Thank You, Winterthur!

I'm back from Delaware, where I had the honor of presenting my paper on Pompe Stevens at the Winterthur Museum. I got great feedback and a lot of enthusiastic praise, which was very reassuring. I was nervous about speaking slowly and clearly, but it all went well.

I had never been  to Winterthur before and I was duly impressed. During one of the breaks, I was able to take a tour of the house, which is crammed with 80,000 amazing artifacts — furniture, paintings, china, textiles, silver, architectural features, etc. I enjoyed the Society of the Cincinnati china and the giant punchbowls near the formal staircase. If you like Early American material culture — particularly when it takes the form of high-end decorative arts — this museum is truly a must-see.

The Public Lives of Things

This weekend, I will be presenting a short paper at the University of Delaware's Material Culture Symposium for Emerging Scholars. The topic of this year's symposium is "The Public Lives of Things" and will feature a diverse array of presentations.

I will be speaking about Pompe Stevens' carvings. As readers of this blog know, I have been working on this project off and on for several months now. It's certainly not done — I'm thinking of taking it in a more literary direction, rather than an art-historical one — but I'm at a point where I'm ready for some feedback.

I'll set some gravestones to auto-post over the weekend for your entertainment. If you happen to find yourself near the Winterthur Estate on Saturday, come by and see me!

Land Use Workshop

I know it's probably a bit late to mention this, but there is a workshop called "People and the Land in the Atlantic World 1500-1825" on Saturday at Lamont Library. It's free, but requires preregistration (available here).

Bernard Bailyn is giving the opening remarks. I'll admit - part of the reason I'm going is just to see him. I hear that he's around campus, but I wouldn't recognize him, so this is my chance to remedy that situation. Rumor on campus is that Bailyn has, on at least one occasion, shown up to a random senior's thesis presentation and asked intimidating questions. I would cry.

John White watercolor via. Incidentally, this watercolor is currently on display at Yale's Center for British Art. I took my mom and sister to the exhibit back in March, and it is worth a visit. The pictures are striking in person - copies in books can't reproduce the iridescence of White's fish or the erasure marks around his dancing Native Americans. The exhibit is up until June 1st. Go see it if you can!