Course Description
American material culture from 1650 to 1950. Explores manmade objects and their relationship to United States history. Topics include architecture, gardens, decorative arts, textiles, metalwork, cemeteries, jewelry, painting, sculpture, photographs, and prints.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will be expected to attend all undergraduate
class sessions, pursue further in-depth readings and research
appropriate to the graduate curriculum, and meet regularly with
the instructor to discuss their research. In addition to
preparing a more extensive research paper than the
undergraduates, graduate students will draft weekly critical
assessments of the readings. Graduate students will also be
expected to lead discussions and to formally present their
research to the class.
Athena Title
AMER MAT CULT URE
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course examines American material culture from 1650-1950. Material culture (the study of things) includes not only elite cultural artifacts but common everyday items, too. Material culture encompasses anything crafted by humans: architecture, cemeteries, parks, gardens, clothing, fine art, furniture, coins, metalwork, jewelry, glass, photographs, public monuments, broadsides, trade cards, sheet music, panoramas, etc. Since both the range of materials and time span covered by this course are broad it is not possible to be comprehensive. The class is intended as an introduction to a material culture approach to history. 1. Students will learn techniques of visual analysis to better understand an object and its meaning. 2. Students will learn how to research an object using primary and secondary resources. 3. Students will engage in verbal and written analysis and interpretation of objects using critical thinking skills.
Topical Outline
Introduction to material culture Material culture of colonial America Decorative arts in the 17th and 18th centuries Vessels and buildings in the 17th and 18th centuries 18th-century portraiture and African American material culture Material culture in the early republic Cemeteries and public parks in the 19th century Material culture of the 19th century Women as consumers in the 19th century Prints and ephemera in the 19th century Photographs and quilts Decorative arts and painting in the gilded age Household technology in the 20th century 20th-century material culture and the great depression Post-war material culture