Objects, Collections, Texts, Time: A Close Reading of a 19th-century "Pilgrim Box"

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In 1868, a Presbyterian minister from upstate New York traveled to the “Holy Land,” where he acquired some 28 objects. These objects became a collection, and individual items became compound objects when linked to meaning-making Biblical texts. Since the pilgrim box traveled so widely – in geography, ownership, use, and perception – it encourages examination from multiple vantage points. People have imposed identities on the pilgrim box, while the objects themselves have continued to exert their own force as “vibrant matter.” The pilgrim box has been a fund-raising device in support of church-sponsored missionary activity; a family heirloom donated to a museum for posterity; part of an expansive museum anthropology collection; a static museum display; and a subject for scientific analysis. With this close reading, I reflect on all I learned from Mary Beaudry about the dynamism of material culture as “things-in-motion” through shifting values, changing historical context, and different cultural settings.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• “Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology