Studies in Material Culture

Studies in Material Culture

BY THOMAS CARTERGUEST EDITOR

SINCE TIME IS IRREVERSIBLE," writes the historian Robert Berkhofer, "the historian knows the past only by the remains left over." Some of the surviving evidence is written and consists of the kinds of documents historians normally rely on. Diaries, journals, court records, tax rolls, and the like are the usual sources of history. But there are other remains, more numerous and more familiar perhaps, and these are, quite simply, things. Houses, chairs, dishes, tools—all the things you can think of that once were part of people's everyday lives—are also part of the historical record that has come down to us through time. Although their message is not explicit, such documents—however mute they may at first appear—nevertheless have an important story to tell, and it is toward this story, the history of things, that this special issue of the Utah Historical Quarterly is directed.

Exploring the past through objects is called material culture study or material culture., which is often what the objects themselves are called. The name is appropriate for it implies the existence of a fundamental relationship between the things people make, buy, and use and culture, the underlying values, beliefs, and assumptions of a society or community. Historians, folklorists, architectural historians, geographers, and others study material culture because it reflects the pattern of past life. The arrangement of rooms in a house tells us how people once lived; innovations in roof framing technology denote a progressive strain within the society; covering a rough pine cupboard with a painted mahogany veneer exposes a group's attitude toward nature; an egalitarian society is symbolized by a uniformity in furniture design; and so on.

The list of ways we can learn about the past through the study of material culture is endless. There are drawbacks, of course. Much has disappeared and what remains is often the most durable and most expensive, leaving the evidence skewed in favor of history's elite. Yet, in the end, the history of things offers not just another supplement to conventional historiography but a way of locating and exploring avenues of historical inquiry unknowable and unreachable through the written record.

Despite the increased interest in material culture around the country this type of research has not made significant inroads into Utah or for that matter the West in general. There have been several studies of Utah furniture;" the state's architecture has been documented to some extent; and some, especially the late Austin Fife, have branched out into more exotic subjects like gravestones, hay derricks, fences, and landscape features. Still, the study of Utah material culture remains in its infancy. This issue is intended not as a definitive statement on the subject but rather as a vehicle for calling the public's attention to this new and exciting area of historical research. The contributors reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the field. Carol Edison and Elaine Thatcher are folklorists, Esther Truitt has a degree in landscape architecture, and Kirk Henrichsen is a museum curator. All bring their own experience and perspective to the subject, and this diversity lends rich variety to their respective offerings on gravestones, chairs, gardens, and pottery.

Several questions or themes are evident in these essays and are worthy of attention. First, and this is a question almost everyone asks, is there a "Mormon" style in material culture? From the evidence presented here the answer seems at once yes and no. Edison's work with gravestones suggests that distinctive Mormon iconography—the beehive, the all-seeing eye, and so forth—is found only on a minority of markers and that more conventional biblical and ubiquitous nineteenth-century mourning symbols were generally favored. Locally produced Cache Valley furniture, according to Thatcher's findings, displays a similar connection with eastern conventions, and the relatively short time span for such production was insufficient to allow a distinctive style to emerge. Henrichsen's detailed history of the Henrichsen pottery in Provo points out the success Danish immigrant potters enjoyed in meeting the utilitarian needs of the settlers, but no special pottery style emerged. Truitt, on the other hand, suggests that a Mormon style may be present but not overtly obvious. What is unique about Mormon material culture, these authors argue, stems from the adaptation of older and largely eastern ideas about such things as gravestones and garden space to the particular circumstances encountered in the Great Basin. One point seems clear, however, and this is a general confusion about the nature of Mormon culture itself. Are we looking at a religiously inspired communitarian society or simply another variant of middle-class America? The answer to this question is probably that it is both things at once, a stream of ambiguity that runs deeply through the artifactual record.

A second question raised by these essays is a familiar one and really has two parts. First, how did the Mormon frontier differ from other western frontiers? If it is true, as these authors intimate, that the Mormon pioneers strove for permanence, comfort, and even gentility from the beginning of settlement, then the true bourgeois identity of the group so vividly documented in the objects seems clear. And second, if there was in fact a certain connection and continuity with eastern styles and trends during the pioneer period, does it not mean that the impact of the railroad in 1869—presumed the great watershed in Utah history—needs reevaluation? Henrichsen and, to a lesser degree, Thatcher downplay the railroad's effect on the pottery and furniture industries. And it is obvious in Edison's gravestones that middle-class American fashion was not unknown in Utah Territory. The history of things, then, lacks clear junctures between the American East and the Mormon West, and between pre-railroad and post-railroad Utah. Instead there is a spirit of continuity and accommodation that can no longer be ignored.

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