Material Culture

From the editor, Fall 2019. Greetings, colleagues! It is my pleasure to bring this issue of Material Culture to you! I am putting the final touches on this issue at the same time that I am putting together the program for the ISLPMC Annual Meeting in Detroit. It’s times like these when I am in awe of the diversity of topics and ideas that fall under the material culture umbrella. The three articles in this issue are classic examples. First, Kathleen Kennedy explores the material culture of everyday life through her explanation of the use and evolution of coconut dippers in the American household. Next, Amanda Weber reconstructs the history of a forgotten landscape — that of the Staten Island Marine Hospital Quarantine — and uses Ken Foote’s classifications of rectification and designation to demonstrate meaning of place. Finally, Thomas Bell traces his journey from quantitative economic geographer to qualitative popular culture scholar in an autobiographical essay.

Hope you enjoyed the annual meeting in Detroit! Please consider submitting a more in-depth version of your conference paper to Material Culture!

I wish everyone a happy fall!

Sincerely,
Sara Beth Keough, Ph.D., Editor, Material Culture

Subscribe Now

A subscription to Material Culture is
one of the benefits of membership in the International Society
for Landscape, Place,
& Material Culture.
Join now!

Submissions

Go to the Submissions Guidelines

Material Culture encourages submissions from scholars for publication from across the disciplines. Any topic that encompasses some aspect of material culture, vernacular / contemporary / pop culture landscapes or extant artifacts is relevant to this Journal. Authors, as well, can be from the corporate, government, independent, non-profit or educational sectors. Manuscripts are peer reviewed and the Editor will make grammatical corrections only, as stated in the style sheet. Any suggestions or corrections that deal with content or significantly alter the style or thesis of the manuscript will be returned to the author for their consideration.

Manuscripts and submissions should be submitted directly to the Editor via email as attachments. Photos and illustrations should be submitted electronically as .jpeg attachments.

The guidelines for formatting manuscript and book reviews, style sheets and editorial philosophy can be found here. Other inquiries should be addressed to the Editor, including copyright permission, reprints, letters to the Editor and advertising copy. Any unused materials will be returned to the sender per their request. Additional questions should be addressed to the Editor: Sara Beth Keough, Ph.D., (989) 964-2195, sbkeough@svsu.edu.

Material Culture Culture is printed two times a year for members of PAS:APAL. It is abstracted and indexed in: JSTOR, ProQuest, History and Life, Historical Abstracts, GeoAbstracts, and the MLA International Bibliography. You may download a PDF of the table of contents of the current issue here. Fall 2019 Material Culture includes:

The Forgotten New England Coconut Dipper in the 19th-Century American Landscape

Kathleen E. Kennedy, Penn State University – Brandywine

Abstract: With their origins stretching back into colonial history, coconut dippers, halved coconut shells set on long handles, stand among the least well known of 19th-century New England’s manufactured goods. Balancing attractiveness with economy and utility, coconut dippers were viewed as integral to healthy household water management, and they were sold all over the US. Coconut dippers became so traditional that when new manufacturing techniques enabled inexpensive dipper manufacture out of non-organic materials late in the 19th century, the benchmark against which innovations were designed remained the coconut dipper. Coconut dippers remind us of the necessity of taking the material culture of daily life into account when we assess domestic, regional, and even national landscapes.

A Forgotten Quarantine Landscape: The Staten Island Marine Hospital Quarantine 1799 - 1858

Amanda Weber, Oklahoma State University

Abstract: Quarantine and isolation practices leave behind landscapes of lasting policies, procedures, and structures. The structures and history surrounding the landscapes can work their way out of collective memory. Through a critical examination of records from the local Board of Health, historical maps, and local archives, I construct a timeline of the quarantine landscape of the Staten Island Marine Hospital and its imprint left on New York history. A Memorial Green now embodies what was once the Staten Island Marine Hospital Quarantine in front of the new Courthouse, with obelisks and a headstone to commemorate the immigration journey of those attempting to escape the Great Famine (1845–1849). .

Dr. Geo-Love or: How I Learned to Stop Quantifying and Love the Culture

Thomas L. Bell

An autobiographical essay.

Return to top