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As one of the major lessons from this course, it is our aim to prepare you as critical thinkers,
writers, and communicators. In order to meet that objective, this paper is designed to show you how to go
about larger research projects, gather sources/evidence/material, evaluate, and structure your own
thoughts in a clear and concise manner
Thinking about the course so far, material goods play an important role in many aspects of history
(motivating a turn to agriculture, pushing explorers to far off lands, spurring revolution, and establishing
law & order). But how do material goods come to represent and tell us about the past? Isn’t a crate of tea
just any old crate of tea? But what if it was at Boston Harbour? A cross is just a form of execution
developed by the Romans (technically, the Persians), but when a martyr dies upon it in the early 1st
century, the cross becomes a religious symbol – going on to be used in a myriad of objects and pieces of
art.
Who created these things? What were the uses and inspirations behind the items? Where were
they used? Why were they important (both at the time of creation/use and now that they are in a
museum)? Looking through museum collections (either online or in-person), find an object in a museum
collection that you find interesting and attempt to answer some of the questions above. The paper should
address not only the “who, what, where, when, and why?” historians are always asking, but also connect
your object to the broader themes of the course.
** I picked the oldowan stone tools as my object**
Final publish
For the Final publish, I will expect a well rounded and argued paper that clearly articulates the main
focus of the assignment – that is to say, the paper should briefly discuss the object and museum
that you found, how the object relates to the course, and the broader “who/what/where/when” and
most importantly “why” of the objects importance. The final publish should run 5 pages in length
and include proper citations (Chicago style footnotes)
and an attached photograph of the object (the photo does not count towards the paper length). The
final publish should include;
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Five pages of text ,Where the object is from (what museum, what is the object’s background)
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Relate the object to the broader themes of the course
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Proper citations (footnotes, Chicago style)
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At least one image of your object at the end of the paper (not counting towards page
count)
Places to find objects
● Metropolitan Museum of Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!?q=
● Newark Museum: https://www.newarkmuseumart.org/ko/search-our-collection
● Boston Museum of Fine Arts: https://www.mfa.org/collections
● Smithsonian: https://www.si.edu/
● The British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection
● The Victoria & Albert Museum: https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections?type=featured