home |
many pasts |
evidence |
www.history |
blackboard |
reference
talking history | syllabi | students | teachers | puzzle | about us
talking history | syllabi | students | teachers | puzzle | about us
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2002 07:51:41 -0500
Reply-To: "Using Material Culture to Teach U.S. History"
Sender: "Using Material Culture to Teach U.S. History"
From: Mary and Jeffrey Fuhrer
Subject: Re: Images of New England Farmlife circa 1810
In-Reply-To:
Mime-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
Here is a thought for farm life images: try almanacs from the early 19th
century. Most almanacs have an illustration (usually a simple woodcut, but
effective) to introduce each month. They frequently show "the labor of the
month" - plowing in March, sowing in April, haying in July, flailing in
August, etc. In fact, if you look at medieval calendar illustrations, most
show farmers doing the same labor for the same months. A nice illustration
for the dramatic change that took place between your 1810 and 1860/1910
periods might be to show a calendar image from 1000 years ago and one from
1810 - virtually unchanged - and then contrast it with the romanticized and
not necessarily accurate images of farming that you find after the Civil
War.
--
Mary and Jeff Fuhrer
> From: Laurel Ulrich
> Reply-To: "Using Material Culture to Teach U.S. History"
>
> Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2002 20:06:51 -0500
> To: MATERIALCULTUREFORUM@ASHP.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: Re: Images of New England Farmlife circa 1810
>
> Why do you think--or how do you know--that people worked harder in the
> 1810s than in the 1890s?
> Laurel Ulrich
>
> On Tue, 29 Oct 2002, Melita Podesta wrote:
>
>> Thank you for the idea. I should have explained a bit more. The overall
>> theme of our project is the improvement in the standard of living in New
>> England over the past 200 years. We will illustrate this using three time
>> periods - 1810s, 1890s and the 1960s. In terms of the early 19th century,
>> we are trying to find prints that convey that most people worked very hard
>> and worked all of the time. The prints that we have found of gentlemen
>> farmers wearing top hats don't give the impression of hard toil. There
>> are several photos from the late 19th century that could easily represent
>> 1810, but we have been asked to stick to engravings or other works on
>> paper from the actual period. (And what we are finding is that those
>> probably don't exist.)
>>
>> If anything comes to mind, please let me know.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Laurel Ulrich
>> Sent by: "Using Material Culture to Teach U.S. History"
>>
>> 10/29/2002 02:05 PM
>> Please respond to "Using Material Culture to Teach U.S. History"
>>
>>
>> To: MATERIALCULTUREFORUM@ASHP.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
>> cc:
>> Subject: Re: Images of New England Farmlife circa 1810
>>
>> But that's the story! The pastoral idealization of New England is a big
>> theme, so instead of working against the visual evidence why don't you
>> work with it, contrasting documentary sources with visual sources?
>> I personally love the imagery on school girl embroidery--all those lovely
>> sheep and flowers and happy couples. Could you use images of actual tools
>> in relation to the happy imagery?
>> Laurel Ulrich
>>
>> On Tue, 29 Oct 2002, Melita Podesta wrote:
>>
>>> Does anyone know of works on paper which illustrate how hard New England
>>> farmlife was at the turn of the 19th century? I'm working on an
>>> educational project here at the Boston Fed. We would like to use images
>>> from the time period we are going to depict - 1800 to 1820 - but I've
>> been
>>> told by a couple of reliable sources that printmakers were not
>> interested
>>> in scenes of farmers toiling until sometime in the 1850s.
>>>
>>> I'd appreciate any ideas!
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>> Melita Podesta
>>> Project Coordinator
>>> New England Economic Adventure
>>> at Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
>>>
>>> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at
>> http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
>>>
>>
>> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at
>> http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
>>
>> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at
>> http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
>>
>
> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at
> http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2002 08:16:37 -0500
Reply-To: "Using Material Culture to Teach U.S. History"
Sender: "Using Material Culture to Teach U.S. History"
From: Laurel Ulrich
Subject: Re: Thanks for all your contributions
In-Reply-To:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Although it looks more like October than November outside my window today
(with the trees in Cambridge all ablaze), our month is over. For me, it
went very quickly. I appreciate the many fine contributions to our
discussion and wish you all well in teaching and exhibiting American
culture. I am working hard on a website for a coming core class on
"Inventing New England." I hope we will be able to make some of the
elements open to the public. Look for it on "Google" in a few months.
With best wishes,
Laurel Ulrich
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 16:12:25 -0500
Reply-To: "Using Material Culture to Teach U.S. History"
Sender: "Using Material Culture to Teach U.S. History"
From: Melita Podesta
Subject: Re: Images of New England Farmlife circa 1810
Comments: cc: ulrich@FAS.HARVARD.EDU
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
We aren't saying that people worked harder in 1810 than in the 1890s ? we=20
are saying that people most certainly worked harder, and that their lives=20
were more physically demanding than the engravings for the 1810s-1820s=20
show. We would like to display images that give a realistic picture of=20
what life was like. We do have images that show how harsh life was (for=20
many) in the 1890s ? but all we have found for the 1810s are country=20
gentlemen plowing their fields without breaking a sweat or getting dirty.=20
We would like to convey visually what Jack Larkin does so well in his=20
book, The Reshaping of Everyday Life 1790-1840. "The physical texture of=20
American life was far closer to that in the village of many third-world=20
countries today than to anything in the present-day United States.=20
Everywhere the nights were intensely dark and the stars intensely bright.=20
Most houses were small and poorly lit. Americans were usually dirty and=20
often insect-ridden. Smells ? of the barnyard and stable, tannery and=20
tavern, house and hearth, privy and chamber pot ?were pungent and profuse. =
?Harsh physical exertion was an ordinary and unremarkable part of life=20
for all but a few. Disease and bodily discomfort could rarely be cured,=20
only endured, and death was an early and frequent visitor. The extremes=20
of cold and heat could not easily be escaped, indoors or out."=20
Best,
Melita
Laurel Ulrich
Sent by: "Using Material Culture to Teach U.S. History"=20
10/29/2002 08:06 PM
Please respond to "Using Material Culture to Teach U.S. History"
=20
To: MATERIALCULTUREFORUM@ASHP.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
cc:=20
Subject: Re: Images of New England Farmlife circa 1810
Why do you think--or how do you know--that people worked harder in the
1810s than in the 1890s?
Laurel Ulrich
On Tue, 29 Oct 2002, Melita Podesta wrote:
> Thank you for the idea. I should have explained a bit more. The=20
overall
> theme of our project is the improvement in the standard of living in New
> England over the past 200 years. We will illustrate this using three=20
time
> periods - 1810s, 1890s and the 1960s. In terms of the early 19th=20
century,
> we are trying to find prints that convey that most people worked very=20
hard
> and worked all of the time. The prints that we have found of gentlemen
> farmers wearing top hats don't give the impression of hard toil. There
> are several photos from the late 19th century that could easily=20
represent
> 1810, but we have been asked to stick to engravings or other works on
> paper from the actual period. (And what we are finding is that those
> probably don't exist.)
>
> If anything comes to mind, please let me know.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
>
> Laurel Ulrich
> Sent by: "Using Material Culture to Teach U.S. History"
>
> 10/29/2002 02:05 PM
> Please respond to "Using Material Culture to Teach U.S. History"
>
>
> To: MATERIALCULTUREFORUM@ASHP.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> cc:
> Subject: Re: Images of New England Farmlife circa 1810
>
> But that's the story! The pastoral idealization of New England is a big
> theme, so instead of working against the visual evidence why don't you
> work with it, contrasting documentary sources with visual sources?
> I personally love the imagery on school girl embroidery--all those=20
lovely
> sheep and flowers and happy couples. Could you use images of actual=20
tools
> in relation to the happy imagery?
> Laurel Ulrich
>
> On Tue, 29 Oct 2002, Melita Podesta wrote:
>
> > Does anyone know of works on paper which illustrate how hard New=20
England
> > farmlife was at the turn of the 19th century? I'm working on an
> > educational project here at the Boston Fed. We would like to use=20
images
> > from the time period we are going to depict - 1800 to 1820 - but I've
> been
> > told by a couple of reliable sources that printmakers were not
> interested
> > in scenes of farmers toiling until sometime in the 1850s.
> >
> > I'd appreciate any ideas!
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Melita Podesta
> > Project Coordinator
> > New England Economic Adventure
> > at Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
> >
> > This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site=20
at
> http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. Histor=
y.
> >
>
> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at =
http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
>
> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at =
http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
>
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at ht=
tp://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.