History H546: Special Topics in Public History–Material History
Spring, 2002 Prof. E.B. Monroe
Classroom: Education Division Conference Room, Indiana Historical Society Office: CA 529
Office Hours: by appointment Email: emonroe@iupui.edu
Telephone: office: 278-2255; home: 873-3084
Material History
GOALS: This course will acquaint students with the development of material history studies and will explore the issues and concepts of these studies in the United States. Students will gain a substantive understanding of how artifacts and their makers and users have contributed to our understanding of American history. They will also be introduced to different methodologies of inquiry, such as art and architectural history, cultural and historical geography, history of technology, and historical archaeology. Guest speakers will provide additional insights to various techniques of the historian’s approach to artifacts. In order to better understand the relationship of methodology to research results, each student will prepare an annotated bibliography and research design on a material history topic chosen in consultation with the instructor. Assignments related to researching material history will be an integral part of weekly activities. The class will also visit area institutions where historians curate and interpret material culture for the public. Tentative sites and guest speakers are listed below. The products of the course itemized below at evaluation identify about 35-40 pages of written assignments to be completed by each student.
METHOD: Discussion and intellectual exchange are important components of this course. Stress will be placed on thoroughly understanding weekly reading. Each week students will be expected to be familiar with assigned texts and four of the selected articles. Most of the class periods will be devoted to discussion, and on three occasions teams of students will lead the discussion. Those dates are January 23, February 6 and February 20. In addition, three students will serve as leaders of the room schedule exercise on January 30. We will also have presentations by our hosts at area institutions. All students are expected to engage in class discussions and dialogues with guest speakers. By that I mean in addition to discussion of each week’s readings, students will indicate their interests in the presentations of guests and other students by asking well-phrased questions that will enhance everyone’s understanding of the topic discussed.
ASSIGNMENTS: Each student will prepare a source summary, a contextual report on a chosen artifact, a room schedule, an annotated bibliography, a draft and final research design, a comment on a classmate’s draft research design, and a contextual report on a 1904 kitchen. Further, each student will give an oral presentation of his/her source report, Antiques Roadshow Report, research design, and introduce her/himself to all guest speakers and hosts. Each written assignment will be discussed in class in advance of the due date and all projects are described below.
IN CASE OF BAD WEATHER: If class is cancelled by the university or the instructor or you have an acceptable excuse for absence, written assignments are due to the History Department Office on the day the university reopens or within two days of your absence.
EVALUATION: Students are expected to participate in every class and complete written assignments. Although class participation receives no set value for the course, I will use my assessment of it to raise or lower the final average by as much as one-half grade (from B to B+ or if need be from B to B-). There will be no tests.
DUE DATE ASSIGNMENT APPROX. LENGTH VALUE
Jan. 16 Source Report* 1 page 5%
23 Antiques Roadshow* 3-5 10
Feb. 6 Room Schedule 3-5 10
20 Annotated Bibliography 10 20
Mar. 6 Draft Research Design** & Oral Presentation (3/20) 5 10
18 Comments on colleague’s paper*** 1-2 5
27 Final Research Design 12-15 30
Apr. 17 1904 Context* 5 10
* Be sure to make enough copies for all class members and the instructor
** Be sure to make copies for your commenter and the instructor
***Be sure to make copies for your colleague and the instructor
Grade Scale: A=90-100; B=80-89; grades below 80 are considered failing in a graduate course.
POLICIES:
All students are expected to attend and participate in every class. Absence without the advance consent of the instructor (barring unforeseen disasters) will result in the loss of two (2) points on the final course grade.
All projects are due on the date assigned. Failure to turn in a project on the date due will result in the loss of two (2) points on the final course grade for each day the assignment is late.
A grade of zero (0) will be assigned to any work which has been produced by cheating or plagiarism. The definitions (from the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts Bulletin) are:
Cheating: Cheating is dishonesty of any kind with respect to examinations, course assignments, alteration of records, or illegal possession of examinations. It is the responsibility of the student not only to abstain from cheating, but, in addition, to avoid the appearance of cheating and to guard against making it possible for others to cheat. Any student who helps another student to cheat is as guilty of cheating as the student assisted. The student should also do everything possible to induce respect for the examining process and for honesty in the performance of assigned tasks in or out of class.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the offering of the work of someone else as one’s own. Honesty requires that any ideas or materials taken from another source for either written or oral use must be fully acknowledged. The language or ideas taken from another may range from isolated formulas, sentences, or paragraphs to entire articles copied from books, periodicals, speeches, or the writings of other students. The offering of materials assembled or collected by others in the form of projects or collections without acknowledgment is also considered plagiarism. Any student who fails to give credit for ideas or materials taken from another source is guilty of plagiarism.
A grade of “incomplete” will not be assigned except in the event of a catastrophe such as serious personal illness or death of a family member. All incompletes must be arranged in advance of the final day of class. Arrangement for an incomplete will require the instructor’s approval of a signed statement from the student about the reason for requesting the incomplete and a date when all remaining work will be submitted.
REQUIRED READINGS:
Books
James Deetz. In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life. (New York: Anchor, expanded and revised, 1996).
Thatcher Freund. Objects of Desire: The Lives of Antiques and Those Who Pursue Them. (New York: Penguin, 1993).
Miles Harvey. The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime. (New York: Broadway Books, 2000).
Warren Leon and Roy Rosenzweig, eds. History Museums in the United States: A Critical Assessment. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989).
Jane S. Long and Richard W. Long. Caring for Your Family Treasures: Heritage Preservation. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2000).
Articles and Essays
Theory Group I:
Cary Carson, “Doing History with Material Culture,” in Material Culture and the Study of American Life, ed. Ian M.G. Quimby (New York: Norton, 1978) 41-64.
E. McClung Fleming, “Artifact Study: A Proposed Model,” in Material Culture Studies in America, ed. Thomas J. Schlereth (Nashville: AASLH, 1982) 162-173.
Rachel P. Maines and James J. Glynn. “Numinous Objects,” The Public Historian 15 (Winter, 1993) 9-24.
Karen I. Meadows, “Much Ado about Nothing: The Social Context of Eating and Drinking in Early Roman Britain,” in Not So Much a Pot, More a Way of Life, eds. C. G. Cumberpatch and P.W. Blinkhorn (Oxbow Monograph 83, 1997) 21-35.
Daniel Miller (ed). Material Cultures: Why Some Things Matter (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998) 3-21.
Theory Group II
T.H. Breen, “Narrative of Commercial Life: Consumption, Ideology, and Community on the Eve of the American Revolution,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser. 50 (1993) 471-501.
Elizabeth S. Chilton, “Material Meanings and Meaningful Materials, An Interpretation,” in Material Meanings: Critical Approaches to the Interpretation of Material Culture, ed. Elizabeth S. Chilton (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1999) 1-6.
Marcia Anne Dobres, “Of Paradigms and Ways of Seeing: Artifact Variability as if People Mattered” in Chilton, Material Meanings, 7-23.
William R. Leach, “Transformations in a Culture of Consumption: Women and Department Stores, 1890-1925.” Journal of American History 71 (1984) 319-342.
Elizabeth A, Perkins, “The Consumer Frontier: Household Consumption in Early Kentucky,” JAH 78 (1991) 486-510.
Jules David Prown, “Mind in Matter: An Introduction to material Culture Theory and Method,” Winterthur Portfolio 17 (1982) 1-19.
Case Study Group I
Kenneth L. Ames. “Meaning in Artifacts: Hall Furnishings in Victorian America, “ Journal of Interdisciplinary History 9 (summer 1978) 19-46.
Mary W. Blanchard. “Boundaries and the Victorian Body: Aesthetic Fashion in Gilded Age America.” American Historical Review 100 (1995) 21-50.
Sam B. Hilliard, “Hog Meat and Cornpone: Foodways in the Antebellum South,” in Material Life in America, 1600-1860, ed. Robert Blair St. George (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1988) 311-332.
Rachel N. Klein. “Art and Authority in Antebellum New York City: The Rise and Fall of the American Art-Union.” JAH 81 (1995) 1534-1561.
Rodris Roth, “Tea-Drinking in Eighteenth-Century America: Its Etiquette and Equipage,” in Material Life in America. 439-462.
Case Study Group II
Michael Gannon. “The New Alliance of History and Archaeology in the Eastern Spanish Borderlands,” W&MQ 3rd ser. 49 (1992) 321-334.
Ronald Jager. “Tool and Symbol: The Success of the Double-bitted Axe in North America,” Technology and Culture 40 (1999) 833-860.
Neil Jarman. “Material of Culture, Fabric of Identity,” in Material Cultures: Why Some Things Matter, ed. Daniel Miller. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998) 121-145.
Daniel Miller. “Coca-Cola: a Black Sweet Drink from Trinidad,” in Material Cultures, ed. Miller, 169-187.
Carolyn Steedman. “What a Rag Rug Means,” Journal of Material Culture 3 (1998) 259-281.
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. “Of Pens and Needles: Sources in Early American Women’s History” JAH 77 (1990) 200-207.
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS:
General Format: All assignments for this course must be typewritten, one-inch margins, double-spaced (usually, exceptions will be noted) and composed in excellent grammar and style with no spelling errors. All projects should be proofed. Asking someone to proof your papers does not constitute cheating. Significant numbers of errors that should have been caught in proofing will cause a paper to be returned, ungraded, so that proofing can be conducted, and a professional paper submitted. Your name should be typed in the upper right corner of the first page (no need for a title page) and may also be shown on subsequent pages. All pages should be numbered. Projects should be stapled together (no folders, binders or dogears). Always be sure to keep a copy of your papers!
Source Report: (due January 16). This report should be contained on one page, but you may single space this assignment and use both sides of the page if necessary. Each student will choose a primary source type used frequently in material history. Each student will define his/her source, state what information a source may (or may not) provide, show examples of sources, and identify where additional information may be obtained. Each student will bring to class enough copies for all members of the class and the instructor. Each student will orally present the results of their research. Sources include: trade catalogues, trade journals, business/craftsmen’s papers, U.S. Census of Manufactures, consumer catalogues, exhibit catalogues, probate records, mechanics/craftsmen’s organization records, newspaper advertisements, visual sources (photos, paintings), guidebooks (cabinetmaker’s guide, painter’s guide, etc.), contemporary craftsmen, collectors’ books/price lists, general magazines, study collections of objects.
Antiques Roadshow: (due January 23). Each student will select an object from a group presented on the first night of class and analyze it. While this project does not focus on the estimated value of the object, be sure to research and discuss: provenance, materials and processes, craftsmanship, age, condition, use, and market. The assignment is two-fold. Part one is to prepare a 3-5 page paper that includes the research and discussion points above (documented). The second part of the project will be a presentation in class on the night the project is due. Presentations will be limited to 3-5 minutes and the presenter will entertain questions.
Room Schedule: (due February 6). Each student will create an accurate schedule of finishes, fixtures, and furnishings for one room of the Indiana Medical History Museum. A schedule is a complete list of a room’s physical description and objects. Each finish, fixture, and object must be described as thoroughly as possible to prevent confusion and to provide notes for further research. Copies of the best schedules will be provide to the Museum.
Annotated Bibliography: (due February 20). An annotated bibliography is a list of accurately cited sources each of which is followed by a brief analysis of its usefulness to your research. Each student will submit an annotated bibliography of about 20 items (roughly 15 secondary sources and 5 primary ones) about his/her topic. Citations should be single-spaced, conform to standard bibliographic style (see Chicago Manual of Style or the shorter “Turabian” version), and should be grouped–all secondary books, all secondary articles, all primary documents–and within groups listed in alphabetical order.
Each citation should be followed by at least a paragraph (double-spaced) about the item and its relevance to your topic. Of course this means you must have read or at least skimmed each item. The annotation should be in complete sentences. Your primary references could include items such as: Letters and papers of craftsmen, government documents, wills, business papers and ledgers, etc. In other words the papers of Duncan Phyfe is one entry as would be the manufacturing census of 1840, even if you were referring to all of Phyfe’s papers and the whole census.
Draft Research Design: (due March 6). Don’t let the name fool you. I expect this design to conform in style and presentation to other formal assignments. I merely call it “draft” to distinguish it from the revised and final version of the design. In one extended essay describe your topic, the historical problems it addresses, how it fits in the historical literature, how you plan to answer questions related to your topic, what sources you will use, what difficulties you anticipate, how you will circumvent them, what results you foresee and what criticisms you will encounter.
Topics for research designs will be chosen in consultation with the instructor during the first three weeks of class. Acceptable topics might include: chairmaking, sawmilling, industrial brewing or distilling, goldsmiths, the transmission of skills like potting and tanning, etc. When studying a craftsman, papers should discuss the artistic, craft tradition and social aspects of the career. When the topic relates to the craft or skill, training, materials, technological processes and machines, and business aspects of the craft should be addressed. When the research design relates to a material, changes in use and value of the material over time become important. When considering consumption, the social aspects of how the product reached and was used by consumers must be included. Be sure to provide copies of your draft to both your commenter and the instructor.
Comments on Classmate’s Paper (due MONDAY, March 18). In a short memo-format paper, comment on the draft research design of your classmate. Address the definition of the research problem, the assessment of the historical literature, the proposed design to accomplish the research, the proposed sources (whether they are too broad, too narrow, or won’t produce the expected results), and what the anticipated contribution to knowledge will be. Be sure to provide copies of the comments to both your classmate and the instructor and couch your comments politely–there should be no blood spilled.
Oral Presentation (due on March 20). Oral presentations will take about 8-10 minutes each, with 5 minutes for questions from other students. As part of each student’s oral presentation grade they will be expected to participate in question/answer dialogue with other students on their topics. Oral presentations should follow the general format of the draft.
Final Research Design: (due on March 27). Your final design should reflect further investigation of your topic, your classmates’ and my comments, and questions raised at your presentation.
Contextual Report on 1904 Kitchen: (Due on April 17). We have been asked by the owner of the Connecticut Pavilion at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition to help him document the type of kitchen and equipment that might have been installed in the pavilion in 1905 when it was relocated in Lafayette, Indiana and turned into a home. We will visit the house after spring break and divide our research project into components for each student. I anticipate topics will include: hygiene and 1905 kitchens, food preparation and 1905 kitchens, refrigeration and 1905 kitchens, servants and 1905 kitchens, laundry and 1905 kitchens, children and 1905 kitchens, labor-saving devices and 1905 kitchens, etc. Papers are due April 17, will be returned later that week for correction, and the final version will be due at the picnic on May 1 or before. Class grades will be based on the April 17 submission, but all students must participate in the revision process so that we can send the owner clean, corrected final versions of the papers.
Site Visits: Some classes will be held at historical institutions in the Indianapolis area. Maps and other pertinent information will be announced ahead of our visits. Tentative sites with hosts and dates are:
Jan 30 Indiana Medical History Museum host: Virginia L. Terpening, Director
Feb 13 Indiana Historical Society, Smith Library host: Leigh Darbee, Head of Printed Collections
Mar 6 Children’s Museum of Indianapolis host: Sheila Riley, Director of Collections
Apr 17 Conner Prairie host: Gary Quigg, Assoc. Director, Historical Resources
May 1 Morris-Butler House Museum host: Brady Kress, Director
CLASS ASSIGNMENTS:
Jan 9 History Museums in the United States, Intro. and pp. 1-180.
16 History Museums 183-320 SOURCE REPORT DUE
23 Theory Group I ANTIQUES ROADSHOW DUE
Student leaders:_____________________________________________________
30 CLASS MEETS AT INDIANA MEDICAL HISTORY MUSEUM
Student leaders:_____________________________________________________
Feb 6 Theory Group II ROOM SCHEDULE DUE
Students leaders:____________________________________________________
13 Island of the Lost Maps CLASS MEETS IHS LIBRARY
20 Case Study Group I ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE
Student leaders:_____________________________________________________
27 Objects of Desire GUEST: Jeff Tenuth
Mar 6 CLASS MEETS AT CHILDREN’S MUSEUM
In Small Things Forgotten DRAFT RESEARCH DESIGN DUE
13 SPRING BREAK
18 NOTE–THIS DATE IS A MONDAY COMMENTS DUE
20 CLASS MEETS AT 555 W. Poplar, Zionsville ORAL PRESENTATIONS
27 NO CLASS . . . but RESEARCH DESIGN DUE
Between 3/20 and 3/30 we will visit Lafayette, Indiana
Apr 3 Case Study Group II
10 NO CLASS
17 CLASS MEETS AT CONNER PRAIRIE 1904 KITCHEN PROJECT DUE
24 NO CLASS
May 1 CLASS MEETS AT MORRIS-BUTLER HOUSE FOR PICNIC