Material History Bulletin Bulletin d'histoire de la culture materielle 21

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Avant-propos/Foreword On trouvera dans ce numero du Bulletin d'histoire de la culture materielle un choix de communications presentees a 1'Heritage Conference '85, «Children and Changing Perspectives on Childhood in the Nineteenth Century», organisee par 1'Association des musees de 1'Ontario . Cette conference a eu lieu a Toronto, du 30 janvier au 2 fevrier 1985 . Les communications ont ete choisies en fonction des temoignagnes materiels qu'ils presentaient concernant les sujets examines et conformement aux objectifs du Bulletin, qui vise a publier des recherches interpretant les rapports des Canadiens avec leur environnement materiel et a encourager 1'utilisation de temoignages materiels pour l'analyse du passe . Les directeurs de la publication desirent remercier 1'Association des musees de 1'Ontario, et notamment son directeur administratif Greg Baeker, de 1'aide qu'ils leur ont apportee pour organiser et produire ce numero . This issue of the Materiai History Bulletin contains a selection of papers delivered at Heritage Conference '85, "Children and Changing Perspectives on Childhood in the Nineteenth Century," organized by the Ontario Museum Association and held in Toronto January 30 - February 2, 1985 . The papers were selected on the basis of their incorporation of material evidence for the subjects examined, in keeping with the Bulletin's a:)jectives to publish research interpreting Canadians' relationships to their material environment and to encourag,° the use of material evidence in analyzing the past . The editors wish to thank the Ontario Museum Association and particularly Executive Director Greg Baeker for as .;istance in the organization and production of this issue .
Introduction/Introduction Greg Baeker In January 1985 the Ontario Museum Association, with support from the Museum Assistance Programmes of the National Museums of Canada, presented the latest in a series of biennial heritage conferences entitled "Children and Changing Perspectives of Childhood in the Nineteenth Century ." The event was modelled very closely on the 1983 conference "Industrious in Their Habits : Rediscovering the World of Work" (select papers from which appeared in Material History Bulletin 19 and 20) . One of the principal objectives of both conferences was to bring together representatives from the museum and academic communities in a forum which we hoped would result in an instructive exploration of a particular historical theme while simultaneously encouraging closer cooperation and better understanding between these two constituencies . The 1983 event was deemed highly successful in this regard, leading one delegate to comment that "the interaction of university and public historians, and the interplay of visual, oral and artifactual evidence with new documentary sources have the potential to effect a revolution in how we interpret the past ." Although response to the 1985 conference was also highly favourable, the event succeeded in crystalizing in my own mind a number of difficulties we must still overcome in the realization of this noble objective . Many of the reasons for this conclusion were articulated with stunning clarity by Gregg Finley in his article "Material History and Musems : A Curatorial Perspective in Doctoral Research" (Material History Bulletin 20) . Finley argues that the use of collections for purposes of research in both academic and museum circles remains stymied by an unwillingness to address fundamental intellectual and methodological questions . "How does one actually interpret the meaning of an artifact? What theoretical approaches, methodological procedures, and creative insights can be brought to bear on the artifact so that it will reveal its message? . . . In the quest for historical understanding, what is the relationship between the archival document - the traditional primary source material - and the artifactual document?" The conference, I fear, made only modest progress in the addressing of these fundamental issues . This failing resulted from a number of factors beginning with the structuring of the conference . The principle upon which both the 1983 and 1985 conferences were organized was that representatives from the academic community were assigned to plenary sessions and asked to provide an overview of important issues and themes . Museum representatives were then asked to follow up in concurrent sessions with papers on more narrowly defined topics relating to En janvier 1985,1'Association des musees de 1'Ontario, avec le concours des Programmes d'appui aux musees des Musees nationaux du Canada, a presente la conference intitulee «Children and Changing Perspectives of Childhood in the Nineteenth Century», derniere en date d'une serie de conferences biennales sur le patrimoine . L'organisation de cette conference etait modelee sur celle de 1983, intitulee «Industrious in Their Habits : Rediscovering the World of Work» (dont des textes choisis furent reproduits dans les no' 19 et 20 du Bulletin d'hi.rtoire de la culture materielle) . Ces deux conferences visaient, entre autres grands objectifs, a reunir des representants des communautes museale et universitaire pour des discussions qui, esperait-on, conduiraient a un examen instructif d'un theme historique donne, tout en favorisant 1'instauration d'une cooperation plus etroite et d'une meilleure comprehension entre les deux secteurs . En 1983, 1'objectif avait ete atteint a telle enseigne que Fun des participants declarait que: «1'interaction entre les historiens du milieu universitaire et du secteur public, de rneme que celle entre les temoignages visuels, oraux et materiels, et de nouvelles sources de documentation, nous permettent d'envisager une revolution dans la maniere d'interpreter le passe» . Meme si la conference de 1985 a connu elle aussi un franc succes, elle m'a permis de preciser mes idees a propos d'un certain nombre de difficultes qui restent a aplanir avant que nous realisions ce noble objectif. Bon nombre des motifs m'ayant conduit a une telle conclusion sont exposes avec une clarte frappante dans 1'article de Gregg Finley intitule «Material History and Museums : A Curatorial Perspective in Doctoral Research» (Bulletin d'histoire de la culture materielle n° 20) . Finley soutient que 1'utilisation des collections aux fins de recherche, tant dans les universites que dans les musees, se heurte au refus de trouver les reponses a des questions intellectuelles et methodologiques fondamentales . «Comment interpretet-on vraiment un objet fa~onne? Quelles approches theoriques, quelles methodes et quels instincts creatifs peut-on appliquer a 1'etude d'un objet fa~onne pour qu'il revele son message? ( . . .) En cherchant a comprendre 1'histoire, quel rapport s'etablit-II entre les documents d'archives - traditionnellement les sources primaires de reference - et les documents materiels? » Cette conference n'aura permis, je le crains bien, que d'effleurer ces questions fondamentales . La conjugaison d'un certain nombre de facteurs, dont, des le depart, la structure meme de la conference, ont conduit a une telle absence . De fait, en 1983 comme en 1985, on a demande aux representants du milieu universitaire de donner leurs III
Page 1 and 2: NATIONAL MUSEtIM OF MAN /J.- MLiSEE
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Page 7 and 8: in its organization . Very particul
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Page 11 and 12: Private collections of childhood ar
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Page 15 and 16: a pioneering learning approach that
Page 17: 0 Fig . 9 . Nursery in the home of
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Page 22 and 23: Feeding the Nineteenth-Century Baby
Page 24 and 25: Milk was sometimes added to pap, or
Page 26 and 27: were used to catch milk leaking fro
Page 28 and 29: tions for the poor were appalling .
Page 30 and 31: 22 . In A Treatise on the Diseases
Page 32 and 33: every day for the office, factory o
Page 34 and 35: practice was a hold-over from the e
Page 36 and 37: accommodate a new concept of childh
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Page 40 and 41: NOTES The child-care guides consult
Page 42 and 43: and motor deprivation entailed was
Page 44 and 45: Fig . 3 . This working mother has h
Page 46 and 47: TAKE CARE OF THE BABY Hl" USIING~ T
Page 48 and 49: screening fireplaces, covering well
Page 50 and 51: Very little really fine furniture w
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toxins, in spite of all efforts to
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Economic Choices and Popular Toys i
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American iron toys Wheelbarrows 2 .
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horse . This one, in pine, was made
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Nineteenth-Century Canadian Childre
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form and use . " These game materia
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i ; !,.,)10 ~' of : .. .;y . Fig .
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Fig . 7 . Bilboquet, eighteenth-cen
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Conference Programme Children and C
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Contributors/Collaborateurs Greg Ba
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Conference Announcement North Ameri
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Material History Bulletin Bulletin
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No . 11 No . 12 Potters : Their Cra
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1800-1860; Nancy-Lou Patterson, Ger
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MATERIAL HISTORY BULLETIN/BULLETIN
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Material History Bulletin Bulletin d'histoire de la culture materielle 21

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