Description
Book SynopsisA piece of Plymouth Rock. A lock of George Washington's hair. Wood from the cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born. Kept in museum collections across the US, such objects are the touchstones of our popular engagement with history. This book explores the history of private collections of items like these, illuminating how Americans view the past.
Trade Review"Teresa Barnett is interested in the survival of public things and personal and what they meant to people. Drawing selectively but constructively upon the evidence, episodes, and theories, Sacred Relics is a very sophisticated and polished piece of work, offering the reader a clear sense of change over time in the realm of reliquaries and their keepers. There is no single work like it in US historiography. It will be a must-read in the fields of cultural, intellectual, and social history." (Michael Kammen, Cornell University)"
