Table Of ContentA CULTURAL HISTORY
OF OBJECTS
VOLUME 6
A Cultural History of Objects
General Editors: Dan Hicks and William Whyte
Volume 1
A Cultural History of Objects in Antiquity
Edited by Robin Osborne
Volume 2
A Cultural History of Objects in the Medieval Age
Edited by Julie Lund and Sarah Semple
Volume 3
A Cultural History of Objects in the Renaissance
Edited by James Symonds
Volume 4
A Cultural History of Objects in the Age of Enlightenment
Edited by Audrey Horning
Volume 5
A Cultural History of Objects in the Age of Industry
Edited by Carolyn L. White
Volume 6
A Cultural History of Objects in the Modern Age
Edited by Laurie A. Wilkie and John M. Chenoweth
A CULTURAL HISTORY
OF OBJECTS
IN THE
MODERN AGE
VOLUME 6
Edited by Laurie A. Wilkie and
John M. Chenoweth
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
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First published in Great Britain 2021
Copyright © Laurie A. Wilkie, John M. Chenoweth, and contributors, 2021
Laurie A. Wilkie and John M. Chenoweth have asserted their right under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Editors of this work.
Series design by Raven Design
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ISBN: HB: 978-1-4742-9880-3
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CONTENTS
List of iLLustrations vii
series Preface xi
Introduction 1
Laurie A. Wilkie and John M. Chenoweth
1 Objecthood 37
Christopher Witmore
2 Technology 65
Steven A. Walton and Timothy J. Scarlett
3 Economic Objects 85
Paul Graves-Brown
4 Everyday Objects 107
Stacey L. Camp
5 Art 125
Susanne Küchler and Timothy Carroll
6 Architecture 149
Paul R. Mullins
7 Bodily Objects 173
Laurie A. Wilkie, Katrina C. L. Eichner, Kelly Fong,
David G. Hyde, Alyssa Scott, and Annelise Morris
vi CONTENTS
8 Object Worlds 203
Alfredo González-Ruibal
notes 224
BiBLiograPhy 228
notes on contriButors 261
Index 263
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
0.1 Blue Willow pattern plate. Photograph: Laurie A. Wilkie 9
0.2 The cover of the New Yorker magazine for November 14, 1942,
featuring a Blue Willow plate altered to reflect aspects of the
Second World War in Asia. © 1942 Charles Addams, renewed
1970. With permission of Tee and Charles Addams Foundation 14
0.3 “Brexit” Willow pattern. Photograph: Laurie A. Wilkie 15
0.4 Late eighteenth-century etching, “Stowage of the British slave
ship Brookes under the regulated slave trade act of 1788.”
Photograph: US Library of Congress Rare Book and
Special Side Port. 282, no. 43. Image in the public domain 17
0.5 “Women Wearing Swimsuits Seated at the Beach, Picturesque
America Anywhere Along the Coast,” by Charles Dana Gibson,
c. 1900. Photograph: Universal History Archive/Universal Images
Group via Getty Images 20
1.1 Drift matter, Svaerholt, Norway. Photograph: courtesy of Þóra
Pétursdóttir and Ingar Figenschau 42
1.2 Aerial view of parked cars. Photograph: Orbon Alija via
Getty Images 45
1.3 The author’s father as a toddler in the front yard of the old
farm c. 1947. Photograph: Katie Witmore 51
1.4 Aerial view of the Port of Long Beach. Photograph:
Cameron Davidson via Getty Images 54
viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1.5 Xiluodu dam #8, Yangtze River, Yunan Province, China, 2011.
© Edward Burtynsky, courtesy of Metivier Gallery, Toronto/
Flowers Gallery, London 54
1.6 Residential buildings in Hong Kong, China. Photograph: Nikada
via Getty Images 55
2.1 The Corning glass ribbon machine, 1928, was a high-output
machine that produced ten bulb blanks per second. Photograph:
composite image created with pictures from The Henry Ford
museum, including THF162106, THF88990, and THF88991.
Composite by Timothy J. Scarlett 70
2.2 The Union Pacific’s M-10000 locomotive was the first streamlined
train, put into operation in 1934. Photograph: George Rinhart via
Getty Images 71
2.3 Ready-Reckoner Nomogram Card F for measuring steam
pressures, issued between 1931 and 1989 by the Metropolitan-
Vickers Electrical Company Limited, Manchester, England.
Tools for operators of technologies lessened the need for detailed
calculations during use. Photograph: Science Museum Group.
Ready-Reckoner Nomogram Card F. Y1999.39.2. Science Museum
Group Collection Online (accessed June 12, 2019). Creative
Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 License 75
2.4 Photograph of an 18 × 16 magnetic core memory unit from a
calculator, c. 1968, with inset detail of four small, round disks. Each
of the hand-woven ferrite rings could be given a magnetic charge in
either direction (clockwise or counterclockwise), representing 1 or
0, an individual bit of data. Pixabay License, free image 77
3.1 DKE38 Kleinempfänger. Courtesy of user “Reichsrundfunk”
under Creative Commons License 87
3.2 Bendix Home Laundry advertisement from the 1950s. Photograph:
The Advertising Archives/Alamy Stock Photo 91
3.3 Site of Matson’s Encinal Terminal, Alameda, California.
Photograph: Paul Graves-Brown 94
3.4 The unveiling of the 1964/5 Ford Mustang. Photograph:
Bettmann via Getty Images 95
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
3.5 IBM PC 5150. Photograph: Ruben de Rijcke licensed
CC BY-SA 3.0 99
4.1 Cupholder in a 1992 Ford Taurus. Photograph: Les Jorgensen/The
LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images 122
5.1 Gustav Klimt (1862–1918). Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, 1907.
Oil and gold on canvas, 1.38 × 1.38 m. Vienna, Belvedere
Museum. Photograph: Christophel Fine Art via
Getty Images 132
6.1 March 1954, image of the Detroit-area Northland Center
encircled by parking for more than 7,500 cars. Photograph:
Bettmann via Getty Images 150
6.2 Opened in 1957, Minneapolis’ Southdale Mall was graced
by water features and indoor public spaces that remained a
staple of regional malls for much of the subsequent forty years.
Photograph: Guy Gillette via Getty Images 151
6.3 In 1862, Currier and Ives idealized Central Park as a natural
oasis apparently peopled by genteel White New Yorkers.
Photograph: Apic/Getty Images 154
6.4 In about 1906, Charles Harrison Townsend depicted a house
at Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire, England.
Photograph: The Print Collector/Getty Images 156
6.5 These laundry staff posed alongside the large sinks and presses
in the Boundary Street Area Laundry in 1897. Photograph:
City of London: London Metropolitan Archives/Heritage
Images/Getty Images 160
6.6 One of the most distinctive features of Washington, DC’s
Langston Terrace was this Daniel Olney sculptural frieze, The
Progress of the Negro Race. Photograph: Carol M. Highsmith, in
the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and
Photographs Division, LC-DIG-highsm-17016 163
6.7 Intended to be home to about 15,000 residents, St. Louis’
Pruitt–Igoe was one of the most densely settled municipal
housing communities in the USA. Photograph: Bettmann
via Getty Images 166
