Past Childhoods Thru Objects and Social Practices (2017)

Student Projects from Historical Geographies of American Childhoods, 1850-1950 (GEOG/HST170) — Fall 2017

For their final projects, University of Vermont undergraduate students in Historical Geography: Mapping American Childhoods, 1850-1950 (GEOG/HST170), created websites to showcase their research. The course was taught by Meghan Cope with a weekly ‘Visualization Lab’ taught by library faculty member, Daisy Benson.

Each student started with an everyday object or a small social practice (e.g. ‘shoes’ or ‘recess’) and built outward from there in order to answer the question: What does this object/social practice reveal about the historical geographies of childhood? Each project website had to include quantitative and qualitative data, photos, maps, a literature review, and a bibliography, as well as links to a timeline and a story-map. We hope you enjoy exploring these materials.