For Jade Luiz , a graduate student in archaeology at Boston University, historical archaeology is all about detective work. Louisa Cowen, for example, who in took over as the madam of 27—29 Endicott Street—the brothel behind which stood the privy—typically presented herself as a respectable widow, according to historical mentions of the brothel and census records.
Given her status, she likely wore black clothing and adorned herself in somber black jewelry. Her tombstone names her as the wife of Henry Cowen, a Boston house painter who predeceased her. Whether or not the two had been officially married remains unknown. What Luiz does know is that Louisa Cowen became very successful. The artifacts from the Endicott Street privy are remarkably complete, and the collection is large.
An embossed glass bottle with that date found at the top of the privy heap makes this timeline likely. Despite the fact that these goods were discarded as trash, they now offer clues to the personal etiquette, household ambience, and daily lives of the working women of Endicott Street. The brothels along Endicott Street were more respectable establishments than those along the harbor a few blocks away that catered to a rougher crowd. Some of the clientele of 27—29 Endicott Street were probably middle-class businessmen who arrived from the nearby rail depot.
For the women of Endicott Street, presenting themselves as clean, fresh smelling, and disease-free was of utmost importance. When I ask Luiz which of the pieces in the collection are her favorites, she fondly describes two small glass seed cups. The cups would have been kept in bird cages that may have hung in the parlor of the Endicott Street house—or the birds may have been companions to some of the women and kept in their rooms.
The small seed cups hint at what the rooms of the Endicott Street house might have been like, with songbirds chirping in the low-lit, perfumed interior. Luiz sometimes holds onto tiny bits of information for years, she says, gradually bringing together the fragments to re-create life stories. These stories offer a counterpoint to the perception of sex work in history. The story of Cowen, Luiz continues, is a perfect example of a woman who made an economic decision to enter a profession in which she could thrive.
