Historical Artifact Essay

Historical artifacts are important to understanding the history of the women in our own or adjacent families or communities. For this assignment students chose an historical artifact from the centuries we have studied through 2010.

Historical artifacts can teach us a great deal about the past, about daily life, hopes and aspirations, skills and needs of individual women or groups of women who used or produced them and passed them on.

Sometimes these artifacts are treasured family heirlooms or simply well-used conveniences. Kitchen gadgets, apparel, photographs, books, and more are appropriate ‘lenses’ through which to think about women’s history. If you have in mind a family heirloom that symbolizes an aspect of women’s history, please write your essay on that. Students have written about a prized quilt made by a female family member and a tupperware set or a stand mixer. The object should be clearly associated with women’s lives and roles.

If you prefer you may take a less personalized approach and choose a decade and an artifact (like the 1940s and the Bikini bathing suit) and explain what the artifact teaches us about the decade and women’s lives then. You may also wish to discuss an artifact in relationship to the women’s history it connects with over more than one decade, focusing on a theme or themes. Students have written about red lipstick, for example, and Sunday hats in the African American community, for another. There is a dedicated discussion forum for the assignment and any questions that may arise available from the Learning Modules in the weeks just before it is due.

Your essay should, when applicable, reference materials covered and knowledge gained in this course and use historical citation. Use of relevant, informative images of the artifact or one similar is encouraged (with permission if from family members). Each essay should offer a clear historical interpretation of the artifact and its relationship to women’s history ( a sample outline/template appears below.)

Assignment Philosophy and Purpose: This is a summative assignment to demonstrate student’s development of the skills of historical concepts, research, thinking, writing, and citation. The PrimaryAnalysis essays prepare students to analyze an artifact (by describing, assessing, then analyzing a primary source). When students share the links to their essays, this creates a shared ‘tapestry’ of our collective

understanding of US women’s history concepts and experiences and helps to show how material culture can teach us about women’s lives. The essay is inspired by the book All that She Carried by Tia Miles. Since we aren’t reading the book, you can listen to this interview with Miles. She takes a seemingly simple family heirloom and shares how it is historically instructive. Essay length 600-800 words, 12 point font. Double-Spaced. This essay requires a first draft.

Submission of first draft: This is an upper division C-4 course. Preparation and revision of draft and providing and receiving peer feedback is a required element of any upper division C-4 course. Via Canvas students will be assigned a classmate’s essay to peer review. Use the comment box in the grading area to provide feedback.

Choosing an artifact: The artifact does not have to be owned by you or connected to a family member. Youmight find an item on a USWomen’s History website, in a historical

magazine, or discussed in one of the primary source documents we read this semester.

Many students do use an artifact that has always beenmeaningful to them or a family

member, or one that takes on a newmeaning in light of this class, sometimes in discussion

with an older female family member or friend.

Handicrafts: quilts, crocheted or knit afghans, embroidery, hand sewn items. These family

treasures or everyday itemsmaywork for this essay to help illuminate the connections

between the lives of women in our families and the history we've learned. (My

grandmothers knit and crocheted quite a bit; but for me the blankets matter more as

memory keepers than something that is richly historically instructive. On the other hand a

photograph of myGrandmother wearing a double knit pantsuit and shiny white ankle

boots in her small Miami apartment would enable me to discuss women's employment

from 1930 to 1970 ( this is more than one decade, but is a narrow focus), double knit

pantsuits and disco dances, as well as divorce andwidowhood and the independent and

social lifestyle a women born in the early 1900s could lead in the 1970s . So I would

discuss the wash andwear pantsuit and not the blanket(s) shemade.

To give you ideas, here are some utilitarian items evocative of women's lives and historical

experiences:

Clothing, small appliances for domestic labor tasks or beauty tasks, sports equipment. (A

tennis racquet? A crockpot or microwave?More recently the ‘instant pot!”) A recipe or

favorite family dish, casserole, coffee cake.

Political buttons, t-shirts, bumper stickers, posters, etc..

Pottery (likely to bemore historical–such as Pueblo women’s artistry), household items

like a butter churn, spinning wheel, vacuum, or tupperware.

Memento–pay stub, holiday card, wedding invitation, photograph, passport, visa, plane

ticket, diploma, retirement gift or certificate, movie or theater tickets.

Book–sometimes a popular book or non-fiction book captures the ‘zeitgeist’ of an era.

Judy Blume’s Forevermade a big splash when it came out and friends passed copies around

(with or without parental notice/approval–askme how I know).We read excerpts from the

Lowell Offering in this class.

Images of posters, photos, paintings or objects from thewebsites you or a peer reviewed.

If you are having trouble coming upwith an artifact on your own, you can ask a family

member about an object that they associate with a female relative. Youmay also consult

withme (and should for approval–note the assignment column in grades).

Appliances: Students have written onmolcejetes, hand and standingmixers, curlers and

more.

Begin by reflecting on amemorable object that is in your or your family's possession, or

that you read about or saw in one of the filmswewatched, or that you found in an online

exhibit of women's history. There is a discussion forum thread devoted to sharing your

historical artifact choice and FAQs about the assignment. You can share early ideas here

It’s not just an assignment in this class…Artifacts with historical meaning are frequently

discussed.

NPR did this story a while back:

"What Precious Object is Part of Your Family History?"

These vignettes aren't necessarily models for this USWomen's History assignment, but

may help inspire your thought process to identify an object and tease out its meaning. It

also demonstrates that this assignment has cultural value and interest beyond this class.

The National Archives has some good questions about how to go about analyzing an

artifact:

https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/artifact

This site from the Smithsonian National HistoryMuseum has a great collection of objects

that may be a place where you find your artifact:

https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/subjects

This site from the National Archives has examples of photographic resources.

https://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/photography

An article on historians analyzingmaterial culture with the idea of inclusivity is here.

Sample Outline/Template for the Historical Artifact Essay (Provide citations for any research you do).

I. Introduction A. Describe the artifact and its function. Make us interested in your essay! B. Describe its family significance or why you chose to discuss this artifact. C. Make the case for what it shows about US Women’s History (Thesis) D. Brief historical background on the object E. Brief historical background for the women’s history of the decade you

discuss or the main historical development/s across the decades you wish to discuss.

II. Analytic Discussion (Choose the topics that make the most sense for your artifact. At least two required)

A. Family member who produced or from whom you inherited the artifact B. Use/s of the artifact. Who used it? What did it do? C. Women’s history connection/s for the artifact (every essay should include this)

1. Symbolism of the artifact: Freedom/constriction or opportunity/loss? (Optional)

2. Function of the artifact (while being produced and or while being used) 3. Connection to historical

movements/milestones/experiences/developments that we have studied in this class. Reference course material with an example or quote here.

D. The artifact’s importance or change across decades (if doing a non-family artifact) or for a decade/set time period, or across the generations, or to you or your family member

E. Different components of the artifact. Here you might discuss things like whose clothing is featured in a quilt or when an appliance was first introduced. You can discuss the skills required to produce the handicraft.The use consumers/users made of the object or why you think it was popular.

III. Conclusion: (A and at least one more element below). A. The most important elements of the artifact AND B. What historical context/development they connect to

C. The artifact’s historical significance/significance to American Women’s History. D. Where the artifact sits/is used (if used) today. E. What the artifact symbolizes for women’s history and or your family.

Note: the outline elements above may not each be a paragraph. They could be components of a paragraph.There are other possible organizations for you to present the historical meaning of the historical artifact you have chosen in an essay.

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