'The Greatest Ordeal': Dinner with the late Victorians.

Paper given at TAG 2007, University of York,
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Abstract:
Within the historical period it is not uncommon to be able to attach names, occupations and family details to artefacts, and thus contextualise data to a very detailed degree. However, while biographical detail has been used in academic texts as part of opening vignettes, it has not yet been integrated into archaeological interpretive methodologies and can be seen as distracting. This paper seeks not only to explore the way in which an individual ‘voice’ can be used to elucidate human relationships with material culture, but also to demonstrate the potential of a people-focussed approach to data for interpretation of archaeological heritage in a wider context.

Drawing on data from Norwich Castle Museum, York Museums Trust and Harewood House, Yorkshire, as well as contextualising etiquette and cookbooks, this paper will interpret the material culture of dining through the eyes of an upper middle class mistress. The tensions between sociability and social control are visible through the decisions made by mistresses planning dinner. The material culture of the dining table both facilitates and constrains what is possible, and through interacting with it, affects each diner according to his or her experiences and values. The approach taken here will demonstrate how this can be rendered accessible and comprehensible at a deeply personal level, and in the process elucidate the means by which Victorian class structures were maintained through the medium of the dining table.