A Matter of Style: 19th Century Furniture

Analyzing an Object of American Material Culture ­ Lower Grades

Purpose:

students will find important cultural information by looking carefully at an object and

analyzing it systematically.

Objectives:

after viewing A Matter of Style at

https://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/art/

htmls/ms.html

Web site (and being familiar with the At Home in the Heartland at

https://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/athome/welcome.htm

) and discussing

American material-culture studies, the students will retrieve historical information

from an object by analyzing it with an Object Analysis Form (A).

Materials:

an object of material culture (a piece of furniture or a good picture of one from A

Matter of Style

pencils

Object Analysis Form (A) for each student

Motivation:

Discuss how historians can get important information directly from an object. Use an

item in the classroom, like a chair, for an example. Have students brainstorm about

what questions they want answered about the object (what is it made of, who made

it, where did it come from, who uses it, who bought it, what is its function?).

Procedure:

Assign students to find one piece of furniture of their choice in At Home in the

Heartland Objects (1800-1850) at

https://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/ath -

ome/1800/objects/index.html

and At Home in the Heartland Objects (1850-1890)

https://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/athome/1850/objects/index.html

. Print it out

after looking carefully at it. (If resolution and clarity are lost in the printout, the stu-

dent may have to view it online while filling in the form).

Students will

*

fill out the left-hand box with the information requested (using the object or label

as the source).

*

fill out the right-hand box with the source of their answer (e.g., there was a label

on it, I recognize it from other chairs I know)

Publication

and Closure:

Use the information on the form to write (or report orally) a narrative version of the

results of their research. Students may not be able to find all the information asked

for on the form. Objects do not always tell us everything we want to know. Share

the results with the class.

Evaluation:

Assessment is based on the information written on the form and the final report.

Responses should show that the student inspected the object the object carefully.

Students with higher thinking skills may be able to make inferences from marks of

wear and tear, from the labels, etc.

Object Analysis-Lower Grades--page 1