2013 CHAViC Summer Seminar Syllabus

Domestic Impressions: the Visual and Material Culture of the American Family Home, 1750-1890
July 7-12, 2013
Worcester, Massachusetts

Sunday, July 7

4:00-6:00	Welcome and Introductions, Antiquarian Hall, 185 Salisbury Street (AH)
6:00	Reception and Dinner 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)
10:30-10:50	Coffee/Tea Break
10:50-12:15	Continue in-class exercise
12:15-1:15	Lunch (GDH)
1:30-3:00	Ephemera and the Home: Examples from the Collection (AH) Lauren Hewes (Curator of Graphic Arts) and Nan Wolverton (Director, CHAViC)
3:00-3:15	Break
3:15-3:45	Introduction 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)
3:45-5:00	Research in the Library

Tuesday, July 9

Field trip to Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, MA

9:00-10:00	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”
10:00-10:20	Coffee/Tea Break
10:30-11:30	Children’s Literature and Images of Domestic Life (AH) Laura Wasowicz (Curator of Children’s Literature)
11:30	Lunch (GDH)
12:30	Vehicles depart for field trip to Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, MA
1:15	Arrive OSV
3:30-5:00	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. PDF for students. Password required Stachiw, Myron, “The Color of Change: A Nineteenth –Century Massachusetts House” in Paint in America. Washington, D.C.: The Preservation Press, 1994. PDF for students. Password required
5:00	Traditional 19th-century dinner in the Oliver Wight Tavern at Old Sturbridge Village

Wednesday, July 10

9:00-10:30	Social Looking: Parlor Culture and Prints (GDH) 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. PDF for students. Password required
10:30-10:45	Coffee/Tea Break
11:00-12:30	Photography and the American Home—Technology and Processes (AH) Lauren Hewes -Reading- Carter, Sarah Anne, “Picturing Rooms: Interior Photography 1870-1900” PDF for students. Password required
12:30-1:30	Lunch
1:30-3:00	Demonstration/Workshop: Collodion Negatives: Wet & Dry
3:00-8:00	Research in Library

Thursday, July 11

Field trip to General Aretmas Ward House, Shrewsbury, MA

9:00	Bus departs for Ward House
9:30-10:30	Tour of house and barn Paula Lupton, Curator
10:30-10:45	Coffee/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” PDF for students. Password required www.wardhouse.harvard.edu. Spend some time exploring this website before we visit the Ward House.
12:15-1:15	Lunch
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 PDF for students. Password required Wolverton, Nan. “'A Precarious Living': Basket Making and Related Crafts Among New England Indians” PDF for students. Password required -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 PDF for students. Password required
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”
3:30	Bus departs for return to AAS
4:00-5:00	Research in Library
5:30	Barbeque Cookout 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.
10:15-10:30	Coffee/Tea Break
10:30-11:45	Chromolithographs and other prints as teaching resources (AH)
12:00-1:00	Lunch (GDH)
1:00-2:00	Using Visual and Material Culture for Scholarship and Teaching: Discussion and Concluding Comments (GDH) Katherine C. Grier and Nan Wolverton
2:00-5:00	Departure or Research in Library

American Antiquarian Society, 185 Salisbury Street, Worcester, Massachusetts 01609-1634
Tel: 508-755-5221, Fax: 508-753-3311, library@americanantiquarian.org