HIST346 - Early American Material Culture: Art, Buildings, and Things in a Colonial Place

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Academic Year 2002/2003

Early American Material Culture: Art, Buildings, and Things in a Colonial Place
HIST 346 SP

Crosslistings:
AMST 208

This upper-level seminar offers an introduction to material culture theory and methodology, as well as deep immersion early American architectural history and the history of early American objects: ceramics, furniture, metals, paintings, and works-on-paper. Readings will include prominent works of historical and theoretical scholarship, together with a small handful of recent exhibition catalogues. Foremost among our concerns in this seminar will be to study, at close range, the uses to which early American history has been put by those who sell objects that routinely bring tens of millions of dollars at auction. Students will not only become acquainted with the agendas at work in the acquisition and display of early American things, but also with the imaginative ways in which scholars use those things to elucidate the texture of everyday life in early America.

MAJOR READINGS

Tentative List of Major Readings

David L. Barquist et al., MYER MYERS: JEWISH SILVERSMITH IN COLONIAL NEW YORK (2002).
John Berger, WAYS OF SEEING (1972).
Richard L. Bushman, THE REFINEMENT OF AMERICA: PERSONS, CITIES, HOUSES (1992)
James Deetz, IN SMALL THINGS FORGOTTEN: AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF EARLY AMERICAN LIFE (1977)
Jonathan L. Fairbanks and Robert F. Trent, eds., NEW ENGLAND BEGINS: THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, 2 vols (1982)
Robin Jaffee Frank, LOVE AND LOSS: AMERICAN PO RTRAIT AND MOURNING MINIATURES (2000)
Thomas Hariot, A BRIEF AND TRUE REPORT OF THE NEW FOUND LAND OF VIRGINIA (ORIG. PUBL 1590)
Graham Hood, THE GOVERNOR'S PALACE IN WILLIAMSBURG: A CULTURAL STUDY (1992)
Allan I. Ludwig, GRAVEN IMAGES: NEW ENGLA ND STONECARVING AND ITS SYMBOLS (1966)
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, THE AGE OF HOMESPUN: OBJECTS AND STORIES IN THE CREATION OF AN AMERICAN MYTH (2001)
Dell Upton, HOLY THINGS AND PROFANE: ANGLICAN PARISH CHURCHES IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA (1986)
Bryan Jay Wolf, VERMEER AND THE INVENTION SEEING (2001)

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Weekly readings responses; one five- to six-page paper using early Middletown probate records; a second using Middletown gravestones; and a final, fifteen- to twenty-page research paper on a topicľthat is, object, image, or buildingľof the student's choice.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

There will be a day-long field trip to Manhattan, where seminar members will tour the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with senior staff; get a behind-the-scenes-tour of the American departments at Sotheby's; and meet with the President of Leigh Keno Antiques, one of the country's foremost dealers in high-style early American furniture.

This seminar counts as a Junior Colloquium in American Studies.

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS HIST Grading Mode: Graded

Prerequisites: NONE

SECTION 01

Instructor(s): Swinehart,Kirk Davis

Times: ...W... 01:10PM-04:00PM; Location: CAMS 2

Reserved Seats: (Total Limit: 15)

SR. major: 4 Jr. major: 8

SR. non-major: 2 Jr. non-major: 1 SO: FR:

Special Attributes:

Curricular Renewal: Speaking, Writing

Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-18-2003