Still Life: A Bioarchaeological Portrait of Perinatal Remains Buried at the Spring Street Presbyterian Church

Abstract

This article examines the perinatal remains from the Spring Street Presbyterian Church burial vaults of New York City. This early 19th-century collection contains the commingled remains of at least 13 perinates, and burial records indicate that 37 stillborn individuals, or individuals dying just after birth, were interred in the vaults between 1820 and 1850. By integrating historical records and the findings from the church, this article argues that the biological and social identities of perinates were made in relationship to their mothers, fathers, and the church institution itself. Such making draws on Ingold and Hallam’s (2016:5) metaphor that bodies are not just grown, but literally created, that the physical growth of an individual provides the material for the embodiment of personhood through socialization. This article explores how these biological and social identities were constructed for the perinates buried at the Spring Street Presbyterian Church.