German Tobacco Pipe- New Orleans, LA
Institution: Louisiana Office of Cultural Development
State: Louisiana
Object: Smoking Pipe
Era: 19th Century
Archaeologists identified this object as the remnant of a tobacco pipe. The fragment was discovered near a residence formerly occupied by German immigrants. During the mid 19th century, Germans had settled throughout the New Orleans area, particularly in the Lower Garment District along Tchoupitoulas Street.
German immigration peaked in the 1800s because of the uprisings in 1817, the student protests in 1830, and the German revolution of 1848. Thousands of labors, craftsmen and merchants settled New York, but a few hundred Germans relocated to southern cities in Louisiana, Texas and Missouri. By mid century, Germans made up 28% percent of the foreign population in the south.
It is mostly like that this pipe is related to the 1848 wave based on the date of the privy (1852 to 1860) and census records identifying one of the residents as a local cigar seller. The witch portrayed on the pipe may also be a nod to Allhallowtide, the German version of Halloween or the country’s history of witch hunting between 1590-1631.
