Overview

Documents and artifacts are rich because they enable us to determine what happened in the past, but also because they offer subtle and not so subtle messages about who we are as a people, what we value or don’t value, how we see ourselves and how we see others. Our objects and documents are reflections of ourselves. In this workshop we undertake a material culture analysis of objects in the American Memory collections that relate to the history of African Americans from the Civil War to the early years of the Twentieth century. We strive to understand some of the ways that African Americans were portrayed in popular culture, some of the ways that they portrayed themselves, and the ways these portrayals reflect larger historical developments at the turn of the century. Along the way we will explore some of the ways that museums use objects as storytellers--including juxtaposing them for contrast, clustering them thematically, and arranging them chronologically to show change--and we will consider how teachers and students can use these techniques of arrangement in learning from and teaching with artifacts.

Objectives

After completing this exercise participants will be able to:

• Describe ways that African Americans were portrayed in popular culture after the Civil War, ways they portrayed themselves, and how these portrayals reflected developments in American society and politics.
• "Read" an object for meaning, and develop questions about the context in which the object was produced
• Use and arrange multiple documents or objects to construct a history
• Develop a lesson for students that explores the value of objects as reflective of American culture

Resources

1. Selected documents from the following American Memory collections:
   • African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907
   • American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940
   • America’s First Look into the Camera, Daguerreotypes, Portraits and Views, 1839-1862
   • An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
   • By Popular Demand: Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s
   • Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920
   • Selected Civil War Photographs
   • Touring Turn of the Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company Collection, 1880-1920

2. Guide to Material Culture Analysis

Exercise

1. Practicing Material Culture Analysis on Two Artifacts (30 minutes)

The study of material culture, the artifacts made or modified by human beings, tells us much about who we are. Museums use the things left behind by other generations in the same way that historians use historical documents, as historical evidence to help us understand the needs, wants, attitudes, beliefs and stories of people who lived in the past. “Reading” an artifact, whether a piece of sheet music or a table, is less familiar to most people than reading a letter or document. Still, because material culture is composed of the necessary things of daily life and work it offers rich insights into the nature of the people from which it came.

We gather as a group to practice material culture analysis, looking at two pieces of sheet music in juxtaposition. Both pieces of music are from Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920.

• In the Days of Old Black Joe by James Brockman
• Swing Low Sweet Chariot by H.T. Burleigh

1. Observation - What do you see?

   The first step in a material culture analysis is to describe what you see, carefully, thoroughly and without judgment. As a group we describe aloud everything we can about the two pieces of music, including the imagery, text and lyrics of the music.

2. Analysis - What does it mean?

   Next we analyze the two pieces of music, asking questions that will get at the meaning of the objects and what they tell us about the society that produced them.

   Composer - Who wrote this music? What was the composer’s intent? Brockman was white and Burleigh was black. Does this simple biographical fact, along with the evidence of the music, suggest anything about the motives or self-image of the composers?

   Audience - Who would likely buy this music? Why?

   Imagery, Text and Culture - Why aren’t there any images on Swing Low Sweet Chariot? What does this piece of music tell you about the composer Lyrics and his view of African Americans? What does the picture on In the Days of Old Black Joe suggest about the way African Americans were viewed? What do the lyrics tell us about the time period in American history when this sheet music was produced? Both pieces of music were produced at about the same time. Does this suggest anything about American society in this period?

3. To help formulate questions for further study, the facilitator gives a brief overview of the period from the Civil War through the early twentieth century: slavery ends, but the promise of equality fades with the collapse of Reconstruction. As America becomes a more polyglot, industrialized world power, the status of blacks continues to be contested, in both the South and the North.

4. We brainstorm questions we now have based on our initial encounter with the two artifacts, such as:
   • What were some of the major stereotypes of African Americans prevalent in popular culture from 1860 - 1920?
   • What purposes did these portrayals serve?
   • What kinds of portrayals were put forth by African Americans themselves? What purposes did these portrayals serve?

2. Using Additional Documents to Deepen Awareness of the Historical Context (30 minutes)

In pairs, explore the following objects and construct an image of African American life based on the information in the documents. Use the accompanying Material Culture Analysis Guide to focus your analysis.

Group 1

Slaves Preparing Cotton from Selected Civil War Photos

$200.00 Reward. Ranaway from the subscriber on the night of Thursday, the 30th of September. Five Negro Slaves from An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera

Printers’ Picture Gallery from An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and other Printed Ephemera

Group 2

Ku Klux Stories from American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940

A Protest Against the Burning and Lynching of Negroes, by Booker T. Washington from African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907

Group 3

Unidentified Woman, probably a member of the McGill Family from America’s First Look into the Camera, Daguerreotypes, Portraits and Views, 1839-1862

Morris Brown College, 1890-1900 from Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights

Group 4

The Photographer’s Assistant and The Melon-cholic days have come, the gladdest of the year, both from Touring Turn of the Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company Collection, 1880-1920

The Lincoln Gates, Tuskeegee Institute, Ala. from Touring Turn of the Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company Collection, 1880-1920

3. Sharing Analyses / Constructing a Sense of the Historical Context (30 minutes)

Each group takes 5-10 minutes to share their analyses of the documents, and their speculations and questions about African American life, based on the documents. As a group, we strive to arrange the documents in various ways to suggest larger ideas and developments--changing roles of African Americans, the development of segregated institutions, increasing interest on the part of whites in African American cultural forms, contrasts between the way whites saw blacks and the way African Americans saw themselves, etc. We list the questions that now loom for us about the wider historical context.

4. Searching collections to find / juxtapose objects of your own (45 minutes)

With your partner, search one of the following American Memory collections, and select two or three images that portray African Americans. Include at least one image that you initially view as positive and at least one that initially appears to you as negative. Print these out.

• Historic American Sheet Music
• Selected Civil War Photographs
• Touring Turn of the Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company Collection, 1880-1920

Conduct a material culture analysis on the two objects and be prepared to present them to the group. If possible, put them side-by-side to suggest a contrast, develop a theme, or tell a story about African American life. You may wish to combine your images with the documents we dealt with in Part 3, to extend or modify the themes we discussed.

5. Debriefing the activity (15 minutes)

How is material culture analysis similar to, or different from, teaching approaches you now use? What does it add? What problems do you see with it?

What issues or problems might arise in teaching with and about controversial imagery in your school? Are these documents appropriate? Important? Why? Does the approach modeled help address concerns?

How might you use and/or modify this approach with your own students?

Material Culture Analysis Guide