Technology in Process: From the History of American Material Culture Studies

研究ノー

National Endowment for the Humanities Selects Design Faculty Member for Summer Series

Furman was selected for the program along with approximately 20 other peers. American Material Culture: Nineteeth-Century New York will discuss the city\u27s role as a focus for consumer and fashion tastes

Dolphins at the British Museum: Zoomorphic Calusa Sinkers

The subject of everyday or “mundane” artistic expression in Native American material culture does not always take into account the idea that aesthetic design can have explicit practical as well as decorative function. This article explores this idea through objects from the Floridian archaeological collections at the British Museum

American Material Culture: Investigating a World War II Trash Dump

The Idaho National Laboratory: An Historical Trash Trove Historians and archaeologists love trash, the older the better. Sometimes these researchers find their passion in unexpected places. In this presentation, the treasures found in a large historic dump that lies relatively untouched in the middle of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) will be described. The U.S. military used the central portion of the INL as one of only six naval proving grounds during World War II. They dumped trash in dry irrigation canals during and after their wartime activities and shortly before the federal government designated this arid and desolate place as the nation’s nuclear reactor testing station in 1949. When read critically and combined with memories and photographs, the 60-year old trash provides a glimpse into 1940s’ culture and the everyday lives of ordinary people who lived and worked during this time on Idaho’s desert. Thanks to priceless stories, hours of research, and the ability to read the language of historic artifacts, the dump was turned from just another trash heap into a treasure trove of 1940s memorabilia. Such studies of American material culture serve to fire our imaginations, enrich our understanding of past practices, and humanize history. Historical archaeology provides opportunities to integrate inanimate objects with animated narrative and, the more recent the artifacts, the more human the stories they can tell

American Material Culture: Investigating a World War II Trash Dump

The Idaho National Laboratory: An Historical Trash Trove Historians and archaeologists love trash, the older the better. Sometimes these researchers find their passion in unexpected places. In this presentation, the treasures found in a large historic dump that lies relatively untouched in the middle of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) will be described. The U.S. military used the central portion of the INL as one of only six naval proving grounds during World War II. They dumped trash in dry irrigation canals during and after their wartime activities and shortly before the federal government designated this arid and desolate place as the nation’s nuclear reactor testing station in 1949. When read critically and combined with memories and photographs, the 60-year old trash provides a glimpse into 1940s’ culture and the everyday lives of ordinary people who lived and worked during this time on Idaho’s desert. Thanks to priceless stories, hours of research, and the ability to read the language of historic artifacts, the dump was turned from just another trash heap into a treasure trove of 1940s memorabilia. Such studies of American material culture serve to fire our imaginations, enrich our understanding of past practices, and humanize history. Historical archaeology provides opportunities to integrate inanimate objects with animated narrative and, the more recent the artifacts, the more human the stories they can tell

Clay Connections: A Thousand-Mile Journey from South Carolina to Texas

This publication is based on papers delivered at the inaugural David B. Warren Symposium, American Culture and the Texas Experience, presented by Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Feb. 9-10, 2007. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, established the biennial David B. Warren Symposium, American Material Culture and the Texas Experience, to honor Bayou Bend\u27s founding director emeritus. This volume presents five papers from the inaugural symposium, placing the pre-1900 material culture of Texas, the lower South, and the Southwest within a national and international context. Volume

Manufacturing the Freak: Animality and the Western Sideshow

Excerpt from paper: Come one, come all to the fascinating world of the carnival: a wonderland at first glance, something from a dream or a nightmare. Spirited jingles from a cheap speaker are playing overhead and everything is painted to look like a circus clown. Step right up! The carnival talker beckons you inside. “Freaks! Live! Dead! Other! SEE THEM NOW!” Little captured the spirit of this place better than the sideshow banner. For a long time, these painted tarps were valued only for their ability to lure in an audience; once obsolete, they were reused as scraps. Since then, they’ve been gradually recognized for their contribution to American material culture, migrating from the antique shop to the gallery. These paintings employed visual techniques like vivid colors, bold lettering, and evocative imagery to inflate the “freakishness” of the figures depicted..