Sarah Anne Carter - Object Lessons: How Nineteenth-Century Americans Learned to Make Sense of the Material World

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Carter, Sarah Anne, author.

Title: Object lessons : how nineteenth-century Americans learned to make

sense of the material world / Sarah Anne Carter.

Description: New York, NY, United States of America : Oxford University

Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018006686 (print) | LCCN 2018022541 (ebook) |

ISBN 9780190225049 (updf) | ISBN 9780190225056 (epub) |

ISBN 9780190908317 (online component) | ISBN 9780190225032 (hardback : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: EducationUnited StatesHistory19th century. |

Perceptual learning. | Material cultureStudy and teaching

United StatesHistory19th century.

Classification: LCC LA216 (ebook) | LCC LA216 .C37 2018 (print) |

DDC 370.97309034dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018006686

For my loving parents, Constance Daniele Carter and Paul Carter, who serve as object lessons in what parents should be.

And for my son, Paul.

In the decade that I have been working on this project I have acquired an archive of academic and personal kindnesses much longer than my endnotes.

This project started as a dissertation on object lessons, which I completed as part of the History of American Civilization program (now American Studies) at Harvard University. I was fortunate to have had Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and Jennifer Roberts coadvise this project. Laurel was my mentor long before I began work on my dissertation. Her faith in me led me to pursue a research topic that did not initially appear to register in secondary historical sources and to explore questions that crossed and redefined disciplinary boundaries. Jennifer challenged me to think through the aesthetic implications of my project, dramatically expanding the interpretative potential of object lessons. I could not have done this work without them. Committee members John Stauffer, Jill Lepore, and Ivan Gaskell guided my work with transformative questions and thoughtful suggestions. This research was funded by an ACLS/Mellon Dissertation Completion fellowship, a yearlong fellowship for work at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, as well as short-term fellowships to conduct research at the Winterthur Museum, the Huntington Library, a Patricia Klingenstein Research Fellowship at the New-York Historical Society, a Cotsen Childrens Library Research Fellowship at Princeton University, and a Jay and Deborah Last Fellowship for work at the American Antiquarian Society. Additional support from the Charles Warren Center, the History of American Civilization, and the Harvard Graduate Student Council allowed me to take shorter research trips and to share my work at academic conferences. From 2010 to 2013, support from Harvards History and Literature program and since 2013 the Chipstone Foundation have allowed me to continue to develop and present my research at conferences in the United States and abroad. I gratefully acknowledge all of this support.

Several archivists, curators, and researchers deserve special thanks. This project would have been impossible without their daily efforts. At the American Antiquarian Society, Gigi Barnhill and Laura Wasowicz produced amazing things (as if by magic) from the stacks. Elizabeth Pope, Jackie Penny, Caroline Sloat, and Paul Erickson made it such a pleasant place to work. At Cotsen, Andrea Immell and Aaron Pickett did not flinch when I took over part of their office with my boxes full of rather odd things and kindly offered me their time and good humor for the whole month of my fellowship. At Winterthur, Rosemary Krill, Jeanne Solensky, Helena Richardson, and Emily Guthrie went above and beyond their duties to help me find sources. At the Smithsonian, Amelia Goerlitz and the late Cindy Mills created a wonderful academic home (a scholars paradise), the library staff graciously handled my endless interlibrary loan requests, and curator Peggy Kidwell helped me think about the pedagogical items in their collections. At the National Museum of the American Indian, curator Emil Her Many Horses thoughtfully spent an entire afternoon with me helping me understand a single photograph. Reference librarians at the New-York Historical Society; staff at the Penfield Library Special Collections, State University of New YorkOswego; Julio Hernandez-Delgado at the Hunter College Archives; Edward Copenhagen at Gutman Library Special Collections; and Diana Carey at the Schlesinger Library all provided invaluable assistance. Additional research at the British Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum have fleshed out my project. Expert research support first at Harvard by Marina Magilore and later at the University of WisconsinMadison by the tenacious and smart Ann Glasscock helped me bring this project to its completion.

I look back with fondness on my years in the History of American Civilization program at Harvard. I am grateful to program staff Christine McFadden and Arthur Patton-Hock. My cohort, Jamie Jones, Eve Mayer, and Christina Adkins, were and are wonderful scholars. Jamie read my whole manuscript and has always been there when I have needed her. Phyllis Thompson provided a crucial reading of a chapter at an early stage in the project, as did Clinton Williams. Lauren Brandt, Noam Maggor, Katherine Stevens, George Blaustein, Mark Hanna, Judy Kertesz, and Katie Rieder all helped. Beyond the History of American Civilization program, Amber Moulton has read and improved many parts of this project. Ellery Foutch, Robin Veder, and Sarah Gouldall friends from my time at the Smithsonianhave collaborated with me on conference panels and commented on my work. Jennifer Black and Mary Beth Zundo frequently share object lesson references with me. Robin Bernstein, Mary Malloy, and Betsy More have cheered me on with references and suggestions. Jules Prown kindly discussed the history of his method with me and its relationships to object lessons. Generous friends Emily Jones, Daniela Jodorkovsky, Margaret Healey-Varley, Pam and Nick Schonberger, Andrea Tao, and Erica Westenberg have offered me their homes and their company during research trips. I have been privileged to present drafts of my writing to many audiences at conferences and universities. I am deeply thankful for these opportunities, though there is no space to detail each of them here.