Pattern in the Material Folk Culture of the Eastern United States (Folklore and Folklife)

This book was Glassie’s doctoral dissertation dating to the late 1960s. I purchased it for a college course on American material culture. Glassie studied barn and home styles pre 20th century in Pennsylvania and the Chesapeake region. This topic dominates the book. He covers in lesser detail grave stone designs in New England. By the time I reached the halfway point, I began to seriously skim through the pages—I could not wait to finish the book because I did not find the information or the authors thesis interesting at all. After discussing the book in class, I gave it to the professor for future department use! Much more interesting and useful is James Deetz’s “In Small Things Remembered,” which I also read for the same course. Deetz wrote about the importance of interpreting material artifacts to gain a perspective besides historical documents (5 stars for Deetz!).

I studied with Henry Glassie in the 70s, when he first came to IU. Even in the days of slide projectors and poor acoustics, his lectures were magical. How did the making of pottery by a European-trained villager and a native Indian potter differ and what did it show us about the values and traditions, the mindset of the two? Amazing insights by a man so brilliant he seemed to glow.This is the book that took Folklore and material culture and began to define the "territory" away from Anthropology and into its own. Other thinkers were collecting folktales and folk songs (Childe Ballads, not Dylan) and Henry just blithely tackled the permanent objects of Europe in their application and variation in Eastern America. Never were houses and barns so fraught with context.Reading this again after nearly 40 years brought back all the heady beauty of his constructs, tautologies and insights; and it would be a damn fine read, even for a layman, I suspect.Glassie, amazing as he is and as many awards and accolades as he's garnered, is THE premier leader in much of this field of thought, today. I hope you have the chance to taste one of his earliest and still brightest works.This man is the real thing; the Einstein of Folklore, the Shakespeare of the academic inquiry in our roots.

This is now a old book on vernacular architecture but a wonderful starting point for students. Glassie's illustrations and full descriptions are clear and give encouragement to seek further research into the domestic landscape.

I have developed into a strong Henry Glassie fan, having read nearly everything he has ever written. This one book, however, is the catalyst that started my love affair with Material Culture. While I can't reasonably say it changed my life, it did open my eyes to many things in life that would have gone unnoticed by me and I do feel my life is richer for it.