We often think of museums as locations where one-of-a-kind objects are showcased in antiseptic environments. But several budding historians in Seth Bruggeman's "Studies in Material Culture" course have taken steps to change that.

Bruggeman, professor of History and American Studies and coordinator of Temple's Center for Public History, and his students partnered with local non-profit First Person Arts to turn a museum into a site for conversation and story-telling and to transform ordinary objects into museum-worthy pieces that hold historical significance.

The students participated in the creation of a prototype for First Person Arts' First Person Museum, an experimental exhibit intended to help museum-goers rethink what a museum can be.  

Rather than celebrating the unique or extraordinary, the First Person Museum is a collection of ordinary objects of personal importance to ordinary people. The objects, which include items such as a wedding ring and a pen, are displayed in domestic settings — in faux living rooms or other places they might be found in real life — along with stories and captions that convey both their personal and historical meanings.

"We love our stuff," said Bruggeman. “And we are always fascinated with how things reflect who we are in the present and how they connect us to who we used to be in the past. It really roots us and gives us a sense of identity.”

First Person Arts put together a panel of artists and writers and sent them into neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia to identify objects — and people with interesting stories about those objects —  to participate in the exhibit. Bruggeman's students were invited to situate each object within a historical narrative by writing captions for the pieces.

According to Bruggeman, the process of writing and selecting the 50-word captions for each object was fascinating. "We found that you can tell very different stories — histories I should say — about objects that seem remarkably normal," he said.

"The example of the wedding ring is particularly interesting because a wedding ring, as an object, can be a starting point to tell a history about marriage, but at the same time it can be a starting point to tell a story about divorce, it can be an object that encourages us to think about gender, class and property ownership." he said.

Devin Manzullo Thomas, a first-year student in Temple's Public History graduate program, was assigned to write captions for a set of dolls that were handmade and owned by a woman named Iris. "The thing with my dolls was that they were handmade by an African-American woman and actually took on a tone of empowerment for her — that she's crafted these items in her own image,” said Thomas.

"For my caption, I did a lot of reading about black dolls — figuring out how their ownership has shifted over the years. A lot of the first black dolls to be made were based on extremely negative, racial stereotypes. I hope [museum goers] come away with the sense that history gives us a context in which our individual stories make sense," he said.

The contributions of Temple's future historians to the First Person Museum help to make the point that an object doesn't have to be the Liberty Bell to be historically significant. "Walking through the exhibit we recognize that although we may not think of ourselves as being historically meaningful, we are in that we are connected to large shifts and changes and different ways of thinking about the past," said Bruggeman.

"By seeing these objects and recognizing the similarities to our own story, we find a sense of connection to the historical process that is really significant," he said.



The First Person Museum runs through Dec. 18 at the Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, Pa. For more visit museum.firstpersonarts.org.