Object identification, research, and stories

1. Object identification, research, and stories 13 September 2012

2. What is an object biography? • Each object has a story to tell, a story shaped by human use. • All objects in the museum have a life (or series of different lives). Creation, use and collection. • How do we write the narrative? And why? • Informs meanings and understandings of things in museums.

3. Steps • What is it? • Where is it now and how did it get there? • What is its date? • What was its function? • Who made, owned, or used the object? • Who collected it? Is it part of a larger collection? • What then can we learn of context and social life? • From World History Sources, Guide to Analyzing Objects • http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/unpacking/objectsguide.pdf

4. What is it? • begin by recording basic facts • All analysis begins with basic description. • Observe the object carefully, paying close attention to detail. • Take notes on material, size, shape, and distinguishing characteristics. • Note what the descriptive label (from a book, website, or museum) tells you, but do not let that description limit your questions.

5. Where is it now and how did it get there? • includes information on owners of the object over an extended period of time and may reveal how the object was used or perceived in different settings, perhaps in ways unintended by its creator. • Most objects have passed through several historical stages and the location of their collection is rarely the site of production. How did the object reach the location of collection? • What does the context tell us about the object's environment and associations? Does the context provide information about date? • Start by gathering as much information as possible. Are there identifying marks on the object--a date, a location, the creator's name, inscribed words? If there are such marks, can you tell what language they are written in? If all you have to work with is a picture, when was that picture created and by whom?

6. What is its date? • When was it made? • Then situate your object within a society at a particular moment and to use it, along with other objects from that society, as a way of understanding change and development over time. • Start by looking at available records and try to map out various owners in different times, thinking of the possible significance for each owner.

7. What was its function? • Objects may have multiple functions—some more obvious than others. The primary function of an object is that for which it was originally made and used. Additional uses, however, may have been invented. • Close observation of an object and its context can help establish function. • Observing the context in which the object is found is also important. • looking for multiple examples of the same object can help determine normal use.

8. Who made, owned, or used the object? • begin to answer questions about who made or used an object with the information provided by scholars or curators. • Remember, though, that they may have asked different questions and your questions can elicit new insights.

9. Microhistory • Intensive historical investigation of a smaller unit of research – e.g., a thing • More than just a case study • “ask large questions in small places” • Provides a close reading of object as one would conduct a close reading of a book or document • Details, context

10. Age of Homespun • Chronicles the production of homemade in the colonial period • Starts with myth of the colonial period forwarded in the 19th century by Horace Bushnell • Romanticized and sanitized history of the colonial period --more authentic, happier time • Victorian memory and gloss • Ulrich looks for the “dark underbelly; the story not told about women, Native Americans, the pooe • Virtual exhibition – each chapter consists of an object in the exhibition

11. Providence, Rhode Island, 1676 • Starts with physical description • Label and the questions that arise • Native American weaver • Dinah Fenner • Milk, blanket, and basket in the narrative

12. Threads • Primary and secondary sources • Investigates Algonquian basketry and textile traditions • Archaeological examples • Some of which made by men and women • Discusses the question of economy – Native American and European • Beaver, broadcloth, duffel • King Philip’s War, clothing, nakedness

13. Dinah Fenner’s family – Quakers • Relationships with Wampanoag and Narragansett during and after KPW • Dating the basket to the KPW perpetuates notion that no NA in New England after 1676

14. Red wool sash, attributed to "King Philip” (the Wampanoag sachem Metacom).

15. Bag belonging to Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, Aquinnah Wampanoag, Harvard's first Native American graduate, Class of 1665. PM 90-17-50/49302.

16. Serrell • Topic (incomplete thoughts) versus the big idea (theme or story that sets the tone and limits the content) • Different stories • Positivist, curator-driven story • Multiple meanings • To get at the “big story” consider meaningfulness of object for your audience • Different types of labels: interpretive, non-interpretive, categories of labels