This enamelware pitcher was recovered during the 2007 Kansas Archeology Training Program field school at the Thomas Johnson/ Henry Williams Dugout site. The pitcher is decorated with marbled cobalt blue and white enamelware, a process first invented in Germany in the 1760s as a way to coat iron so as to prevent rust and a metallic taste in food and drink. In America enamelware production began in the 1870s and continued until the 1930s. For this piece, after its life as a pitcher had passed, it served as a target, being hit at least seven times. The Thomas Johnson/ Henry Williams Dugout site was a domestic site related to the settlement of Nicodemus, an all black community in western Kansas.
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
Enamelware Pitcher from the Thomas Johnson/Henry Williams Dugout Site, 14GH102 - 6