ASH3002y Reading Assignment
February 17, 1999

Colonial Arts and Material Culture

Required reading:

• Look over Thomas J. Schlereth, "Material Culture Studies in America, 1876-1976," in Material Culture Studies in America, ed. Thomas J. Schlereth (Nashville:  American Association for State and Local History Press, 1982.   Pay particular attention to the charts showing different approaches to material culture studies.  Which of these approaches seems most like something that you might imagine doing?
• John A. Kouwenhoven, "American Culture: Words or Things?" in Schlereth, 79-92.
• Henry Glassie, "Folk Art," in Schlereth 124-140.
• James Deetz and Edwins S. Dethlefsen, "Death's Head, Cherub, Urn, Willow" in Schlereth 195-205.  This is a particularly interesting article.  Can you think about other kind of objects and artifacts that would be similarly interesting or useful to study?

Object identification: 

• Click here to see a photograph of a mystery object.   Use the form on the page to guess what the object is, and explain your guess.  

Websites to consider:

• APVA Jamestown Recovery Project :
• what's been found:
• Colonial Williamsburg
• Laura Arnold's Museum of Material Culture
• Randy Bass's Material Culture in Colonial America
  • Thomas Kendel stone, Wakefield, MA, 1678
  • John Foster stone, Northern Burial Ground, Dorchester, MA, 1681
  • Lt. William Hescy stone, 1689
  • Thaddeus Maccarty stone, Boston, 1705
  • Buckley stone, Copp's Hill, Boston, 1716
  • Cpt. Nathanial Waldron stone, Newport, RI, 1769
  • Small Child Gravestone, Rhode Island, 1771
  • In memory of Caesar, 1780
  • Mary and John Pember stone, Franklin, CT, 1783
  • Mary Hinckely stone, Brookfield, MA, 1798
• Seventeenth-century American Architecture
• Emily Hawkins's project on American Gravestones of the Late Eighteenth Century
• Tithing-stick
• Find-a-grave
  • John Winthrop's grave
  • Trinity Church cemetery, New York, NY
    • Alexander Hamilton's grave

Pay particular attention to the early gravestones listed above.  To what extent do you see Deetz and Dethlefsen's ideas reflected in these gravestones?

In addition, if you come across websites with interesting objects to consider, post the URLs to the bulletin board and/or bring them to class.