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9780820356679

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"A startling and compelling example showing that even the most seemingly simple everyday objects are enmeshed in complicated social, cultural, and historical politics. Combining detailed craft knowledge with anthropological breadth, the authors explore the ways in which race is subtly woven into stagings of slave and owner spaces in historical sites, the culture and politics of yeoman low-country 'plain folk, ' and the use of craft to reinvigorate Appalachian tradition in new ways. A rare achievement in working across black and white, aesthetics, materials, and culture, this book is an important contribution to new materialisms, discussions of craft, and work on the larger contexts in which material things take on meaning.--Elizabeth Chin, professor of media design practices at Art Center College of Design ""author of My Life with Things"" Contributes to expansive contemporary conversations about which stories get told, which histories are enshrined and by whom, and makes clear that coverlets indeed merit further scholarly consideration.--Erica Warren ""Design and Culture"" Falls and Smith harness an impressive range of source materials and guide the reader mindfully with them. Their investigative tone and almost ethnographic approach to museum collecting is especially effective in the early chapters, in which they critically confront biases of the archive around coverlet production and mobilize material knowledge of fiber to complicate contemporary perceptions of antebellum society.--Elaine Y. Yau ""Winterthur Portfolio"" This well-crafted book is impressive for what it tells us about the evolution of public history in an age when marginalized groups are competing for attention. As the text unfolds, Falls and Smith carefully knit evidence about coverlets into a larger story about how museums and historic houses interpret, and misinterpret, the work-life of African American women and women from yeoman households. Overshot captures the attention of the nonspecialist as well as the specialist in skillfully demonstrating that coverlets are both art and craft.--Paul M. Pressly, Director Emeritus of the Ossabaw Island Education Alliance ""author of On the Rim of the Caribbean: Colonial Georgia and the British Atlantic World"""

A startling and compelling example showing that even the most seemingly simple everyday objects are enmeshed in complicated social, cultural, and historical politics. Combining detailed craft knowledge with anthropological breadth, the authors explore the ways in which race is subtly woven into stagings of slave and owner spaces in historical sites, the culture and politics of yeoman low-country 'plain folk, ' and the use of craft to reinvigorate Appalachian tradition in new ways. A rare achievement in working across black and white, aesthetics, materials, and culture, this book is an important contribution to new materialisms, discussions of craft, and work on the larger contexts in which material things take on meaning.--Elizabeth Chin, professor of media design practices at Art Center College of Design author of My Life with Things This well-crafted book is impressive for what it tells us about the evolution of public history in an age when marginalized groups are competing for attention. As the text unfolds, Falls and Smith carefully knit evidence about coverlets into a larger story about how museums and historic houses interpret, and misinterpret, the work-life of African American women and women from yeoman households. Overshot captures the attention of the nonspecialist as well as the specialist in skillfully demonstrating that coverlets are both art and craft.--Paul M. Pressly, Director Emeritus of the Ossabaw Island Education Alliance author of On the Rim of the Caribbean: Colonial Georgia and the British Atlantic World

Author Information

Susan Falls is a professor of anthropology at the Savannah College of Art & Design and the author of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing and Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds. Jessica R. Smith is a professor of fibers at the Savannah College of Art & Design whose work has been exhibited at Design Miami, Cooper Hewitt, and the Walker Art Center. She is the author of Textiles of the Lowcountry: Charleston and Savannah-Collecting, Preserving, and Narrating.

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