Introduction to American Material Culture
Professor Miller
545-4256
mmiller@history.umass.edu
Fall 2010
Office hrs Monday 1-4
& by appt.
“A method based on the document is prejudiced; fated to neglect the majority of people, for they were nonliterate, and, within the bounds of literacy, to neglect the majority of people, for they did not write.
Henry Glassie
Folk Housing in Middle Virginia
Our Shared Purpose
Objects tell stories. Just as letters and diaries help us understand how people thought and lived in the past, so
too do the things that people made and used: the chairs they sat in, the clothes they wore, and the houses they
lived in. This course introduces students to the use of objects as sources of historical insight -- that is, the
study of material culture. You will read scholarship that harnesses artifacts as sources, and learn the basics of
artifact study so that you can consider using objects in your future research and writing. Classes will explore
subjects like the architectural history of New England, American decorative arts and household goods from the
1690s to the present, the material culture of childhood, and the study of African American history through the
artifactual record. NOTE: the course will rely on self-guided field trips, and will involve the completion of a
research project.
Objectives
By the end of the semester, I'd like you to have some content mastery. I hope you'll be able to look at a house
and be able to ballpark its date of construction, and to look at household goods and generally know the era
they document. I also want you to begin to see objects differently, to notice their materials, design and
construction methods and have some sense of what that information might tell you (with further research, of
course) about the periods in which they were made, acquired, used and discarded.
Assignments: Readings, Writings, Discussions
Paper #1: methodological essay on chosen artifact, 5 pages.
Paper #2: a historical essay on the invention/development of your object
Final Project: research paper (ca. 15 pages) tracking the biography of an object.
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Readings: You are responsible for completing readings prior
to class. We will discuss the readings together, and you will
be expected to integrate concepts and examples from the
readings into your final paper, so tackle the readings with
vigor, and bring texts and notes to class.
Available for Purchase at Food for Thought:
Clifford Clark, American Family Home
Richard Bushman, The Refinement of America: Persons,
Houses, Things
Regina Blaszczyk, American Consumer Society, 1865-2005:
From Heart the HDTV
Zinsser, On Writing Well
Evaluation: Your progress this semester will be evaluated
both in terms of your class participation, and your written
work. Class participation grades will be derived from both the quality and quality of your contributions to
seminar discussion, and also your performance on the short assignments that occur along the way: come to
class each week with at least one question you've framed as a result of the readings and 1-2 observations
you'd like to share about the assigned readings and you should be OK. Written work will be assessed for the
quality of analysis and the prose, the thoroughness of the research, and the relative amount of engagement
with the course materials it reflects.
Seventy-Five years of Band-Aid
http://www.savetz.com/bandaid/
Evaluation percentages
Class Participation: 30%
Short writings (ave): 20%
Short Paper #1:
10%
Short Paper #2:
10%
Final Paper:
30%
Grade Scale
A+ = 100 - 96
A = 95 - 93
A- = 92 - 90
B+ = 89 - 86
B = 85 - 83
B- = 82 – 80
C+ = 79-76
C= 75-73
(etc)
Below: This three-sided parade transparency
was originally illuminated from inside by a small
oil lamp and carried in campaign parades. (See
Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life,
National Museum of American History online
exhibit)
At six feet four inches tall, Lincoln towered over
most of his contemporaries. He chose to stand
out even more by wearing high top hats. He
acquired this hat from J. Y. Davis, a Washington
hat maker. Lincoln had the black silk mourning
band added in remembrance of his son Willie.
No one knows when he obtained the hat, or how
often he wore it. The last time he put it on was to
go to Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865.
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SCHEDULE OF READINGS:
Part I: Learning to Look
Tuesday, Sept 7: Introduction: what is material culture?
Tuesday Sept 14: Getting Started: How do we begin to understand objects as sources of
historical insight? Looking at three essays on architecture, we will contemplate
how people interact with material culture, using houses as our point of departure.
Consider the two books assigned for browsing cautionary tales: what lessons do
they hold for scholars who want to study artifacts to glean insight into the past?
Read:
Annmarie Adams, “The Eichler Home: Intention and Experience in Postwar
Suburbia,” in Cromley and Hudgins, ed., Gender, Class and Shelter (Knoxville:
U-Tennessee, 1995): 164-178. (J-Stor)
Marla Miller, "Labor and Liberty in the Age of Refinement: Gender, Class and the
Built Environment," in Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture X (2005), 15-31.
(J-stor)
Dell Upton, "Black and White Landscapes in Eighteenth-Century Virginia," in
Robert Blair St. George, Material Life in America, 357-384. [RESERVE]
Browse:
David MacCauley, Motel of the Mysteries (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979)
[RESERVE]
Glenn and Hayes, Taking Things Seriously: 75 Objects with Unexpected
Significance (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006) [RESERVE]
Write:
As you read these, your assignment is to draft a 500-word essay that will help
prepare you for class discussion. In it, weaving together insights from all five of
the assigned readings, note three specific things you learned about U.S. History
and three things you noticed about research method(s).
Tuesday, Sept 21: What's out there? Material culture cannot be properly studied in a
classroom. This week, we head into the field, to an antique store to take a look
at the objects that tell us about how people lived, and then to a museum to see
what sorts of objects have made their way to preservation in that collection.
IN ADVANCE OF CLASS THIS WEEK, take TWO SELF-GUIDED FIELD TRIPS:
Sometime before we meet on Tuesday, wander around a store that sells old
things – it might be an antiques store, but a thrift store is also a good bet. Also,
visit a local museum (the Amherst History Museum, the Springfield Museum and
Historic Deerfield are all good bets).
Read:
Steven Lubar and Peter Leibhold, “What do we keep?” in Invention and
Technology (Spring 1999), 28-38 (I will email pdf)
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Rachel P. Maines and James J. Glynn, “Numinous Objects,” in The Public
Historian Vol 15 No 1 (Winter 1993), 9-25 (J-stor)
Write:
In a 500-word essay, contemplate (the readings will help with this) how some
objects become part of museum collections, others “antiques” in people’s homes,
and still others just used household goods. What factors shape the life cycle of
an object? In your essay, refer specifically to artifacts you encountered this week.
NOTE: You should also keep your eyes open, in both the museum and the
store, for an object that will become the focus of your semester-long paper
contemplating the biography
Tuesday, Sept 28: Methods, Manifestoes This week we will focus on the many methods that
scholars have developed by which to study artifacts. In order to begin to see the
various approaches taken to object study and to get your own semester-long
project under way, your assignment will be to take an early stab at analyzing the
artifact you’re using the method proposed in one of the articles below. The
website listed below contains examples done by a class on another campus that
you should use as a model.
E. McClung Fleming "Artifact Study: A Proposed Model"(1974) ) (J-stor)
Jules David Prown "Style As Evidence" (Winterthur Portfolio, 1980) (J-stor)
Phil Zimmerman, "Workmanship as Evidence" (Winterthur Portfolio, 1981) (Jstor)
Visit Website: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/history/material_culture/analysis-03.html
Short Paper #1: Write: 5 pages analyzing an object from the p.o.v assigned.
Tuesday, Oct 5: : Dwellings Houses are great artifacts to study for insight into the past. They
are big, they (by and large) stay put, are visible to passersby, and have a lot to
tell us about family life, gender relations, social class, changes in technology, and
a wide range of questions about American history. This week we will use the
streets of Amherst as a lab to contemplate houses as artifacts of change over
time. Try to integrate Clark's narrative into the findings and approaches of
Adams, Upton and my own essay on houses that you read in week #1, and then
head out on your own to see what you can see.
Read:
Clark, American Family Home
Self-guided field trip: Go for a walk. Using Clark as well as Lanier and Herman, and the
McAlesters' Field Guide to American Houses [UMASS REFERENCE; For
another good overview of architectural styles in general, some of you may wish
to consult the chapter “Popular Architectural Styles.” Lanier and Herman,
Everyday Architecture of the Mid Atlantic, also on RESERVE] your assignment
is to write descriptions (1 paragraph of 6-5 sentences on each) of three houses
in Amherst, of your choosing. Bring photos if you can.
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Tuesday, Oct 12: NO CLASS: Monday class schedule
Tuesday, Oct 19: Travels in the Interior I: Material Culture of Domestic Life: Furniture
Browse:
Milo Naeve, Identifying American Furniture: A Pictorial Guide to Styles and
Terms Colonial to Contemporary (Revised and Expanded) [RESERVE]
Self-guided field trip: Historic Deerfield. In advance of today’s class, spend some
time at Deerfield, in the open storage at the Flynt Center, and the (self-guided)
Stebbins house. Pay attention to anything that helps you see how the style of
furniture changed over time.
BE READY: for today’s class I will expect you to be able to see a slide of a
chair and have a rough idea of the period from which it dates.
NOTE: we’ll also spend part of today’s class looking ahead toward your papers
on the invention of your object. Be ready to report on your progress, and/or to
ask your questions.
Part II: Learning to Use Objects as Sources
Tuesday, Oct 26: The Material Culture of
Childhood Everyone loves toys. But they
are not just playthings: they, too, are
avenues of scholarly insight. This week's
subject is purposefully chosen so that those
of you who spend time at home over Spring
Break can look at your own old toys and
consider how they might illustrate your own
place in the history of childhood. Feel free
to return from break with an artifact that you
think might help connect your own
childhood to broader themes in American
culture of the late twentieth century.
Read:
Karin Calvert, Children in the House: The Material Culture of Early Childhood,
1600-1900 [RESERVE] Don’t worry: this is a quick read; feel free to skim, and
linger on the sections that interest you most.
Karen J. Hall, "A Soldier's Body: GI Joe, Hasbro's Great American Hero, and the
Symptoms of Empire," Journal of Popular Culture 38(1):34-54 (I will email pdf)
Amy F. Ogata, "Creative Playthings: Educational Toys and Postwar American Culture"
Winterthur Portfolio. Volume 39, Issue 23, Page 129–156, Jun 2004 (J-stor)
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Tuesday, Nov 2: The Material Culture of Race Relations
Read:
Robert Weyenth, "The Architecture of Racial Segregation" Public Historian (Fall
2005), 11-44 (J-stor)
Paul R. Mullins, “Race and the Genteel Consumer: Class and African-American
Consumption, 1850-1930,” Historical Archaeology 1999 33(1): 22-38. (J-stor)
M.M. Manning, Slave in a Box The Strange Career of Aunt Jemima, chapter 5
[RESERVE]
Review:
Dell Upton article from week 1
Browse:
Kim Rice, Before Freedom Came: African American Life in the Antebellum
South [RESERVE]
Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/
Tuesday, Nov 9: Research check-in:
Short Writing #2: 5 pages: a historical essay on the invention/development of your object
Tuesday Nov 16: Putting it all together
Read:
Richard Bushman, The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Things
OR
Regina Blaszczyk, American Consumer Society, 1865-2005: From Heart the HDTV
Write:
Three pages on how your chosen artifact fits into the “big picture” as described by ONE of
the authors above. BE READY to present to the class.
Tuesday Nov 23: DRAFTS DUE FOR PEER REVIEW.
Read:
William Zinsser, On Writing Well (by this date you should have read all of Parts I and II, as
well as part IV)
Peter Elbow, Writing With Power, Ch. V, “Feedback” [RESERVE]
Part of class today will involve teaming up with your writing partner in preparation for
exchanging work. Because you’ll be swapping work with a classmate, YOU MUST HAVE
DRAFT PAGES READY BY THIS DATE. NO EXTENSIONS. BE READY.
Tuesday, Nov 30: Peer Review drafts returned.
At the top of this class period you will again meet with your writing partner, this time to go
over your comments and suggestions.
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And after we’ve completed that, just for fun, we’ll talk about
Tuesday, Dec 7: LAST CLASS. FINAL PAPERS DUE.
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