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What Does it Mean to be a Child Written Portion 6-9-2019.pdf (2.69 MB)
ETD Abstract Container
Abstract Header
What Does It Mean to Be a Child?: The McGuffey Readers
Author Info
Schunk, Kaylie E
ORCID® Identifier
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7752-4326
Permalink:
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1560091567565664
Abstract Details
Year and Degree
2019, Master of Arts, Miami University, History.
Abstract
This essay and exhibit examines the shifting notion of childhood in the American West during the Progressive Era, from 1890 to 1920, by evaluating the power and limitations of The McGuffey Readers in forging American childhood. Responding to Viviana Zelizer’s work on children’s social worth, the exhibit places this change into historical context by using The Readers to examine visual representations of children, youth death rates, toys and literature, education, and child labor. Set at The McGuffey House and Museum, the exhibit enables the target audiences (the museum’s docents, homeschooling families, and a general audience) to interact with objects that evoke memory and identity. This project takes a scholarly argument and translates it into a public, visual medium. Evoking a somber but hopeful mood in a partially radial floor plan, patrons reflect on their childhood by reading labels that allow artifacts to speak and facilitate an individualized experience.
Committee
Andrew Offenburger (Advisor)
Helen Sheumaker (Committee Member)
Elena Albarrán (Committee Member)
Pages
40 p.
Subject Headings
American History
;
Education History
;
History
;
Museum Studies
Keywords
history
;
public history
;
museums
;
McGuffey
;
childhood
;
education
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Citations
Schunk, K. E. (2019).
What Does It Mean to Be a Child?: The McGuffey Readers
[Master's thesis, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1560091567565664
APA Style (7th edition)
Schunk, Kaylie.
What Does It Mean to Be a Child?: The McGuffey Readers .
2019. Miami University, Master's thesis.
OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center
, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1560091567565664.
MLA Style (8th edition)
Schunk, Kaylie. "What Does It Mean to Be a Child?: The McGuffey Readers ." Master's thesis, Miami University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1560091567565664
Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)
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Document number:
miami1560091567565664
Download Count:
799
Copyright Info
© 2019, some rights reserved.
What Does It Mean to Be a Child?: The McGuffey Readers by Kaylie E Schunk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.