HIST051

Description

Topic for Fall 2018: This course will introduce you to the study of objects-material culture- as a way to understand the past. Historian Jules Prown defines material culture as "the study through artifacts of the beliefs - values, ideas, attitudes, and assumptions - of a particular community or society at a given time." Objects provide an invaluable primary source for understanding the past by making the past tangible and understandable in more complex ways. The artifacts of material culture are as varied as the human experience-photographs, toys, letters, clothing, recordings . . .name just about any object qualifies as material culture. In this course students will learn how to conduct research on objects as history: what questions to ask, how to answer them, and how to draw conclusions and make broader generalizations about the meaning and significance of an object. After several weeks of readings, discussions, a museum visit, and in-class workshops, each student will select an object represented in a historic photograph collection, research this item and write an essay about the meaning and significance of their item. Essays will be uploaded to the website, "Rediscovering a American Community of Color: The Photographs of William Bullard," sponsored by Clark University.