136 Material Culture and the Making of America

What do the objects we purchase and use say about us?

If we take the time to think about the material objects and clothing in our lives, we’ll find that we can actually learn a lot about ourselves and other people. The same holds true when we take the time to study the objects and clothing left behind by people from the past.

Jennifer Van Horn, an Assistant Professor of History and Art History at the University of Delaware and author of The Power of Objects in Eighteenth-Century British America, leads us on an exploration of the 18th-century British material world and how objects from that world can help us think about and explore the lives of 18th-century British Americans.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/136

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 024: Kimberly Alexander, 18th-Century Fashion & Material Culture
• Episode 079: Jim Horn, What is a Historical Source
• Episode 084: Zara Anishanslin, How Historians Read Historical Sources
• Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madison’s Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention

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