Sitting Down to the Table: Visualizing the Daily Meal in a Pennsylvania Coal Town

Karen Metheny, Gastronomy lecturer and Archaeology research fellow, will explore ways that material culture can be combined with oral and historical sources to interpret the content, context, and significance of the daily meal. Using archaeological evidence of food consumption from her nineteenth-century coal town study, Dr. Metheny will discuss the significance of food sharing and commensality in the context of household stability and community formation.