Teaching Things

offers a range of entry points to bringing material culture into the classroom. In some lesson plans students consider objects alongside the visual and textual sources with which they are more familiar.

 

This section is currently under construction. More toolkits and objects will be added soon.

Toolkits

Antietam featured
Perspectives on the Battle of Antietam

The Battle of Antietam, fought in Maryland in September 1862, was the single deadliest day of the American Civil War, with more than twenty-two thousand casualties.

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PEC27
Objects of Trade and Transport in the Ancient Mediterranean

This object lesson explores the trade, transport, perceived value, and authenticity of ancient and modern food products.

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Camel saddle (tarik or tamzak), Algerian Sahara. Date unknown (probably 20th century). Leather, rawhide, wood, parchment or vellum, wool, silk, tin-plated metal, brass-plated metal, iron, copper alloy, and cheetah skin. 975-32-50/11927. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, gift of the Estate of Dr. Lloyd Cabot Briggs, 1975, 975-32-50/11927. Photograph © President and Fellows of Harvard College, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
Silk Roads and Beyond: Trade, Exchange, and Travel in Ancient and Medieval Afro-Eurasia

Sericulture—the cultivation of silkworms for the production of silk goods—features prominently in this toolkit. The focus on silk also extends beyond the manufacturing process.

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Object Library

Objects and images offer a window into the past, providing both context for, and critique of, the history we teach.

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