Scope and Contents

This collection consists of the research notes of Nancy S. Dickinson, a research fellow at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. From 1986-1987, Dickinson was part of a research team that also included Ann Smart Martin and George L. Miller. Their project was entitled "English Ceramics in America 1760-1860: Marketing, Prices, and Availability," and was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Dickinson was tasked with covering the ceramics trade in New York, and she focused much of her research on the Rhinelander papers that are part of manuscript collection at the New-York Historical Society. She also consulted the collections of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, the New York Public Library, and the Winterthur Museum and Library.

The collection contains correspondence and documentation related to the National Endowment of the Humanities grant and report; handwritten notes on writing pads and index cards; and handwritten data sheets which were used for computer generated analysis of the research. A copy of Dickinson's 1988 final report for the grant, "'Of Other Sorts of Ware, Too Tedious to Particularize': The Rhinelanders as Ceramics Merchants in Eighteenth Century New York City," is included.

One of the important papers resulting from this research project was "Changing Consumption Patterns, English Ceramics and the American Market from 1770 to 1840" by George L. Miller, Ann Smart Martin and Nancy S. Dickinson. It was published in the book Everyday Life in the Early Republic, edited by Catherine E. Hutchins for Winterthur Museum.