Overview

Useful Objects examines the history of American museums during the nineteenth century through the eyes of visitors, writers, and collectors. Museums of this period included a wide range of objects, from botanical and zoological specimens to antiquarian artifacts and technological models. Intended to promote

Full Product Details

9780197553480

Table of Contents

Reviews

Useful Objects itself functions as a kind of museum, bringing together different museums and modes of understanding in order to see what sparks arise. * E. Thomas Finan, ALH Online Review *

...One could easily imagine her book sparking many fruitful inquiries into more concrete practices. * Caitlin Galante DeAngelis Hopkins, New England Quarterly * Useful Objects itself functions as a kind of museum, bringing together different museums and modes of understanding in order to see what sparks arise. * E. Thomas Finan, ALH Online Review *

"...One could easily imagine her book ""sparking"" many fruitful inquiries into more concrete practices. * Caitlin Galante DeAngelis Hopkins, New England Quarterly * Useful Objects itself functions as a kind of museum, bringing together different museums and modes of understanding in order to see what ""sparks"" arise. * E. Thomas Finan, ALH Online Review * Reed Gochberg's rich and complicated Useful Objects: Museums, Science, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America took me back to that odd classroom moment and underlined the significance of the difference between a subject, who is curious, and an object who has become a curiosity to others. * Ann Fabian, American Historical Review *"

Author Information

Reed Gochberg is a Lecturer on history and literature at Harvard University. Her research and teaching focus on American studies, museum studies, and material culture.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available