Sneaking a Snack

Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, Australia (left), and excavation, Hyde Park Barracks (right)

Hyde Park Barracks was home to two nineteenth-century institutions for women: the Female Immigration Depot, which housed newly arrived immigrants who stayed for a short time before joining their families or other households as domestic workers, and the Asylum for Infirm and Destitute Women, which housed women unable to support themselves. The official diet served in these institutions was bread, meat, and