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Course Description
"Houses and their Furnishings" is one of a series of courses in which artifacts are treated as primary documents in the study of American cultural history. This semester students will examine buildings, furniture, metalware, ceramics, decorations, and other personal property as material evidence of life in the colonial and early national periods. The course will focus on identifying and interpreting historic artifacts through a study of period sources, including Providence's historic houses, museum collections, and public archives. In the first part of the semester we will examine houses and their furnishings from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Providence as case studies of the daily life in the colonial period. In the second part of the course we will study the material life of the early national period. Class meetings consist of slide lectures, or field trips scheduled during class hours. The course will conclude with students undertaking original research projects on the furnishings of early American homes, and will culminate with an in-class presentation and a final paper.
READING |
The required texts for this course are:
-Benes, Early American Probate Inventories (Boston University Press)
-Bushman, The Refinement of America (Knopf)
-Krill, Early American Decorative Arts 1660-1860 (AltaMira Press)
Additional readings will be found on eReserves, with hard copies on reserve at the Rockefeller Library; and on the course web page at http://webct.brown.edu
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REQUIREMENTS |
Requirements for this course include daily reading assignments, two short written assignments, attendance in class and on field trips, in-class participation, and a midterm exam and a final project. Please turn off your cell phones before class begins.
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September 6 |
Introduction to the course
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September 8 |
An introduction to material culture studies
assignment: Prown, “Mind in Matter” in Art as Evidence pp. 69-95
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September 13 |
A disposition for order in seventeenth-century New England
St. George, “Set Thine House in Order,” in New England Begins vol. II pp. 159-188
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September 15 |
The material life of seventeenth-century New England
St. George, “Set Thine House in Order,” in New England Begins vol. II pp. 188-350
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September 20 |
Household life in seventeenth-century New England
Assign: “Hannah Barnard’s Cupboard” in Ulrich, Age of Homespun pp. 108-141
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September 22 |
Joinery and joined furniture in seventeenth-century New England
Assign: Krill, Early American Decorative Arts : Context, 17 th c, Wm & Mary pp. 3-70
Class meets at the RISD Museum
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September 27 |
Household inventories as historical evidence
Assignment: Benes, Early American Probate Inventories pp. 5-40
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September 29 |
Household furnishings in early America
assign: Early American Probate Inventories: “Dress in Cambridge,” pp. 51-73;
“First Period Architecture,” pp. 97-120 ; “Sleeping Arrangements” pp. 140-152
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October 4 |
Eleazer Arnold’s house and furnishings: a case study
Assign: “An Inventory of the Moveable Goods of Eleazer Arnold” (1722); Deetz, “I Would Have the House Strong in Timber” in In Small Things Forgotten pp. 125-164
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October 6 |
Class meets at the Eleazer Arnold House in Lincoln, Rhode Island
Assignment: “The Restoration of the Eleazer Arnold House” ( Antiques May 1960); Early Rhode Island Houses pp. 41-49; “Some Early Houses” Pencil Points (Feb 1935)
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October 11 |
Currents of change in houses and furnishings
Assignment: Sweeney, “Furniture and the Domestic Environment, 1639-1800” in St. George, ed., Material Life in America pp. 261-290
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October 13 |
Modern furnishings for modern houses
Assign: Krill, Early American Decorative Arts “Queen Anne & Chippendale” 8 & 9
Eleazer Arnold paper due
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October 18 |
Refinement in American Life
Assignment: Bushman, The Refinement of America Chapters 1 & 2 (pp. xi – 60)
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October 20 |
midterm examination
In preparation for the midterm you must tour the Stephen Hopkins House Museum on the corner of Benefit and Hopkins Streets in Providence, across from George St.
The museum is open on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons from 1:00 to 4:00.
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October 25 |
Gentility in bodies & minds, houses & gardens
Assignment: Bushman, The Refinement of America Chapter 3 & 4 (pp. 61-138)
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October 27 |
Objects of silver and pewter
Assign: Krill, Early American Decorative Arts pp. 153-204; Ward, “Women’s Property & Family Continuity” in Benes, Early American Probate Inventories 74-85; Emlen, “Wedding Silver for the Browns” American Art Journal 1984
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November 1 |
Gentility in houses & churches; ambivalence
Assignment: Bushman, The Refinement of America Chapter 5 & 6 (pp. 139-206)
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November 3 |
Tea for drinking and tea parties for status
Assign: Krill, Early American Decorative Arts pp. 153-183; Roth, “Tea Drinking in Eighteenth-Century America” in St. George, Material Life in America pp.439-462
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November 8 |
Respectability: vernacular gentility and the comforts of home
Assignment: Bushman, The Refinement of America Chapters 7 & 8 (pp. 207-279)
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November 10 |
Great wealth brings great houses
Assign: St. George, “Artifacts of Regional Consciousness,” Material Life in America and “A Most Magnificent Mansion”
Class meets at the John Brown House Museum 52 Power Street
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November 15 |
Respectability: literature and life; religion and taste
Assignment: Bushman, The Refinement of America Chapters 9 & 10 (pp. 280-352)
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November 17 |
Textiles, needlework, and floor coverings
Assign: Krill, Early American Decorative Arts pp. 249-288
John Brown House paper due
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November 22 |
Respectability: city and country; culture and power
Assignment: Bushman, The Refinement of America Chapters 11 & 12 (pp. 353-447)
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November 24 |
Thanksgiving
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November 29 |
final reports
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December 1 |
final reports
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December 6 |
final reports
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December 8 |
final reports
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