Life in a 'Cathedral of Consumption': Corporate and Personal Material Culture Recovered from a Cellar at the Robert Sayle Department Store in Cambridge, England, ca. 1913-21.

An early twentieth-century assemblage dating to ca. 1913-21 associated with staff that worked for and lived in the associated hostel of the Robert Sayle department store in Cambridge, England, contained a mixture of material that was supplied by the business for communal activities and personal items. The contrast between these two types of material allows the relationship between the business and its staff to be explored. The assemblage is also considered in terms of the class, gender and age composition of the hostel population and the concept of resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]