The Appeal of a Material Culture Approach

The study of material culture has an obvious appeal for a second year Museum Studies student with an undergraduate degree in History. Objects provide a valuable record of the past, and using objects as the starting point for interpreting history is still a very underdeveloped methodology in museums. The opportunities for research are limitless, and each topic suggests a range of historical possibilities to study and analyze: from common household items to the decorative arts, from buildings to fields and parks, from industrial machines to contemporary cars.

My background in the study of social and political history provides a theoretical framework that blends well with the work of material culture theorists. As well, social history studies help to make sense of and illuminate significance in objects. Objects, I am quickly learning, rarely speak for themselves, and require a fair bit of historical context in order to tell their stories.

More importantly, the multidisciplinary nature of material culture encourages students to move away from familiar territory and to explore areas of research never before studied. At least this is how I justify the fact that I am, in the sixth year of my university studies, exposing myself for the first time to the study of material culture through architectural and medical history.

  Index

 The Doctor's House

 A Case Study:  The Hillary House Koffler Museum of Medicine

A Methodological  Approach

 An Interpretative Approach

Studying the Architecture of Hillary House

A Room Use Analysis: How did the doctor use the consulting room?

Structure for the Research Paper

  References

In order to frame the study of the the doctor's house as an object and as an example of material culture evidence, I compiled a fairly broad bibliography that addresses medical history, the history of medicine in rural Ontario, architecture of the period, other material culture interpretations of medical space (predominantly hospitals), gender and medicine, the history of professionalization in the medical field.

To view the bibliography, please click here

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.  Please feel free to contact me at sfaulkne@chass.utoronto.ca