Syllabus

2013 CHAViC Summer Seminar

Domestic Impressions: the Visual and Material Culture of the American Family Home, 1750-1890

July 7-12, 2013
 

Sunday, July 7

4:00-6:00Welcome and Introductions, Antiquarian Hall, 185 Salisbury Street (AH)
6:00Dinner at the Goddard Daniels House, 190 Salisbury Street (GDH)

 

Monday, July 8

9:00-10:30

Orienting the Week—The Home in Cultural Context (GDH)
Katherine C. Grier (Professor of History, Director of Museum Studies at the University of Delaware, and CHAViC seminar leader)
-Readings-
Both Beecher and Child are available as free pdf downloads from Google Books. These are the editions from which the reading assignment comes.

  • Beecher, Catherine and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, The American Woman’s Home
    Read the following: Introduction; I. The Christian Family; II. A Christian House; IV. Interior Decoration; XIII. Good Cooking; XV. Domestic Manners; XVI. Good Temper in the Housekeeper; XVII. Habits of System and Order; XXX. The Care of Rooms. Also, be attentive to the frontispiece and illustrations.
  • Child, Lydia Maria, The Frugal Housewife 27th ed. New York: Samuel and William Wood, 1841. “Enlarged and Corrected by the Author.”
    Read the following: Introductory Chapter pp 3-11; Odd Scraps for the Economical pp. 8-22; Hints to Persons of Moderate Means pp. 89-113.

In-class exercise: PROBATE INVENTORIES AS MYSTERIES (GDH)

10:30-10:50Coffee/Tea Break
10:50-12:15Continue in-class exercise
12:15-1:15Lunch (GDH)
1:30-3:00Ephemera and the Home: Examples from the Collection (AH)
Lauren Hewes (Curator of Graphic Arts) and Nan Wolverton (Director, CHAViC)
3:00-3:15Break
3:15-3:45Introduction to AAS Online Resources and the Reading Room; Meet the Curators
Thomas Knoles, Vincent Golden, Lauren Hewes, Elizabeth Pope, and Laura Wasowicz (Orientation Room, AH)
3:45-5:00Research in the Library

 

Tuesday, July 9

Field trip to Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, MA

9:00-9:15Group photo (GDH)
9:15-10:15

Doors onto Childhood (GDH)
Karen Sanchez-Eppler, Professor of American Studies and English at Amherst College
-Reading-

  • Sanchez-Eppler, Karen, “In the Archives of Childhood” in The Children's Family: Childhood Studies and the New Humanities, edited by Anne Mae Duane, University of Georgia Press, May 2013.
10:15-10:30Coffee/Tea Break
10:30-11:30Children’s Literature and Images of Domestic Life (AH)
Laura Wasowicz (Curator of Children’s Literature)
11:30Lunch (GDH)
12:30Vehicles depart for field trip to Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, MA
1:15Arrive OSV
1:30-3:30

Tours of Small House, Bixby House, and Towne House
-Readings-

  • Bushman, Richard, “The Comforts of Home” in The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities. New York: Knopf, 1992.
  • Stachiw, Myron, “The Color of Change: A Nineteenth –Century Massachusetts House” in Paint in America. Washington, D.C.: The Preservation Press, 1994.
3:30-7:00Hands-on 19th-century dinner at Old Sturbridge Village

 

Wednesday, July 10

9:00-10:30

Social Looking: Parlor Culture and Prints (AH)
Katherine C. Grier
-Reading-

  • Grier, Katherine, “The Comfortable Theater: Parlor Making in the Middle-Class Victorian Household” in Culture & Comfort: People, Parlors, and Upholstery. Rochester: The Strong Museum, 1988.
10:30-10:45Coffee/Tea Break
10:45-12:45

Photography and the American Home—Technology and Processes (AH)
Lauren Hewes
-Reading-

  • Carter, Sarah Anne, “Picturing Rooms: Interior Photography 1870-1900”
12:45-1:45Lunch
2:00-3:00Introduction to Ward Family Papers (AH)
Tom Knoles and Holly Izard
3:00-8:00Research in Library

 

Thursday, July 11

Field trip to General Aretmas Ward House, Shrewsbury, MA

9:00Vehicles depart for Ward House
9:30-10:30Tour of house and barn
Paula Lupton, Curator
10:30-10:45Coffee/Tea Break
10:45-12:15

Narrative and Display at the Aretmas Ward House
Sarah Anne Carter (Curator, Chipstone Foundation and Lecturer in Art History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison)
-Readings-

  • Carter, Sarah Anne, “Reinstalling Mrs. Ward’s Corner Cupboard: Narrative and Display in a Colonial Revival House Museum”
  • www.wardhouse.harvard.edu. Spend some time exploring this website before we visit the Ward House.
12:15-1:15Lunch
1:15-2:45

The Native Americans Presence at the Artemas Ward House
Judy Kertesz (Assistant Professor of History at North Carolina State University)
-Reading-

  • Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. “'An Indian Basket” in The Age of Homespun. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001
  • Wolverton, Nan. “'A Precarious Living': Basket Making and Related Crafts Among New England Indians”
     

-Optional Supplemental Reading-

  • Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. Excerpt from “A Bed Rug and a Silk Embroidery'” in The Age of Homespun. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001
     
2:45-3:30

Historic House Museums as Resources for Teaching and Scholarship
Katherine C. Grier, Sarah Anne Carter, Judy Kertesz
-Reading-

Schlereth, Thomas J., “Historic Houses as Teaching Laboratories: Seven Teaching Strategies”

3:30Vehicles depart for return to AAS
4:00-5:00Research in Library
5:30Cookout on the Goddard-Daniels patio

 

Friday, July 12

9:00-10:15

At Home with Animals: Pets in Print and Material Culture (GDH)
Katherine C. Grier
-Reading-

  • Katherine C. Grier, Pets in America: A History. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Chapter 1, A Natural History of Pets and Chapter 2: At Home with Animals.
10:15-10:30Coffee/Tea Break
10:30-11:45Chromolithographs and other prints as teaching resources (AH)
12:00-1:00Lunch (GDH)
1:00-2:00Using Visual and Material Culture for Scholarship and Teaching: Discussion and Concluding Comments (GDH)
Katherine C. Grier and Nan Wolverton
2:00-5:00Departure or Research in Library