Reawakening Materials: American Art, Empire, and Material Histories in Historic Deerfield’s Collection
Needlework: “Death of Generale Wolfe,” Margaret Ansell, Tottenham, England, c. 1774-1776. Textile: worsted wool, linen; wood: pine; gesso, bole and gold leaf; glass framed: 22 1/8 x 29 x 2 5/8 in. Historic Deerfield, HD 66.198.
Join us for “Reawakening Materials: American Art, Empire, and Material Histories in Historic Deerfield’s Collection”: a public colloquium centered on Historic Deerfield’s collection of paintings, works on paper, and decorative arts from November 7-8, 2024. Questions of “empire” emerged from an interest in scholars rethinking the American experience from the lens of global European empires (England, Spain, France, The Netherlands, etc.) and U.S. imperialism. Historic Deerfield’s collection focuses on 18th-and 19th-century American art and material culture, and it is based in a landscape tied to Indigenous communities, histories of enslaved and free people of African descent, and settler colonialism. Our colloquium and speakers will explore relationships between empire and the materials of artworks in the collection, specifically asking how these art historical topics can be generative for recontextualizing HD’s place in the study of New England history, art, and culture. The program will engage with interpretations of settler colonialism through Historic Deerfield’s collection and ask how objects with their material histories broaden understandings of American empire, especially ones tied to the New England landscape and Indigenous histories.
The program will also workshop methods for telling these narratives and interpretive strategies through historic interiors, including objects tied to violence, trauma, and absence, and opportunities to bring in stories of joy and survivance. Our program reconsiders how empire and materials in Deerfield’s collection can be understood within a more complicated and entangled historical narrative, generating knowledge and new frameworks that can speak to the complexity of American art. The program includes invited scholars working in the fields of historical American art, African American and Diasporic Studies, Native American Studies, Conservation, and other allied fields. Speakers will investigate materials that reveal new ideas of empire, including: pastels, lacquer, birch, engravings on paper, and linen. Rather than limiting the discussion to traditional fine arts materials, scholars discuss material often neglected or forgotten in narratives of American art to uncover new ways we can reveal ideas of empire.
Colloquium Schedule:
Thursday, November 7, 2024: Reception and Keynote
12:00 PM–4:30 PM
Registration. Location: Lobby, Flynt Center of Early New England Life.
Participants who arrive early are welcome to walk The Street and enjoy Historic Deerfield’s house museums. At the Flynt Center, the museum displays decorative arts and paintings in the Collections Study Gallery and in several exhibitions: In Pursuit of the Picturesque: The Art of James Wells Champney, Building a Collection: Recent Acquisitions at Historic Deerfield, and Into the Woods: Crafting Early American Furniture, and Vermont Furniture from the Alley Collection. Attendees can also participate in walking tours, view the Witness Stones, and the Encountering Pocumtuck Walking Tour App.
5:00–5:10 PM
Welcome. John Davis, President, Historic Deerfield. Location: Deerfield Community Center.
5:15–6:15 PM
Keynote Lecture. Dr. Charmaine Nelson, Provost Professor, Black Diasporic Art & Visual Culture, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Location: Deerfield Community Center.
6:30–7:30 PM
Opening Reception. Location: Hall Tavern.
7:30 PM
Dinner on own or optional prix fixe dinner at the Deerfield Inn.
Friday, November 8, 2024: Public Presentations
Unless otherwise stated, all Friday events are located at the Deerfield Community Center.
8:30–9:15 AM
Registration, Coffee, and Refreshments.
9:15–9:30 AM
Welcome and Introduction. Lea Stephenson, Luce Foundation Curatorial Fellow in American Paintings and Works on Paper, Historic Deerfield.
9:30–10:30 AM
Panel 1: Contested Pigment and Paper.
“Sarah Bushnell Perkins and the Texture of Pastel”
Megan Baker, PhD Candidate in Art History, University of Delaware; 2024-2025
Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
and the National Portrait Gallery.
“Printing the Seven Years War”
Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art and PhD Candidate in Art History, University of Delaware.
10:30–10:45 AM
Break.
10:45–11:45 AM
Panel 2: Indigenous Presence and Materials
“Sally George’s Pequot Healing Ministry, Horatio A. Hamilton’s Medicine Chest and the Ambulatory Alchemy of Healing Power in the Native Northeast/New England Borderlands”
Anthony Trujillo (Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo), PhD Candidate in American Studies, Harvard University.
“Natural Materials”
Dr. Mary Amanda McNeil, Assistant Professor, Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora, Tufts University.
12:00–1:30 pm
Buffet Lunch. Location: Deerfield Inn (included with in-person registration).
1:30–2:30 PM
Free time.
Tour historic houses, Apprentice’s Workshop, Wilson Printing Office, Silver Shop, Flynt Center, or walk the Street. Participants can also tour the Encountering Pocumtuck Walking Tour App or Witness Stones.
2:30–3:30 PM
Panel 3: Natural Matter and Framing Landscape
“Sylvan Nationalism: The Birch Example”
Joseph Litts, PhD Candidate in Art History, Princeton University.
“‘Conquer difficulties’: Investigating Eliza Clarkson’s Chinese Lacquer”
Lan Morgan, Associate Curator, Peabody Essex Museum.
3:30–3:45 PM
Break
3:45–4:45 PM
Panel 4: Material Legacies and Histories
“Threads of Power: Needlework, Enslavement, and the Fabrication of Washington’s Legacy”
Jonathan Square, Assistant Professor of Black Visual Culture, Parsons School of Design.
“Memory and Performance: Reenacting The Battle of Blood Brook”
Morgan Freeman, PhD Candidate in American Studies, Yale University.
4:45–5:00 PM
Final Questions and Closing Remarks.
Registration coming soon!