A Rose Blanket: Response to Readings

There are so many things in the world today that we overlook not realizing that if we take some time we might find some history in them. Things such as architecture, the objects inside of the structure along with landscape. These things can provide us with information of the way people lived, what they did, and how or why they did things.            

I found it to be quite shocking and interesting when reading “The Architecture of Racial Segregation: The Challenges of Preserving the Problematical Past,” by Robert Weyeneth and “White and Black Landscapes in Eighteenth-Century Virginia,” by Dell Upton. The reason I find it to be shocking and interesting is because this is the first time that I thought of how architecture and landscape have the ability to be objects of study and help us learn about history, especially the topic of segregation. Both of these articles discussed the different ways in which architecture and landscape segregated blacks and whites. For instance on plantations the main house was for the white owner and the other smaller buildings around the main house were used for slaves for either work or their living quarters. By studying all of these objects we can get a glimpse of how both whites and blacks lived on a plantation. The things that were used in these buildings can help us identify how life was different for whites and blacks. Not only is a plantation example but also at the time the Jim Crow Laws were enacted and “separate but equal” was considered to be fair we can see that by certain architecture, objects in these structures, and landscapes that everything was not equal and fair. That is an important part of our history but one many do not like to bring up or talk about. However, the evidence of these objects speaks more than written documents.

Going back to the 1800’s objects that were used in homes and/or businesses explain to us a lot about history as well. For example, the spinning wheel. The women of New England used the spinning wheel to create clothes, fabrics, and other “fancy works” that were used in that time era. The object that I studied in the book The Age of Homespun, by Lauren Thatcher Ulrich was a rose blanket. The rose blanket was becoming quite popular and they were being seen and sold all over the country due to production factories with power machinery. However the particular blanket in this book was a homemade one determined by the fact that there is a center seam, which identifies it was homemade. The person who created this blanket had probably seen friends or neighbors with one but couldn’t afford to buy one and therefore made one. This makes me wonder if the wedding gown I am researching was homemade because the women couldn’t afford to buy one. Therefore through my research I will be looking to find similar wedding gowns made in the 1850’s that were produced in a factory by machinery. This will be able to help me perhaps understand the reasoning for creating the homemade wedding gown the way it is. 

Response to Readings

 Kenneth L. Ames did a fantastic job in describing the layout of a 19^th Century Victorian house in his article “Meaning in Artifacts: Hall Furnishings in Victorian America. I was able close my eyes and specifically visual the hallways with furniture and the décor that was most likely displayed in these upper-middle class homes. The piece of furniture that I found to be appealing was the hallstand. This piece of furniture was huge and usually in the front of the hall placed where everyone who entered the house could see it.  The residents hung and placed objects on the hallstand that were used frequently such as coats and hats or displayed items of some type of sentimental value to them on the shelves for all to see. Mirrors were also sometimes attached to the hallstands enabling those to get a glimpse of their self when entering or exiting the house.

Since hairwork was extremely popular in Victorian American I envisioned that perhaps a friendship album or hairwork album discussed in “Love Entwined, The Curious History of Hairwork in America,” by Helen Sheumaker would be an object placed on a hallstand. Hairwork would represent a person so intimately since it was a piece of their body. Depending on friends who might have sent the resident of the house their hairwork with their hair and a personal note attached, a friendship album or hairwork album could be a tremendous object to show off to their guests their status in society by the people they knew.

Hairwork was something that was handmade and usually made by women.  This gave extreme value to it especially if it was made for someone as a gift, such as hair jewelry or a hair wreath made of family members hair. Handmade objects meant that time and hard work was put into. It made that object have a personal meaning for the person who was receiving it. The 1856 wedding gown that I am researching this semester was handmade. Perhaps the woman who wore the wedding gown had a hallstand in her home and was able to get a last look at herself before she exited the house on her way to her wedding ceremony.

Women would create their hairwork pieces at home but once completed some were lucky enough to have their items displayed in public. Whether or not the entire town had a chance to see their work they would still display it in their homes allowing all of their guests to admire it’s beauty. This reminded me of the wedding gown. Although it was made at home and took time and hard work it was made for the bride to wear in public for people to notice and admire it.

As Karin Dannehl describes in her article “Object Biographies,” every object like a person has a story of how it was made and the purpose for which it was made. The object when we see it now will never again be like the object it was when it was first created because it has gone through its stages of life. However we can still get a grasp of the purpose and history of the object.

My Response to "In Small Things Forgotten" by James Deetz and "Building in the Wood in the Eastern United State; A Time-Place Perspective" by Fred B Kniffen & Henry Glassie

 It wasn’t until the first day of this class that I had ever really thought about how objects play a huge role in understanding a culture. The saying that comes to my mind is “maybe what you are looking for has been in front of you the whole time.” I find that to be especially true after reading the book “In Small Things forgotten,” by James Deetz and the article “Building in Wood in the Eastern United States: A Time-Place Perspective,” by Fred B, Kniffen and Henry Glassie. In “Small Things Forgotten,” Deetz chooses several objects to analyze and explains how we can learn about a culture from it. Sometimes if you’re lucky you can pick up an object and there might just be a date on it. How about that for a start? However, that is not always the case. Deetz talked about ceramics, houses, and what I thought was most interesting, gravestones and how we can analyze these objects to understand a culture.

Most but not all gravestones have the date of when a person was born and the date that they died. Having the date that they died is extremely helpful in understanding why types of gravestones, materials, and designs might have been made during that specific time. We can only assume that the gravestone was made around the date in which the death occurred. That is something that I had never once thought about but that is truly in the reach of our hands to explore and research. Deetz takes us through several carvers’ designs and the evolution of them throughout the 1700’s in the New England area. Each carver was from a different area. Some carvers may have only been several miles away but the technique they used was sometimes completely different from the other. Back then they did not have technology to communicate with one another about what they were doing or how they were making their gravestones. Think about today, once you create something new you can instantly put it online and someone from all the way across the world can adapt your idea. Do you think that in the future the objects that we use today can be studied to understand our culture too?

This past week when I saw for the first time the wedding gown that I will be researching, I got lucky! Why? Because there was a tag stitched inside the gown with the name of the woman who wore it and the date when she wore it, January 22^nd, 1856. Sometimes all we have to do is pick up something and look at it. From an article that came with it, it stated that the women was married in Lancaster, PA. I will be able to research that specific area and perhaps generate the information on why the dress was made the way it was for a woman living there.

It is these things that are right in front of us that are clues waiting to be unveiled to give us a better understanding of how and why people lived and did the things they did. 

Object Analysis Method

After reading the articles that were assigned to us in class I was able to learn and become familiar with different types of methodologies that have been used in studying material culture. I find it interesting that there is not one concrete way to research this field but the ways that are discussed in these articles are very similar to each other. My approach is to take ideas and steps from several of the articles and to combine them in order to create a multi-step method in researching the history of the object that I have been given, a wedding gown. I particularly took steps that related to clothing or steps that I felt could be great guides when researching an article of clothing.

The first step that I will use is “Description” which comes from Jules Prown, “Mind in Matter; An introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method.” This first step is simply looking at the dress and describing in the best detail what I see first hand, from the material/materials that were used to colors and details on the gown. I will also incorporate from Joan Severa and Merrill Horswill’s article, “Costume as Material Culture,” the Design and Construction step they have in their outline. This step by Severa and Horswill is a great guide for analyzing particular areas of a dress and in this case a wedding gown. The basic elements which include bodice, sleeve, and skirt will be the sections where I focus on the shape and measurements. This step only focuses on the dress itself as an object.

The second step will come from E. McClung Flemings article, “A proposed Model,” and it will include one of his five properties, “History”. Since I was provided the year of the wedding gown which is 1856 I will research any more information I can find out about that year with women’s dresses, and specifically wedding gowns. I will look to research the person who made the gown and who they were making it for. Perhaps I will be able to use “fashion plates” as mentioned in Severa and Horswill’s articles to get an understanding of the style during that time period.

Following the “Description” and “History” step, the next step will come from one of E. McClung Fleming’s operations, “Cultural Analysis” which is also from the same article, “A Proposed Model.” This is the time where the description of the gown and the history of that time period cross over one another. Here is where I will analyze the relationship between the two forming hypothesis’s of the culture in which it was created. Crossing those two subjects over can tell you a lot about a culture. For instance depending on the stich of material we might be able to tell if it was stitched by hand or perhaps a machine. All of this stuff relates back to the people and the culture that they were living in at the time the gown was created. In this step I will also take several other wedding gowns and compare them with the one I am researching. I intend to particularly look at the colors chosen in the gown and what they might resemble. Doing this will help me to find similarities and differences which could ultimately lead to information to the social status of someone who might have worn a gown such as this one. My main interests lie in determining the social status of a women with this particular wedding gown.

The final step I will use in my method is again from E. McClungs Fleming’s article “A proposed Model” and it is also his final operation step which is “Interpretation.” Based on all of the information found about gown, the history, and the culture, at this point I will interpret the meaning of everything, from my perspective on the facts I have researched. Depending on the person who researched the object the interpretation can differ depending on their interest. That is why studying material artifacts is important when researching the history of cultures.

            Since the goal of this research is to ultimately create an exhibit, I have chosen steps from methods that I feel will best suit the research of my specific object, a wedding gown. All of the methods that were mentioned in the articles are all great guides when studying any material object to find out the history of its culture. However, some steps I felt were not relevant in researching my object in the amount of time that will be given to do it. Therefore I chose steps that I felt would provide my audience the best history of the gown when admiring it as an exhibit. 

Statement of Purpose

           In December of 2011, as I graduated from Temple’s School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, I felt a great amount of joy and pride in the achievement of my bachelor’s degree in Sports Management.  While being in the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management with a concentration in Sport, I was able to research and explore the sports industry. As I was required to complete a 600 hour, 10 credit full-time internship along with a 3 credit research project, I took the initiative to explore an unfamiliar place to me. I decided to approach Arizona State University about inquiring an internship that was not yet a position. They accepted my offer to be an intern in the Athletic Equipment Department and  it was there that I was able to take what I learned in the classroom and apply it to the sports industry. The purpose of my research project was to show the need for a full-time intern in the athletic equipment department at Arizona State. After months of thorough research I was able to present my results to the ASU Athletic Department, not just as an academic project but as a true proposal. This project was my proudest achievement at Temple and it allowed me to see how much I enjoy doing research that ultimately will benefit others.

            Recently I have become a Graduate Extern for the Athletic Equipment Department at Temple University.  Since I was lucky enough to find a job I love in the industry that I studied during my undergrad I felt it was time to pursue another passion of mine, poetry. The Master of Liberal Arts program was the perfect fit for me. I believe that poetry is created through any type of inspiration. The idea that I can take so many different classes and learn about a wide variety of topics and issues will only open up my world to more inspiration. This well rounded view should one day help me to achieve my ultimate goal of one day publishing a book of poetry. Taking Studies of American Material Culture class is giving me the opportunity to explore an area that I have never studied before. I am extremely excited to research about the history of an object from Drexel University's Historic Costume Collection and to work with people who’s passion is in American material culture to help create an exhibit to be on display for all to see.  There is no question in my mind that engaging in this class and working with passionate people will be a huge asset through the journey of my poetry inspirations.