Tangible things : making history through objects

Author:

Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher, 1938-

Format:

Book

Language:

English

Imprint:

New York : Oxford University Press, [2015]

Subject:

Material culture
Material culture - Philosophy
Civilization - History
Social evolution

Contributor:

Gaskell, Ivan, author
Schechner, Sara, author
Carter, Sarah Anne, author

ISBN:

9780199382279, 0199382271, 9780199382286, 019938228X, and 01993822810

Description:

xvii, 259 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 26 cm

Bibliographic Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Contents:

Introduction : Thinking with things -- Things in place -- Things unplaced -- Things out of place -- Things in stories, stories in things -- Appendix : Glossary of Harvard collections -- Photo essay : Unexpected discoveries : the joy of object photography

Summary:

"In a world obsessed with the virtual, tangible things are once again making history. Tangible Things invites readers to look closely at the things around them, ordinary things like the food on their plate and extraordinary things like the transit of planets across the sky. It argues that almost any material thing, when examined closely, can be a link between present and past. The authors of this book pulled an astonishing array of materials out of storage -- from a pencil manufactured by Henry David Thoreau to a bracelet made from iridescent beetles -- in a wide range of Harvard University collections to mount an innovative exhibition alongside a new general education course. The exhibition challenged the rigid distinctions between history, anthropology, science, and the arts. It showed that object-centered inquiry inevitably leads to a questioning of categories within and beyond history. Tangible Things is both an introduction to the range and scope of Harvard's remarkable collections and an invitation to reassess collections of all sorts, including those that reside in the bottom drawers or attics of people's houses. It interrogates the nineteenth-century categories that still divide art museums from science museums and historical collections from anthropological displays and that assume history is made only from written documents. Although it builds on a larger discussion among specialists, it makes its arguments through case studies, hoping to simultaneously entertain and inspire. The twenty case studies take us from the Galapagos Islands to India and from a third-century Egyptian papyrus fragment to a board game based on the twentieth-century comic strip "Dagwood and Blondie." A companion website catalogs the more than two hundred objects in the original exhibition and suggests ways in which the principles outlined in the book might change the way people understand the tangible things that surround them." - Publisher

Collection:

BGC Monograph Stacks

Call Number:

GN406 .U57 2015

Available

c.1