Clearing out at Clare College, Cambridge, England: a late nineteenth-century material culture

Abstract

An assemblage deposited at Clare College, Cambridge, England, in 1879–1885 represents the largest archaeologically recovered assemblage from a nineteenth-century Cambridge college. It contains a wide range of material deriving from the corporate collegiate household, including ceramics, glassware, clay tobacco pipes and other materials. This material comprises a mixture of corporate and individual material, which can be interpreted in light of the predominantly young adult male college population, while also shedding light on marginalized groups, particularly women and servants. It also indicates distinctions between collegiate and domestic material culture in Cambridge.