Beyond beef: dietary variability and foodways in the late 19th-century mining town of Hammondville, New York, USA

This study employs a combination of historical documents and faunal remains to examine food procurement strategies, purchasing patterns and foodways among the residents of Hammondville, a late 19th-century, multi-ethnic, company-owned mining town located in the Adirondack region of eastern upstate New York (USA). The Crown Point Iron Company (C.P.I.Co.), which operated the only store in the village, controlled both peoples’ incomes and the types of food available for purchase. Despite this, analysis of company store records and zooarchaeological data suggest that individuals and families from different backgrounds worked within the structures of company control to construct diets that met their subsistence needs and expressed their cultural identities. They accomplished this by selectively utilising the store inventory and by supplementing store-bought foods through fishing, hunting and raising small numbers of domesticated animals.