Artifacts from Modern America

404 Pages·2017·18.25 MB·English

by  Helen Sheumaker

ARTIFACTS
FROM MODERN AMERICA
Recent Titles in
Daily Life through Artifacts
Artifacts from Ancient Rome
James B. Tschen-Emmons
Artifacts from Medieval Europe
James B. Tschen-Emmons
Artifacts from Ancient Egypt
Barbara Mendoza
ARTIFACTS
FROM MODERN AMERICA
Helen Sheumaker
Daily Life through Artifacts
Copyright © 2018 by ABC-CLIO, LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the
publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Sheumaker, Helen, author.
Title: Artifacts from modern America / Helen Sheumaker.
Description: Santa Barbara, California : Greenwood, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2017. | Series: Daily
life through artifacts | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017022376 (print) | LCCN 2017044521 (ebook) | ISBN 9781440846830 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781440846823 (alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: United States—Social life and customs—20th
century. | Material culture—United States—History—20th century. | United States—Civilization—
1945- | United States—Civilization—1918-1945. | Popular culture—United States—History—20th
century.
Classification: LCC E161 (ebook) | LCC E161 .S46 2017 (print) | DDC 973.9—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017022376
ISBN: 978-1-44084682-3 (print) 978-1-44084683-0 (ebook)
22 21 20 19 18 1 2 3 4 5
This book is also available as an eBook.
Greenwood
An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC
ABC-CLIO, LLC
130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911
Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911
www.abc-clio.com
This book is printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
How to Evaluate Artifacts
Chronology of Events
COMMUNICATIONS
Brownie Holiday Camera
Eversharp Screw Cap Fountain Pen
Princess Telephone
Sony TR-610 Portable Radio
TRS-80 Personal Computer
Typewriter
COOKING, FOOD, AND DRINK
Bob’s Big Boy
Cellophane
Coffee Percolator
Kelvinator Microwave Radarange
Telescoping Shopping Cart
ENTERTAINMENT
Atari 2600 Video Game Console and Packaging
Popular Paperbacks
Portable Gramophone
Superman Comic Book
GROOMING, CLOTHING, AND ACCESSORIES
Drene Shampoo
Lorna Doone Patched Blue Jeans
Max Factor Lipstick
Nike Running Shoes
Schick Electric Razor
Variation Maidenform Brassiere
HEALTH AND MEDICINE
Antibiotics Penicillin Sample
Craven “A” Ashtray
Custer Electric Wheelchair
Enovid Birth Control Pill
HOUSEHOLD ITEMS
Air Conditioner
Hoover Vacuum Cleaner
Moonshine Still
Refrigerator
POLITICAL AND CIVIC LIFE
Environmental Movement Buttons
Gay Pride Button
General Motors TDH-3610 Diesel Bus
Instructional Voting Machine
Votes for Women Literature Bag
RELIGION
The Bible Story
Commemorative Ribbon
Muhammad Ali Robes
TOOLS AND WEAPONS
Children’s Gas Masks, World War I
Electric Chair
First Fordson Tractor
Gun/Police Revolver
TRANSPORTATION
Boeing 367-80 “Dash 80” Airplane
Gas Ration Card, World War II
Ken Kesey’s Merry Prankster Bus
Orbiter
Pullman Railroad Car
Schwinn Starlet Bicycle
Trav-L-Coach House Trailer

Selected Bibliography
Index
PREFACE
It is a material world that we humans live in. It may feel as though Americans
became more materialistic. The bold declaration by pop singer Madonna (born
Madonna Louise Ciccone, 1958–) that she was “just a material girl” in 1984
seemingly epitomized a 20th-century American superficiality. Humans have
always lived in a material world—that is, a world made up of human-made
objects. The American 20th century was unique in several ways: the mastery of
mass production led to an escalation in the number of things people owned and
needed to have to conduct daily life, the development of media and advertising
fundamentally restructured daily life by inundating people with images of
material things, and the economic improvements in the lives of American
residents meant that more and more, citizenship equaled owning stuff. Despite
all of these factors, though, life in 20th-century America was remarkably similar
to life in the preceding two centuries of Euro-American life, with material
objects used to enable communications, daily hygiene, and other consistent
aspects of daily life.
The artifacts of daily life range from things used constantly until no longer
usable to objects that represent major changes in the lives of residents of the
United States. A portable radio made in Japan can coexist in a 1950s household
that also owns the wholly American-made Fordson tractor. The radio, built on
technology developed by Italians, Americans, and others around the world,
fundamentally changed how Americans experienced daily life. The Fordson
tractor, developed and manufactured in the United States and sometimes
exported to other countries, changed farmers’ lives. Its impact was enormous not
only in economic growth and food production but also in the approach to design
that the Fordson tractor embodied.
Sometimes the artifacts selected for this volume were invented or first
manufactured in the later decades of the 19th century, sometimes objects were