CHANGE OF PLANS: A STUDY OF THE CHANGES IN THE BARBOUR BOAT WORKS’ RECREATIONAL WATERCRAFT BUILDING PROGRAMS, 1950-1961

Abstract

This thesis studies the last twelve years in which the Barbour Boat Works Company (once located in New Bern, North Carolina) built recreational watercraft to determine the primary factors involved in the company’s decision to stop producing pleasure craft in 1962. Due to the lack of previous research on the company’s recreational watercraft, this research is primarily implemented with a material culture study through the company’s advertisements. By using a behavioral archaeological approach coupled with perspectives on consumer culture borrowed from historical and archaeological scholarship, this thesis will seek to understand how and why the recreational boat-building program of the company changed through the years 1950-1961 in order to reach a better understanding of the reasons behind the company’s decisions.