"Preserving Their Form and Features":
The Role of Coffins in the American Understanding of Death, 1607-1870.
The Bartow History Museum welcomes Dr. Brent Tharp, who will discuss how as artifacts, coffins, have played an important role in shaping and reflecting American attitudes toward death. Viewed by some as merely examples of modern commercial greed imposed on a grieving public, coffins, in fact, have a long history as important artifacts which American society has used to understand death in subtly different ways for generations. From their first use in the 17th century to the first mass produced and marketed metallic burial cases in the 1850s, coffins have served as objects of gentility, respectability, and modernity. The lecture is free to museum members and included with the price of admission to the museum for not-yet-members. For more information on this and other museum programs, call 770-387-2774 or visit our website at
www.BartowHistoryMuseum.org.
