Tangible Things: Making History through Objects by Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher, Gaskell, Ivan, Schechner, Sara, Car (2015) Hardcover

by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

In a world obsessed with the virtual, tangible things are once again making history. Tangible Things invites readers to look closely at the things around them, ordinary things like the food on their plate and extraordinary things like the transit of planets across the sky. It argues that almost any material thing, when examined closely, can be a link beween present and past. The authors of this book pulled an astonishing array of materials out of storage--from a pencil manufactured by Henry David Thoreau to a bracelet made from iridescent beetles--in a wide range of Harvard University collections to mount an innovative exhibition alongside a new general education course. The exhibition challenged the rigid distinctions between history, anthropology, science, and the arts. It showed that object-centered inquiry inevitably leads to a questioning of categories within and beyond history. Tangible Things is both an introduction to the range and scope of Harvard's remarkable collections and an invitation to reassess collections of all sorts, including those that reside in the bottom drawers or attics of people's houses. It interrogates the nineteenth-century categories that still divide art museums from science museums and historical collections from anthropological displays and that assume history is made only from written documents. Although it builds on a larger discussion among specialists, it makes its arguments through case studies, hoping to simultaneously entertain and inspire. The twenty case studies take us from the Galapagos Islands to India and from a third-century Egyptian papyrus fragment to a board game based on the twentieth-century comic strip "Dagwood and Blondie." A companion website catalogs the more than two hundred objects in the original exhibition and suggests ways in which the principles outlined in the book might change the way people understand the tangible things that surround them.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Museums, Art History, American History, Archaeology

Hardcover

First published November 13, 2014

About the author

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard University. She is the author of Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Early New England, 1650-1750 (1982) and A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (1990) which won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1991 and became the basis of a PBS documentary. In The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Making of an American Myth (2001), she has incorporated museum-based research as well as more traditional archival work. Her most recent book is Well-behaved Women Seldom Make History (2007). Her major fields of interest are early American social history, women's history, and material culture. Professor Ulrich's work is featured on the web at www.dohistory.org and www.randomhouse.com.

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~amciv/fac...

Reviews

[Sarah Swedberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just re-read this for my Material Culture class and I love it so much. I wish I could have been an undergraduate student in the class they taught that led to this book.

[Uriah O'Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harvard people doing Harvard things at Harvard.

[Liz De Coster · Rating 3 out of 5]

By nature, pretty back-patty about Harvard's collections and importance, which makes sense given the origins of the book but got a little eye-roll inducing by the end of the book, as did the author's confidence about how viewers experienced their objects. Also, as with any exhibition catalog-style piece, a lot of what is discussed was ephemeral, and even lavish photography can only capture and represent so much of the experience.
I think this is a decent introduction to material culture and museum studies, potentially of interest to students early in their undergraduate careers.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this look at material culture and the difficulties and delights of categorization. In another review, someone was complaining that it is too Harvard-centric or too Harvard-promoting. It was made clear from the beginning these are Harvard faculty working with Harvard collections in Harvard museums to create exhibitions on Harvard's campus. So calm down.

It makes me want to take a Boston vacation, just to spend a week in Harvard's museums!

[Jolabrese · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though a solid case study involving museum deconstruction, missed the point of actual decolonization. Wondered if there was an inability to critique the Harvard institution itself. Good reading for a certain point of view in archival philosophy today but requires a thorough critique.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Objects and their arrangement are fascinating. Some items can be readily categorized, while others defy such groupings. Even mundane objects have stories yo tell, if you know where or how to look for them.

[Cathy Mealey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would love to see this exhibition as a recurring feature and a catalog duly updated to evolving trends. There are more than enough 'objet' to ensure never-ending possible interpretations from a variety of viewpoints. Thoroughly enjoyed this initial endeavor.

[Taylor Henning · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I hear the word "Harvard" one more time...

[Robert Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but Harvard obsessed.

[Howard Mansfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have ever puzzled over why we save the things we do, and how we decide to display them in museums, you should read this book. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and her colleagues are thoughtful provocateurs. They took objects out of the many museums and collections at Harvard and reshuffled the deck. They tried to free them from their categories, or they used existing categories to see deeper into history. The ways in which classification limits our understanding is one of the chief concerns of Tangible Things. How did the objects function when in use? How did their use change over time? It’s this dynamism that they are trying to portray. It’s as if they were trying to photograph the horse in motion with all four hooves off the ground.

“The radical intangibility of things transcends the collections,” write the authors. That’s a good phrase: “radical intangibility.” Objects have interesting lives. If we look closely, and loosen the old corset of museum classifications, the objects can breathe

[tea_for_two · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating look at how museum exhibits are created and what they say about the institutions that create them.