Small Brick, Stamped At One End
date: label: Accession Date
content: 5 Sep 1914
name: label: Donor Name
content: Frank H. Hall
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Found in an Indian shell mound. Transferred to Div. of Engineering, July 20, 1935." As of 2012, object was in the collections of the National Museum of American History. It was transferred back to the Department of Anthropology, 2014.
label: Notes
content: Excerpt from a letter in the accession file from donor Frank H. Hall, dated August 9, 1914, from Sausalito, CA: "... a brick which was found in the Indian shell mound in this town, a few of which were gathered some years back, the marking on the end not always being the same." Excerpt from a letter in the accession file from Frank H. Hall, dated September 26, 1914: "The mound was back from the water of Richardson Bay about 200 feet and was made from the clam shells and refuse of the camps, in it they also buried their dead." Excerpt from a letter in the accession file from Frank H. Hall, dated September 27, 1914: "Today I received information in regard to the brick which I think is the truth of its use and of the way it arrived here. When this section of the country was in the hands of the Mexicans a man named [William A.] Richardson, English, married to a Mexican [Californio] woman got a land grant from that government extending from Point Bonitas north to Mount Tamalpais and from the ocean to the bay. ... He built his home on the Indian mound and used bricks that came to this port in a Spanish ship as ballast. Where the ship got her ballast can only be told by gentlemen like Mr. Holmes. The house lasted for years and was replaced by one built of wood and the brick have with few exceptions passed away. The mound has been cut down and most of the earth used to help the gardens about town and most of the land is built over."
label: Notes
content: Per p. 189 of Hoover, Mildred Brooke, and Douglas E. Kyle. 2002. Historic spots in California. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, and p. 162-163 of Goerke, Betty. 2007. Chief Marin: leader, rebel, and legend. Berkeley, Calif: Heyday Books, William A. Richardson had an adobe house built in Sausalito, CA, circa 1841 on what became Pine Street, between Bonita and Caledonia, near a large Indian mound. Richardson employed Mexicans/Spanish Californians/Californios and American Indians on his "Rancho Saucelito." [It is also an interesting footnote that John Reed (1805-1843), owner (from 1834) of the neighboring Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio, had some form of brickyard as part of his businesses - see http://www.marinlibrary.org/sites/all/themes/libraryWebConnect/pdfs/CortedeMaderadelPresidio.pdf.]
label: Record Last Modified
content: 9 May 2024
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Sausalito, Marin County, California, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Archaeology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 057357
label: USNM Number
content: A284961-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Brick
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 16.5 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 8 cm
label: Height - Object
content: 3.8 cm
label: Length - Object
content: 16.3 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 7.7 cm
label: Height - Object
content: 3.5 cm