Fragments of a Teacup

This decorative teacup fragment was manufactured in Germany. We do not know when it ended up at the site or when it was made, and this presents us with a tantalizing mystery. On the one hand, it is perfectly possible that this teacup, although manufactured in Germany, was imported to the US, and sold to a member of Du Bois’s family. On the other hand, it is also possible that Du Bois himself bought the teacup in Germany itself while studying there in the 1890s, and that it made its way back across the Atlantic with him. We know that Du Bois liked to visit the homesite for walks and picnics. This cup could have been broken in the course of one of these picnics and left at the site, becoming part of the story of the House of the Black Burghardts, fifty years or more after Du Bois himself lived there.