Tangible Things
Making History through Objects
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Ivan Gaskell, Sara Schechner, Sarah Anne Carter, and with photographs by Samantha van Gerbig
Reviews and Awards
"[A] rich resource for 'Making History through Objects'....[D]emonstrates the benefits of intra-institutional collaboration and is dedicated to the 'people who care for and preserve tangible things: museum curators, conservators, conservation scientists, collection managers, registrars, administrators, and volunteers'....They have done an excellent job of contextualisation, translating material evidence into text and image."--Dinah Eastop, Textile History
"Tangible Things is a creative book and an experiment that will surely inspire students and colleagues to reflect not just on 'things' per se but also on the clusters, the assemblages, and the heavy editing that they have been subjected to."--Giorgio Riello, American Historical Review
"When placed in time and combined with a range of written materials from a variety of disciplines, 'tangible things' help illuminate and sometimes add an affective dimension to contextual understandings. Exhibitions that incorporate this broader view, the authors persuasively argue, can educate viewers in a more nuanced way."--CHOICE
"The book ultimately makes it tantalizingly clear that the material world is now, more than ever, in need of analysis."--Stephanie Foote, Journal of American History
"A highly successful synthesis of interdisciplinary scholarship about museums and knowledge, this book provides a methodological approach that, if adopted by museum professionals and scholars, would revitalize the use of museum collections in exhibition practices."--Helen Sheumaker, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"I would recommend this book for courses in public history with an emphasis on material culture, as well as for related courses in museum studies, art history, anthropology, and the history of science."--Samuel J. Redman, The Public Historian