Approaches to American Material Culture

How shall we approach the vast collection of artifacts left by Americans in the eighteenth through twentieth centuries?  What can silver tea services, Amish quilts, rubber telephone receivers or ebony Art Deco coffee tables tell us about the people who designed, produced and used them?  How can we understand the sourcing and transformation of raw materials as culturally embedded practices that reinforce, contest or evolve power dynamics between members of different human communities? What role have everyday objects played in mediating Americans’ relationships to the natural world?  How can the study of material culture deepen our understanding of U.S. entanglements with global history?

In this graduate seminar we will explore the methods used by art historians and others to explore the meanings of material culture.  The class will involve several visits to local collections and each student is expected to produce an 18-20 page research paper on a single object or class of objects.