Navigating the world: the material culture of physical mobility impairment in the early American North, 1728-1861
| Author(s) | Belolan, Nicole | |
| Date Accessioned | 2022-02-23T14:48:48Z | |
| Date Available | 2022-02-23T14:48:48Z | |
| Publication Date | 2017 | |
| SWORD Update | 2021-12-01T17:03:01Z | |
| Abstract | This dissertation explores the material culture of physical disability in early America. I argue that a network of improvisation characterized the material culture of physical disability in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century America. The material culture encompassed in this project includes a range of objects including furniture (such as adult cradles, wheelchairs, and bedsteads), artificial limbs, accessories (crutches and canes), conveyances, clothing, and visual depictions of people with disabilities. By “network of improvisation,” I mean a system of objects, people, and spaces shaped by people who used whatever resources—human and material—were at hand. I use the interdisciplinary fields of material culture studies and disability studies, combined with traditional methods of historical research and interpretation, to explore the relationship between the body and material culture in early America. Others have written about disability in early America, but their work often overlooks the unique explanatory power objects have in bringing physical disability history to life. ☐ This project investigates how disabled people navigated their world before the era of curb cuts, mass-manufactured wheelchairs, and scientifically crafted artificial limbs. I conclude that in early America, the material culture of disability was highly improvisational. For instance, when people suddenly found themselves immobile due to a fall or other accident, they moved their bedchambers to the first floors of their dwellings. Disability differed based on the user’s socio-economic status and location. Some early Americans purchased finely crafted easy chairs from established urban furniture makers, while others transformed old, uncomfortable side chairs into make-do easy chairs using spare wood and old bedcoverings. And finally, I show that technology did not follow a clear path of innovation. People made wheelchairs, for example, using a variety of designs and propulsion mechanisms. This project contributes to material culture and disability history but also speaks to broader themes in Euro-American history ranging from industrialization to the history of manners and etiquette to the lived experience of work and bodily care. Improvisation using things among disabled people continues today. This dissertation points to its beginnings. | en_US |
| Advisor | Grier, Katherine C. | |
| Degree | Ph.D. | |
| Department | University of Delaware, Department of History | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.58088/cyzn-qq87 | |
| Unique Identifier | 1298897001 | |
| URL | https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/30528 | |
| Language | en | |
| Publisher | University of Delaware | en_US |
| URI | https://login.udel.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/navigating-world-material-culture-physical/docview/2608161050/se-2?accountid=10457 | |
| Keywords | Disability | |
| Keywords | Disability studies | |
| Keywords | History of medicine | |
| Keywords | Material culture | |
| Keywords | Material culture studies | |
| Keywords | Museums | |
| Title | Navigating the world: the material culture of physical mobility impairment in the early American North, 1728-1861 | en_US |
| Type | Thesis | en_US |