Material culture analysis has exploded in academia in the past two decades. This article offers a... more Material culture analysis has exploded in academia in the past two decades. This article offers a material culture framework for analysis by asking a series of questions and seeing how that path leads to new discoveries. British ceramics ruled the American market at the time of the American Revolution and they serve as a test-case for thinking broadly through things. This article was published in the premiere issue of the new journal "Ceramics in America" published by the Chipstone Foundation.
Ann Smart Martin's Spring 2017 museum course's work on the Driftless Historium's inau... more Ann Smart Martin's Spring 2017 museum course's work on the Driftless Historium's inaugural exhibit. This includes all labels and images of the objects as well as detailed object essays and music. his exhibition introduces us to many people and teaches us about many household objects. The trunks and mangle boards that immigrants brought to a new settlement were made to be useful, appear beautiful, and remind of home. Craftsman Azaak Lie updated his native Norwegian woodworking skills to fit American styles and tastes. The “artist farmer” Martin Cliff drew upon both his Norwegian heritage and popular arts and crafts of the period. When Oljanna Cunneen and Patricia Edmundson crafted trolls or rosemaled dishes, they looked back at a romantic heritage. Isaak Lee established little Norway to revel in his beloved mythical landscape of buildings and objects and commissioned Olaf Colberson to decorate walls and furniture, including a traditional kubbestol updated with rockers.
How did people living on the early American frontier discover and then become a part of the marke... more How did people living on the early American frontier discover and then become a part of the market economy? How do their purchases and their choices revise our understanding of the market revolution and the emerging consumer ethos? Ann Smart Martin provides answers to these questions by examining the texture of trade on the edge of the upper Shenandoah Valley between 1760 and 1810. Reconstructing the world of one country merchant, John Hook, Martin reveals how the acquisition of consumer goods created and validated a set of ideas about taste, fashion, and lifestyle in a particular place at a particular time. Her analysis of Hook's account ledger illuminates the everyday wants, transactions, and tensions recorded within and brings some of Hook's customers to life: a planter looking for just the right clock, a farmer in search of nails, a young woman and her friends out shopping on their own, and a slave woman choosing a looking glass. This innovative approach melds fascinatin...
Material culture analysis has exploded in academia in the past two decades. This article offers a... more Material culture analysis has exploded in academia in the past two decades. This article offers a material culture framework for analysis by asking a series of questions and seeing how that path leads to new discoveries. British ceramics ruled the American market at the time of the American Revolution and they serve as a test-case for thinking broadly through things. This article was published in the premiere issue of the new journal "Ceramics in America" published by the Chipstone Foundation.
Ann Smart Martin's Spring 2017 museum course's work on the Driftless Historium's inau... more Ann Smart Martin's Spring 2017 museum course's work on the Driftless Historium's inaugural exhibit. This includes all labels and images of the objects as well as detailed object essays and music. his exhibition introduces us to many people and teaches us about many household objects. The trunks and mangle boards that immigrants brought to a new settlement were made to be useful, appear beautiful, and remind of home. Craftsman Azaak Lie updated his native Norwegian woodworking skills to fit American styles and tastes. The “artist farmer” Martin Cliff drew upon both his Norwegian heritage and popular arts and crafts of the period. When Oljanna Cunneen and Patricia Edmundson crafted trolls or rosemaled dishes, they looked back at a romantic heritage. Isaak Lee established little Norway to revel in his beloved mythical landscape of buildings and objects and commissioned Olaf Colberson to decorate walls and furniture, including a traditional kubbestol updated with rockers.
How did people living on the early American frontier discover and then become a part of the marke... more How did people living on the early American frontier discover and then become a part of the market economy? How do their purchases and their choices revise our understanding of the market revolution and the emerging consumer ethos? Ann Smart Martin provides answers to these questions by examining the texture of trade on the edge of the upper Shenandoah Valley between 1760 and 1810. Reconstructing the world of one country merchant, John Hook, Martin reveals how the acquisition of consumer goods created and validated a set of ideas about taste, fashion, and lifestyle in a particular place at a particular time. Her analysis of Hook's account ledger illuminates the everyday wants, transactions, and tensions recorded within and brings some of Hook's customers to life: a planter looking for just the right clock, a farmer in search of nails, a young woman and her friends out shopping on their own, and a slave woman choosing a looking glass. This innovative approach melds fascinatin...
Buying Into the World Of Goods: Early Consuers in th, 2008
This chapter from a larger book study details the actions of the enslaved as consumers in early V... more This chapter from a larger book study details the actions of the enslaved as consumers in early Virginia. As seen through the lens of merchants' account books, unfree Blacks created their own petty economy of imported purchases and local payments that was embedded deep and most often hidden within vast trading networks of the British Atlantic. This material culture analysis uncovers the relationships and power of the enslaved who could trade their labor for objects of comfort and fashion in the exploding world of goods--all at the local retail store.
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