Pipe is artifact from 19th Century Five Points

In the past year, Martin Scorsese's film Gangs of New York has drawn an abundance of attention and tourists to the infamous Five Points district.  But apart from reading history books, researching 19^th-century archives and taking walking tours, there's another way to experience the legendary rough-and-tumble neighborhood.

At New York Unearthed (17 State Street), a branch of the South Street Seaport Museum, history buffs, film fans and inquisitive visitors alike can glimpse 18 artifacts from the real-life Five Points.  The collection, comprised of dishes, pipe pieces, marbles, and bottles, are the only pieces remaining of the 850,000 Five Points artifacts that were destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Exterior of New York Unearthed

The Milner team cleaned, labeled, catalogued, photographed, and analyzed the artifacts, producing volumes of interpretive reports about the collection.  The hundreds of thousands of artifacts filled 1,200 boxes and were stored in a sub-basement of 6 World Trade Center.  They were destroyed entirely by the collapse of the north tower.

However, earlier in 2001, the 18 artifacts comprised a group of select items sent to the Archdiocese of the City of New York for an exhibit about the Five Points Irish community.  In May 2001, they traveled to New York Unearthed, which had been designated as the future home of the entire collection (paperwork delayed moving the collection sooner)--thereby saving them from ruin.

The Dirt on the Artifacts

Many of the artifacts in the collection

Examining the seven marbles and single, tiny doll's teacup in the collection, she notes, "These items show that no matter how destitute, people set aside enough money to buy toys for their children.  And you can imagine a little girl using the doll's teacup to imitate the good manners her parents probably taught her."

About the glass perfume bottle, Dallal points out: "It must have been hell trying to keep clean in that place--and yet they cared enough about hygiene to have things like hair products and perfume."

Tea cup artifact from Five Points

Among the collection's five ceramic dishes is perhaps one of the most remarkable and revealing artifacts: a commemorative Staffordshire teacup featuring Father Mathew, a leader of the temperance and abstinence movements.  The cup is finely decorated with images of the Irish priest speaking to parishioners, and a busy beehive with the captions, "Temperance and Industry" and "Industry Pays Debts."

"The cup is exciting because it's the only teacup with Father Mathew on it--but also because of its implications," notes Rebecca Yamin, Ph.D., principal archeologist with Milner Associates and director of the original collection's analysis team.  "It shows that residents of Five Points were worried about temperance.  Not everyone in the neighborhood was a down-and-out criminal."

As New York's only museum dedicated to urban archeology, New York Unearthed has approximately 2,000,000 artifacts from New York City and surrounding areas.  The collection includes such unique artifacts as Native American spearheads, tools and pottery from as long ago as 5,500 years, a Dutch cannon from 1789, false teeth from the late 19^th century, and virtually every item from 18^th-century silversmith Daniel Van Voorhis's workshop.

New York Unearthed offers specialized programs on archeology and its extensive collection of artifacts for groups, students and children.  Call (212) 748-8628 for more information.