Inheriting the Family
Objects, Identities and Emotions
Published on 6. February 2025
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-350-38250-3 (ISBN)
Description
This open access book uses new methodologies from the history and sociology of emotions to analyse why people select specific tokens of family inheritance, and how this influences personal identity, cultural heritage, and national memory.
Much of our cultural heritage emerges from family histories - with many of the objects curated in museums, stories passed between generations, and monuments marking notable figures being the direct product of familial collections, donations, and investments. This edited collection uses emotion as an analytical tool to interpret such behaviours, and offers novel ways to investigate how and why family inheritances from a range of social, racial, and ethnic groups maintain their cultural power, as they move through time and from the private to the public spheres.
Drawing on a variety of case studies, and exploring items ranging from Victorian library chairs, to quilts, religious texts, and pieces of intergenerational writing - this volume considers the role of objects and inheritances in the emotional lives of individuals and families, and acknowledges them as agents in the creation of histories and identities. Combining insight from scholars of the history of emotions with that of historians and researchers situated outside the academy, this collection allows fresh insights on family history and material culture to emerge.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by UK Research and Innovation.
Much of our cultural heritage emerges from family histories - with many of the objects curated in museums, stories passed between generations, and monuments marking notable figures being the direct product of familial collections, donations, and investments. This edited collection uses emotion as an analytical tool to interpret such behaviours, and offers novel ways to investigate how and why family inheritances from a range of social, racial, and ethnic groups maintain their cultural power, as they move through time and from the private to the public spheres.
Drawing on a variety of case studies, and exploring items ranging from Victorian library chairs, to quilts, religious texts, and pieces of intergenerational writing - this volume considers the role of objects and inheritances in the emotional lives of individuals and families, and acknowledges them as agents in the creation of histories and identities. Combining insight from scholars of the history of emotions with that of historians and researchers situated outside the academy, this collection allows fresh insights on family history and material culture to emerge.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by UK Research and Innovation.
Reviews / Votes
An invaluable addition to our thinking about family history. What do we inherit with the objects that come down to us from the past, freighted, as they are, with a cargo of feelings, as well as historical connections and meanings? This fascinating collection is full of insights for both historians and practitioners alike. * Alison Light, Honorary Fellow in History and English, Pembroke College, Oxford, UK *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
10 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 238 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
520 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-38250-3 (9781350382503)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Katie Barclay is the Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions and Associate Professor in History, University of Adelaide, Australia.
Ashley Barnwell is a Senior Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Joanne Begiato is a Professor of History and Associate Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange at Oxford Brookes University, UK.
Tanya Evans is Director of the Centre for Applied History and Associate Professor at Macquarie University, Australia.
Laura King is Associate Professor of Modern British History at the University of Leeds, UK.
Ashley Barnwell is a Senior Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Joanne Begiato is a Professor of History and Associate Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange at Oxford Brookes University, UK.
Tanya Evans is Director of the Centre for Applied History and Associate Professor at Macquarie University, Australia.
Laura King is Associate Professor of Modern British History at the University of Leeds, UK.
Content
Introduction: Inheriting the Family, Katie Barclay (University of Adelaide, Australia), Ashley Barnwell (University of Melbourne, Australia), Joanne Begiato (Oxford Brookes University, UK), Tanya Evans (Macquarie University, Australia), and Laura King (University of Leeds, UK)
Part I: Visualising Connections
Chapter 1: Finding Kalimpong: Curiosity, Cognitive Dissonance and Collectivity in a 'Three-World' Family History, Jane McCabe (Independent Historian, Australia)
Chapter 2: Developing Us: Photography, Family and Feeling, Louise Taylor (Independent Researcher, UK)
Chapter 3: Object History: Intergenerational Disruption of Memory, Identity and Patrimony. The Use of Photographs in the Reconstruction of a Lost Family, Michael Heim (University of Adelaide, Australia)
Chapter 4: Object History: Imagining Ancestors in Family History, Katie Barclay (University of Adelaide, Australia)
Part II: Books That Bring Us Together
Chapter 5: The Family Bible and the Early Modern Woman Reader, Hannah Upton (Australian National University, Australia)
Chapter 6: Inheriting Accounts in Early Modern England, Imogen Peck (Coventry University, UK)
Chapter 7: "I Won't Forget You, Love, When your Time is Up": Re(dis)covering Emotion and Forging Family at Adelaide's Destitute Asylum, Corinne Ball (Migration Museum, Australia)
Chapter 8: Object History: Reading Nana's Bible: Faith, Family and the Female Line, Catherine Feely (University of Derby, UK)
Part III: Embodied and Sensory Inheritances
Chapter 9: Emotion Recalled from the Kitchen, Val Hewson (Reading Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, UK)
Chapter 10: Connecting with Ancestors - 'The Sweet Smell of Success', Kate Wvendth (Leeds University, UK)
Chapter 11: Untangling the Archive: #HairyObjects and the Stories We Weave, Leanne Calvert (University of Hertfordshire, UK)
Chapter 12: Object History: Telling Stories through my Granny's Cookery books, Lucinda Matthews-Jones (Liverpool John Moores University, UK)
Chapter 13: Object History: 'Nothing More Precious': the Emotional Inheritance of a Hair Locket, Joanne Begiato (Oxford Brookes University, UK)
Part IV: Prized Possessions
Chapter 14: 'As Private as a Letter': The Handbook of Chatsworth, Intergenerational Family Writing, and the British Country House as 'Family Home', Lucy Brownson (University College London, UK)
Chapter 15: 'Although it Smack Somewhat of the Days that are Gone': Memory, Legacy and the Preservation of the Patchwork Quilt, Deb McGuire (Oxford Brookes University, UK)
Chapter 16: Object History: War Writing and Peacetime Preservation: The Role of Families in Salvaging Letters from Twentieth-Century Conflict, Emma Carson (University of Adelaide, Australia)
Chapter 17: Object History: A Mantelpiece of Memories, Janet Coles (Independent Historian, UK)
Chapter 18: Object History: The Victorian Library Chair, Sue Child (Leeds University, UK)
Chapter 19: Object History, Asif Shakoor (Independent Scholar, UK)
Part V: National Identities
Chapter 20: Family, Community and Nation: Understanding Identity through the History and Heritage of a Deindustrialised Site in the Blue Mountains of Australia, Tanya Evans (Macquarie University, Australia)
Chapter 21: National Myths and Family Forgetting: Interpreting Irish identities through the Unpublished Memoir of an Immigrant Woman in the United States, Sarah O'Brien (Mary Immaculate College, UK)
Chapter 22: Understanding Place in Tasmanian Family Histories, Imogen Wegman and Kate Bagnall (both University of Tasmania, Australia)
Chapter 23: Object History: 'Two Suitcases': A Personal Reflection on a Family Archive, Alison Pedley (Independent Researcher, UK)
Chapter 24: Object History: Family Objects and the Shape of the Settler Imagination, Ashley Barnwell (University of Melbourne, Australia)
Part I: Visualising Connections
Chapter 1: Finding Kalimpong: Curiosity, Cognitive Dissonance and Collectivity in a 'Three-World' Family History, Jane McCabe (Independent Historian, Australia)
Chapter 2: Developing Us: Photography, Family and Feeling, Louise Taylor (Independent Researcher, UK)
Chapter 3: Object History: Intergenerational Disruption of Memory, Identity and Patrimony. The Use of Photographs in the Reconstruction of a Lost Family, Michael Heim (University of Adelaide, Australia)
Chapter 4: Object History: Imagining Ancestors in Family History, Katie Barclay (University of Adelaide, Australia)
Part II: Books That Bring Us Together
Chapter 5: The Family Bible and the Early Modern Woman Reader, Hannah Upton (Australian National University, Australia)
Chapter 6: Inheriting Accounts in Early Modern England, Imogen Peck (Coventry University, UK)
Chapter 7: "I Won't Forget You, Love, When your Time is Up": Re(dis)covering Emotion and Forging Family at Adelaide's Destitute Asylum, Corinne Ball (Migration Museum, Australia)
Chapter 8: Object History: Reading Nana's Bible: Faith, Family and the Female Line, Catherine Feely (University of Derby, UK)
Part III: Embodied and Sensory Inheritances
Chapter 9: Emotion Recalled from the Kitchen, Val Hewson (Reading Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, UK)
Chapter 10: Connecting with Ancestors - 'The Sweet Smell of Success', Kate Wvendth (Leeds University, UK)
Chapter 11: Untangling the Archive: #HairyObjects and the Stories We Weave, Leanne Calvert (University of Hertfordshire, UK)
Chapter 12: Object History: Telling Stories through my Granny's Cookery books, Lucinda Matthews-Jones (Liverpool John Moores University, UK)
Chapter 13: Object History: 'Nothing More Precious': the Emotional Inheritance of a Hair Locket, Joanne Begiato (Oxford Brookes University, UK)
Part IV: Prized Possessions
Chapter 14: 'As Private as a Letter': The Handbook of Chatsworth, Intergenerational Family Writing, and the British Country House as 'Family Home', Lucy Brownson (University College London, UK)
Chapter 15: 'Although it Smack Somewhat of the Days that are Gone': Memory, Legacy and the Preservation of the Patchwork Quilt, Deb McGuire (Oxford Brookes University, UK)
Chapter 16: Object History: War Writing and Peacetime Preservation: The Role of Families in Salvaging Letters from Twentieth-Century Conflict, Emma Carson (University of Adelaide, Australia)
Chapter 17: Object History: A Mantelpiece of Memories, Janet Coles (Independent Historian, UK)
Chapter 18: Object History: The Victorian Library Chair, Sue Child (Leeds University, UK)
Chapter 19: Object History, Asif Shakoor (Independent Scholar, UK)
Part V: National Identities
Chapter 20: Family, Community and Nation: Understanding Identity through the History and Heritage of a Deindustrialised Site in the Blue Mountains of Australia, Tanya Evans (Macquarie University, Australia)
Chapter 21: National Myths and Family Forgetting: Interpreting Irish identities through the Unpublished Memoir of an Immigrant Woman in the United States, Sarah O'Brien (Mary Immaculate College, UK)
Chapter 22: Understanding Place in Tasmanian Family Histories, Imogen Wegman and Kate Bagnall (both University of Tasmania, Australia)
Chapter 23: Object History: 'Two Suitcases': A Personal Reflection on a Family Archive, Alison Pedley (Independent Researcher, UK)
Chapter 24: Object History: Family Objects and the Shape of the Settler Imagination, Ashley Barnwell (University of Melbourne, Australia)