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Object Story: Basket
An ash splint basket created by a Mohegan artisan, a Native American tribe from the Northeastern woodlands region of North America.
Activity: Why Does It Look the Way It Does?
Look closely at an object to describe its characteristics and features and connect these with ideas of culture and identity.
Connecting to People through Portraits
Like a photograph, a portrait represents a picture of a person.
Overview: Out of Many, One?
Americans have long created an identity based on distinct principles and values that define the country. This unit explores the tensions between being an individual and being part of a group or nation and provides insight into what it means to be an individual in America, today and centuries ago.
Overview: Prosperity for All?
America was founded on the principles of equality, freedom, liberty, and respect for individual rights. But these ideals have not always applied to everyone, and many Americans have fought since the founding of this country to broaden those values so that they apply to all Americans.
Object Story: Portrait of Elizabeth Stone Coffin
Portrait of Elizabeth Stone Coffin painted by John Brewster Jr. in 1801.
Everybody Collects
The kinds of objects, artifacts, and artworks that people collect communicate different ideas. They can be a record of events that happened in society.
Doing Detective Work
Being a historian or archaeologist is a lot like being a detective. You start out with clues, which are pieces of evidence that people leave behind.
Folk Art, Vernacular Art, or Naïve Art?
Many of the objects in the Fielding Collection such as Still Life with a Basket of Fruit, Flowers, and Cornucopia attributed to Joseph Proctor are often considered “folk art.” Some people prefer to use related terms like “naïve,” “vernacular,” or “nonacademic” instead of “folk.” All of these terms describe work by artists who may not have had extensive, formal training or decided not to follow the teachings and ideas of traditional art instruction.
Activity: Think like a Collector
Examine a museum collection for themes and commonalities and consider what the collection represents about a community.