Red Clay Brick with Handprint (Archaeological Find)

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Seventeenth-century red clay brick that was likely used in the original construction of the chimneys or cellar floor of the Old College (begun 1638, completed 1643).
This 1933 conjectural drawing by Samuel Morison of the exterior of the Old College shows the building sided with wood and hypothesizes locations for several possible brick chimneys.
Morison’s drawing of the first floor of the Old College. Possible chimney flues are outlined, and the cellar would have been located under the west bay of the building.
Map of Cambridge brickyards active in the 19th-century, demonstrating how large an industry brickmaking grew to become in Cambridge 200 years after the first bricks were made on Colonial soil.
This is Massachusetts Hall today. Still used as a dormitory, the building is the second-oldest academic building still in use in America, its bricks having withstood 300 years of wear.

Title:

Red Clay Brick with Handprint

Subject:

Though the Harvard of today is recognized the world over for its iconic red brick architecture, the first purpose-built structure, the Old College, was undoubtedly constructed of wood, with 4,000 boards purchased in 1642 to side the building as it neared completion (Davis 1890). This means that the bricks uncovered in our excavation served very specific purposes, likely either as part of a chimney or the cellar, which excavations in the mid-1980s discovered had a brick floor (Stubbs 1992). The decision to construct such a monumental building from wood was likely influenced by Massachusetts’ prolific timber trade, since bricks at this time were still largely imported from England as ballast in the bottom of ships (Long 1971). However, early Harvard College records include a £2.15 charge for brickmakers, suggesting the bricks used in the construction of the Old College were some of the first made in what was quickly becoming a major new industry (Stubs 1992). In fact, the first house in Massachusetts made entirely of brick was erected in Boston in 1638, two years after the first land grant for brickmaking was issued (Reis, Leighton 1909). The premature deterioration of the Old College, which by 1679 is only referred to in the past tense, coupled with rapidly expanding local brick production, surely played a deciding role in the choice to construct the neighboring Indian College (1655) and still-standing Massachusetts Hall (1720) with brick, cementing (literally and figuratively) the association of Harvard to red clay bricks just like this one (Davis 1890; Reis, Leighton 1909).

Source:

Davis, Andrew McFarland. “The early college buildings at Cambridge. From Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 30, 1890." Worcester, MA: C. Hamilton, 1890.

Harvard University. Harvard College Records. Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1925.

Leighton, Henry and Heinrich Ries. History of the Clay-Working Industry in the United States. New York: J. Wiley & Sons, 1909.

Long, Burton G. "The Romance of Brick. Read at a meeting of the Cambridge Historical Society, March 28, 1971." Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Historical Society, 1978.

Stubbs, John Delano Jr., Ph.D. “Underground Harvard: The archaeology of college life.” PhD diss., Harvard University, 1992.

Object Name:

Red Clay Brick with Handprint

Peabody Number:

2016.29.332

Culture/Period:

17th century

Intrasite:

H942, Level 5

Depth:

80-90cm

Class 1:

Architectural

Class 2:

Ceramic

Class 3:

Brick

Quantity:

1

Height (cm):

11.0cm

Width (cm):

22.5cm

Depth/Thickness (cm):

6.0cm

Collection:

2017 Assignment 2

Tags:

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