaned up nicely for photo-documentation in the studio.

the porcelain insulator company (1921-1987) fabricated this richly colored chocolate brown insulator in their factory located in lima, ny. artifacts or objects found near the insulator dated to the depression, which included a borden's milk bottle. the earliest artifact discovered thus far from this site is likely the "j. jerusalem" pottery bottle with tapered cobalt slip glaze applied lip, which was likely made during the 1880's (see images above).