Books at Madson Area Technical College Libraries
Examples of titles that have information or examples of material culture in United States history.
The age of homespun : objects and stories in the creation of an American myth by
Using objects that Americans have saved through the centuries and stories they have passed along, as well as histories teased from documents, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich chronicles the production of cloth--and of history--in early America. Under the singular and brilliant lens that Ulrich brings to this study, ordinary household goods--Indian baskets, spinning wheels, a chimneypiece, a cupboard, a niddy-noddy, bed coverings, silk embroidery, a pocketbook, a linen tablecloth, a coverlet and a rose blanket, and an unfinished stocking--provide the key to a transformed understanding of cultural encounter, frontier war, Revolutionary politics, international commerce, and early industrialization in America. We discover how ideas about cloth and clothing affected relations between English settlers and their Algonkian neighbors. We see how an English production system based on a clear division of labor—men doing the weaving and women the spinning--broke down in the colonial setting, becoming first marginalized, then feminized, then politicized, and how the new system both prepared the way for and was sustained by machine-powered spinning. Pulling these divergent threads together into a rich and revealing tapestry of --the age of homespun,--Ulrich demonstrates how ordinary objects reveal larger economic and social structures, and, in particular, how early Americans and their descendants made, used, sold, and saved textiles in order to assert identities, shape relationships, and create history.
ISBN: 0679445943
American Artifacts by
When defining culture, one must indeed take into account even the minutest of details. What of a lighter, for example, or a telephone? The essays in this new collection examine just that. The contributors pose not only a historical, pragmatic use for the items, but also delve into more imaginative aspects of what defines us as Americans. Both the lighter and the telephone are investigated, as well as how the lava lamp represents sixties counterculture and containment. The late nineteenth-century corset is discussed as an embodiment of womanhood, and an Amish quilt is used as an illustration of cultural continuity. These are just a few of the artifacts discussed. Scholars will be intrigued by the historical interpretations that contributors proposed concerning a teapot, card table, and locket; students will not only find merit in the expositions, but also by learning from the models how such interpretation can be carried out. This collection helps us understand that very thing that makes us who we are. Viewing these objects from both our past and our present, we can begin to define what it is to be American.
ISBN: 0870135244Publication Date: 2000-10-31
Architecture in Colonial America by
A comprehensive introduction to early colonial architecture, from Columbus to the American Revolution. Donnelly covers everything from the first European settlers and early housing designs to Swedish and Dutch influences on public buildings and the rise of American Georgian architecture.
ISBN: 0871143046
As various as their land : the everyday lives of eighteenth-century Americans by
In 1700, ten sparsely settled colonies clung precariously to the Atlantic coast of the vast American continent, each far more firmly attached to the Old World by ties of politics, economy, and culture than they were to each other. By 1800, sixteen states, united by a common government, were poised exploit the seemingly endless resources of a new and independent nation. Throughout this century of enormous changes and challenges, one factor had remained constant: no single description captured the majority of the new country's inhabitants; no one lifestyle was embraced by a "typical American." Rich or poor, urban or rural, male or female, young or old, native-born or immigrant, northerner or southerner, slave or free, white or of color--the mixture of these characteristics and a host of others within each individual determined the shape and opportunities of everyday life. Americans of the eighteenth century were in the end, as they had been in the beginning, as "various as their land."
ISBN: 1557285993
Legacies : collecting America's history at the Smithsonian by
The Smithsonian Institution has been America's museum since 1846. What do its vast collections -- from the ruby slippers to a piece of Plymouth Rock, first ladies' gowns to patchwork quilts, a Model T Ford to a customized Ford LTD low rider -- tell Americans about themselves? In this lavishly illustrated guide to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Steven Lubar and Kathleen M. Kendrick tell the stories behind more than 250 of the museum's treasures, many of them never before photographed for publication. These stories not only reveal what America as a nation has decided to save and why but also speak to changing visions of national identity. As the authors demonstrate, views of history change over time, methods of historical investigation evolve and improve, and America's understanding of the past matures. Shifts in focus and attitude lie at the hearth of Legacies, which is organized around four concepts of what a national museum of history can be: a treasure house, a shrine to the famous, a palace of progress, and a mirror of the nation. Thus, the museum collects cherished or precious objects, houses celebrity memorabilia, documents technological advances, and reflects visitors' own lives. Taking examples from science and technology, politics, decorative arts, military history, ethnic heritage, popular culture and everyday life, the authors provide historical context for the work of the Smithsonian and shed new light on what is important, and who is included, in American history. Throughout its history, Lubar and Kendrick conclude, the museum has played a vital role in both shaping and reflecting America's sense of itself as a nation.
ISBN: 156098886XPublication Date: 2001-09-17
History and Material Culture by Call Number: 930.1072 H673 (Truax)ISBN: 9780415468497Publication Date: 2009-04-23
Survey of Early American Design
Artstor
ArtStor is a digital image collections database that Madison College Libraries subscribes to. It includes not only images of art, but also objects and artifacts. They are high quality images that you can manipulate onscreen, for example, zoom in to see details.
Try an advanced search, set limiters for geography = United States, choose Decorative Arts, Utilitarian Objects, and Interior Design, Set date limits, and add a search term if you want.
Or try browse by geography = United States, choose Decorative Arts, Utilitarian Objects, and Interior Design, and sort by date.
US History Research Guide Navigation
Digital Collections
Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture digitized primary materials significant to the decorative arts and material culture of early America including electronic texts and facsimiles, image databases, and web resources. University of Wisconsin.
American Memory, Library of Congress National Digital Library, is a gateway to primary source materials. Includes many decorative arts images.
The Archive of Early American Images from the holdings of the John Carter Brown Library
Natural Museum of American History The Museum has more than 3 million artifacts in its collection. Information and photos of selected objects are available in the online collections database.
Flowerdew Hundred includes a searchable database of artifacts from one of the earliest original land grants in Virginia.
ImageBase from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, includes 82,000 images of objects from the deYoung Museum and its holdings of American decorative arts. Try an advanced search, limit to period and try keywords like america or united states. The country limiter doesn't seem to work as well.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a number of digital collections. Including a number of Colonial American Art online exhibits, including this Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate in Early Colonial America exhibit
New York Public Library Digital Gallery images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library,
Wisconsin Decorative Arts database "online resource for the study of craft traditions, manufacturing, state and local history, and material culture. This searchable archive brings together examples of furniture, ceramics, textiles, and other 19th and early 20th century material culture artifacts from the collections of museums and historic sites across Wisconsin."