After decades of research, a new project with Jamestown Rediscovery is highlighting a little-known aspect of 17th century life. Cathrine Davis, a PhD student in anthropology at William & Mary and extern at Historic Jamestown, has undertaken a project to organize and classify hundreds of lead seals that have been found on the site.
The seals have been discovered on the site since Jamestown Rediscovery started in 1994, said Leah Stricker, associate curator at Historic Jamestown. They help understand and identify the shipping and creation of textiles in Jamestown.
“Lead seals are like clothing tags,” Davis said. “They’re attached to goods and give
information about their origins, merchants that sold them and dyers. They track the
movement of textiles throughout the production system.”
Stricker said each lead seal is different and unique, providing a look into different stamps from various locations and most times even having imprints of the material on them. Davis said there aren’t that many scholars researching the topic, making her one of the only specialists of lead seals in North America. She said she first became interested in lead seals as a student in Michigan where she was learning how goods were packaged in the fur trade. A professor told her about lead seals and she realized that no one was researching the topic. “It’s a very small world, so there’s little known about them,” she said. “That’s what makes them so rewarding, I’m doing all my own original research for the most part andit’s like a giant jigsaw puzzle. It’s a whole different world.” At Historic Jamestown, Davis started a project this semester to identify, organize and catalog the more than 300 lead seals in the collection.
Stricker said the project is important to the organization’s research because it makes it
easier for local and surrounding archaeologists to better access the information. Once
Davis is done, a researcher can come to Historic Jamestown and find, identify and match new lead seals with ones already in the collection. She said the goal is to have the collection accessible to researchers online as well. But more importantly, organizing and understanding the lead seals gives historians a greater insight to life in the Jamestown Colony.

“These help us look at bigger questions, like international trade and what was going on in the world,” Stricker said. “It seems like now our world is more globalized than ever, but even in 1607 there was a huge movement of trade.” Davis said it helps the interpreters at Historic Jamestown to better understand their clothing, which is an aspect of historical research that is missed because textiles don’t preserve well over time. “We know a lot about how people were living but not a lot about what they were
wearing,” she said. Davis expects to have the project completed by May, at which point archaeologists from all over can utilize her work. But until then, she is content to continue putting together the pieces of this historical puzzle.
https://wydaily.com/local-news/2019/12/26/a-new-kind-of-research-is-blossoming-at-
historic-jamestown/