Meredith A.B. Ellis in New York

Human skeletal remains were accidentally unearthed during a construction project in the winter of 2006. The remains were of an estimated 200 individuals buried between 1820 and 1850 in four underground vaults alongside the Spring Street Presbyterian Church. The church was a radical abolitionist church in what was then the 8th Ward of the newly urbanizing New York City.

After a three-month archaeological excavation, the remains were sent to Utica College and Syracuse University for skeletal analysis. Seven years of analysis followed. Of those 200 individuals, approximately 70 were the remains of subadults (children) under the age of 15, the focus of my research.

Resulting from this project has been a series of articles and one book. I have authored three articles, a book chapter, and a monograph on the subadults. The monograph is The Children of Spring Street: The Bioarchaeology of Childhood in a Nineteenth Century Abolitionist Congregation, Springer Press 2019

My project has been the exploration of childhood as seen in the remains of the children buried at the Spring Street Presbyterian Church in lower Manhattan between 1820 and 1850. By examining their skeletons and historical records, my work looks at what it was like to be a child in the early 19th century. The research focuses on health, diet, and social relationships.