How do we come to know the world around us? What about worlds apart from
our own--outer space, distant cultures, or even long-past eras of
history? Engaging Smithsonian Objects through Science, History, and the
Arts explores these questions and suggests an answer: we come to know
our world and worlds apart through the objects that represent them.
Objects are a window, and by looking through them we can learn and
understand more about the people who made them and the time and place
they came from. In the pursuit of this understanding museums are
invaluable; they are repositories not just of things but also of past,
present, and future knowledge.
Engaging Smithsonian Objects puts these ideas into practice, using
objects to bring us to new knowledge and showing how museums support us
in the endeavor. The book is organized around ten objects from the
Smithsonian's vast collections. Some of the objects are iconic--the Ruby
Slippers from the The Wizard of Oz or three Stradivarius string
instruments*--*while others are more ordinary, though no less
interesting--an Iron Lung or a Hawaiian gourd drum. Two different
authors with expertise in different academic disciplines write about
each object from their unique professional and personal perspective.
Both the authors and the ten featured objects represent a range of
academic disciplines, from art to anthropology to geology. Taken
together, the twenty essays in the book demonstrate just how much we can
learn from objects by considering their kaleidoscopic meaning and
significance from a variety of viewpoints.
The book's interdisciplinary engagement with objects was inspired by the
Smithsonian Material Culture Forum, now in its twenty-sixth year. For
students of material culture and museum studies, this book illustrates
the vitality and value of exploring material culture through the lens of
intersecting disciplinary perspectives. For students of curiosity and
lifelong learning, this book offers a lively and thoughtful look into
the Smithsonian's collection and the many vibrant worlds it represents.
Richly illustrated with color plates and photographs throughout,
Engaging Smithsonian Objects through Science, History, and the Arts is
a beautiful and stimulating answer to the question, "How do we know our
world, and how can we know more?"
