Vol. 23, No. 3: Things

Vol. 23, No. 3: Things

Mississippi’s Rhinestone Cowboy. West Virginia’s last commercial broom-maker. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s orange grove. And all sorts of other southern things. Guest edited by Bernie Herman, we think this issue is pure gold (if the glitzy cover didn’t give that away).

Front Porch: Things

by Marcie Cohen Ferris

"Southern things are speaking up. They say, ‘Listen. Pay attention. Do something.'"

On Southern Things

by Bernard L. Herman

"Material culture is best understood as the history and philosophy of objects. It proceeds from the idea that objects, tangible and imagined, locate the entirety of human experience and understanding.”

Manifest

by Wendel A. White

MANIFEST was featured in our recent issue on southern Things (vol. 23, no. 3). Join Wendel White at an exhibit opening & artist's talk on February 21st, 6:00–8:00 PM, at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

ORANGES FROM HARRIET BEECHER STOWE—MANDARIN, FLA.

by Shana Klein

"So serious about her orange business, she even created her own crate labels, advertising: ‘ORANGES FROM HARRIET BEECHER STOWE—MANDARIN, FLA.’”

Philip N. J. Wythe’s Headstone

by Ryan K. Smith

“For a city built on slavery, in what was the most populous southern state, the marker offers a portal through which to see what W. E. B. DuBois called ‘the strange meaning of being black.’”

Sanctified by War

by Dale Rosengarten

“When the basket/bowl vanished, the loss was blamed, naturally, on General Sherman.”

Can A Gas Station Remember A Murder?

by Dave Tell

“Ben Roy’s reveals the fickleness of southern things: while such things can bear witness to the realities of the southern past . . . in this case, the affective power of southern things hinges on their capacity to elide essential features of that past.”

“They Don’t Dig for Coal Here Anymore”

by Forest Hazel

“‘I don’t know about Providence, little preacher, but I do believe in rats.’”

Bridging Voice and Identity

by Trista Reis Porter

“Made in Seagrove, North Carolina, by a fourth-generation potter, the Bridge Bowl tells the familiar story of this particular place in the Piedmont and the landscape, people, traditions, and ideas that animate it. It also tells the story of globalization.”

Rhinestone Man

by Jennifer Joy Jameson

“The teeth are what really get people." —Loy Bowlin

First Things

by Julia Ridley Smith

"If you studied objects, you’d begin to see that they have much to teach—not only about beauty and utility, ephemerality and permanence, but also about history, about people."

Building a Broom by Feel: Jim Shaffer

by Emily Hilliard

“‘We shipped brooms to Macy’s in New York for years . . . It would kind of pride you a little bit to ship to Schwartz’s in Cincinnati or Macy’s in New York.’”

Going Dutch

by Rebecca Sharpless

“They may be French and they may be fancy, but my pots have hearts of iron after all.”

Driving a New Perspective

by Emily Ridder-Beardsley

“As a pastor, he preached the Word of God from the pulpit, but through his photography, he preached the Word of Mobility and Aspiration through the use of objects of material culture.”

What’s in a Seal?

by Denise E. Bates

“Over the course of a few years, a fish that lurked in the muddy waters of the bayou and was once described by naturalist William Bartram as a ‘warlike voracious creature’ was elevated to a local celebrity status.”

A List of Waters

by Tyree Daye

NOTE: Line breaks may shift on a mobile device.