Industrializing Shell-Bead Production in Northern New Jersey: Reuniting Collections from Stoltz Farm (1770–1830) and the Campbell Wampum Factory (1850–1900)

By at least 1770, settlers of northern New Jersey appropriated the production of Indigenous shell beads, including iconic styles of wampum and hair pipes. At that time, American officials and fur-trade merchants exchanged Jersey-made beads primarily with Native Americans across the Midwest and Great Plains. Bead making was a regional household cottage industry before 1850, after which the Campbell Wampum Factory monopolized production through water-powered grinding wheels, drilling machines, and the waged labor of individuals who are labeled “black” and “mulatto” in census records. Two sites—Stoltz Farm and the Campbell Factory—were excavated in the early 20th century, but have not been previously analyzed. Reunited museum collections from each site reveal continuities and changes in bead manufacture. Data are examined relative to production variables (including raw materials, technologies, and styles produced) and Indigenous consumption in the context of colonialism. In evaluating oral-historical claims about industrialization, ratios of wasters to debitage suggest larger quantities of broken beads at the Campbell Factory than expected. Data also point to the increased risks of silicosis for wampum-factory workers due to concentrated calcium carbonate inhalation from intensive bead grinding.