Window Glass Fragments (Archaeological Find)
Title:
Window Glass Fragments
Subject:
Because it was found in the same stratigraphic layer as what we believe is the Old College’s foundation trench, this array of broken glass likely dates to the seventeenth century Old College building. The characteristics of the glass are difficult to discern due to the small pieces of the fragments; however, given that windows during the time of the Old College were usually diamond-shaped, its likely that the window’s original form was a diamond (Hume 1970, 233; Stubbs 1992, 436). These seventeenth century diamond-paned windows discovered in eastern Massachusetts provide insight into how the glass fragments may have looked in their diamond-pane frame (Law et al 2008, 59). Additionally, this conjectural map of Harvard Yard provides insight into how the diamond pane windows may have appeared within the larger Old College building (Shurtleff 1935).
These glass fragments shed light on student rule-breaking during early Harvard. Steeped in the Puritan belief that humans were naturally depraved sinners and that the devil was constantly at work, Harvard’s administration sought to forbade disorderly conduct by students, banning “drunkenness, fighteing, sweareing, curseing, filthy, speakeing profanes, reveling, playing at cards and dice, or such like” in the Harvard College Laws of 1655 (Mather 1639, 1-18; Godbeer 1989, 50-95; Chauncey et al. 1655, 12). Yet, students would often break the windows of tutors to signal their displeasure with college rules; during the seventeenth century there were six different “student riots and window breaking sprees” (Stubbs 1992, 96). An account of a later window breaking incident from 1768 can provide insight into the reasons that students broke tutor’s windows. Angry at a new recitation rule imposed by tutors, one student, William Tudor, is listed in Harvard’s disciplinary files as making “a long speech putting forth the unreasonableness of the regulation.” (Wright 2017, 1-1ii; Harvard University-a 1768, 1). Tudor escalated his actions against a tutor to window breaking; a separate Harvard disciplinary files reads that after his speech he proceeded in the “breaking of W Willards windows” (Harvard University-b 1768, 1). Perhaps these glass fragments come from a similar incident!
Source:
Cotton Mather and Salem Witchcraft ... Reprinted from the North American Review, Etc. 1869.
Godbeer, Richard. 1989. “The Devil’s Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England.” Ph.D., United States -- Massachusetts: Brandeis University. http://search.proquest.com/docview/303735908/abstract/7FAC6283DD6C46A1PQ/1.
Harvard University. 1768a. “Records of the Faculty Relating to Disorders, 1768-ca. 1880s. Evidences against Tudor.” http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH:11189986?n=1.
———. 1768b. “Records of the Faculty Relating to Disorders, 1768-ca. 1880s. Evidences vs Tudor.” http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH:11189983?n=1.
Harvard University. Corporation. 1655. “Laws and Statutes of Harvard, 1655-1890.” https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:50738105$21i.
Law, Heather, Guido Pezzarossi, Stephen Mrozowski, and David Landon. 2008. “ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTENSIVE EXCAVATION Hassanamesit Woods Property The Sarah Boston Farmstead, Grafton, Massachusetts The Hassanamesit Woods Management Committee Submitted to: The Town of Grafton, MA The Nipmuc Nation.” Boston Cultural Resource Management Study No. 26. The Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. https://www.grafton-ma.gov/sites/graftonma/files/pages/2008_fiske_hassanamesit_woods_report14_1.pdf.
Mather, Cotton. 1991. “A Discourse on the Power and Malice of the Devils.” In Cotton Mather: Historical Writings. Library of American Puritan Writings ; v. 23. New York, N.Y.: AMS Press.
Noël Hume, Ivor. 1970. A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America. Knopf,.
Peabody, Stephen. 2017. Pedagogues and Protesters:The Harvard College Student Diary of Stephen Peabody, 1767-1768. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press in association with Massachusetts Historical Society.
Shurtleff, Harold Robert. 1668. Collegium Harvardianum Cantabrigiae in Nova Anglia, A.D. MDCLXVIII [Map, 1935].
Stubbs, John Delano. 1992. “Underground Harvard: The Archaeology of College Life.” 1992.
Object Name:
Window Glass Fragments
Inventory Description:
Window Glass Fragments
Peabody Number:
2018.24.283
Intrasite:
H964 Level 1
Depth:
47-58cm
Class 1:
Glass
Class 2:
Flat glass
Class 3:
Window glass
Quantity:
58
Height (cm):
4
Width (cm):
2.3
Depth/Thickness (cm):
0.15