Miss Lyon's Choice: Gender and Ceramic Material Culture

The Mary Lyon site is located on the Mount Holyoke College campus, formerly known as the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which was founded in 1837 by Mary Lyon. The original seminary building burned to the ground in 1896. This site is unique in that approximately 5,000 women, primarily young, predominantly single, called the seminary home over the course of the 19th century. The seminary building, which grew from a single structure to a large rectangular edifice enclosing a courtyard, modeled its curriculum after men's colleges, but set itself apart spatially and socially in that the students lived, studied, worked, worshipped, ate, and slept in the large, extended household. Excavations revealed a kitchen midden that contained numerous ceramic assemblages as well as other artifacts of material culture. Research findings indicate that ceramic choice at the seminary was made in accordance not only with market availability and economic resources, but also in relation to dynamic social values regarding gender and domesticity.