Winterthur Program
in American MaterialCulture
Class of 2015
As a child, objects strengthened Lily Higgins’s sense of western identity,
and allowed her to explore places and cultures far from her hometown
of Boise, Idaho. She received her B.A. in Folklore and Mythology from
Harvard University, with a Secondary Field in Russian Language and
Literature. In her honors thesis, she studied 19th-century hairwork as a
form of physical and emotional labor, and complemented her scholarship
with hands-on participation in the craft. As President of Harvard’s
Dudley Co-op, Lily experienced first-hand the rewards and struggles of
cooperative living and became interested in early American communal
experiments, a topic she hopes to investigate at Winterthur. Recently,
she returned to her northwestern roots by completing a fellowship with
the Center for Idaho History and Politics, and investigated new ways of
approaching objects at the Chipstone Foundation’s Object Lab. When
time permits, a few of Lily’s favorite ways to lose herself in object
study include knitting, quilting, and collecting dollhouse furniture.
Lily Higgins
Growing up in southeastern Pennsylvania, Neal Hurst developed an
interest in the War for American Independence and material culture.
After high school, he worked for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
in the Department of Historic Trades and finished a seven-year
apprenticeship earning his journeyman’s papers as a tailor. He attended
the College of William and Mary, where he participated in the National
Institute of American History and Democracy and completed an
internship at Colonial Williamsburg with the curator of mechanical arts
and numismatics. Neal received his B.A. in History with High Honors
for his senior honors thesis entitled “‘kind of armour, being peculiar to
America:’ The American Hunting Shirt.” During his time at Winterthur,
he hopes to spend as much time as possible studying objects and
utilizing the manuscripts collection. Neal enjoys visiting historic sites,
listening to music, and researching the 18th century in his spare time.
Neal Hurst
Lea Lane was born and raised in rural Kentucky, where she spent
summers exploring barns, fields and abandoned structures for objects
left behind by her ancestors. She entered The University of Virginia
intending to study anthropology, but the omnipresent legacy of the
school’s founder, Thomas Jefferson, quickly captured her academic
curiosity. Lea served two terms at Monticello as an intern in the
Education and Visitor Programs department. Through this program,
she interpreted Jefferson’s home, belongings, and historical context.
After earning her degree in history, she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, to
work as an assistant specialist at Cowan’s Auctions. She researched
a wide array of objects, ranging from the carved pipes and canes of
Civil War soldiers to American ornithological sketches. Lea enjoys
keeping up with Jefferson scholarship, studying American contributions
to World’s Fairs in France and Britain, and frequenting antique
shops in search of unusual boxes. While at Winterthur, she hopes
to deepen her understanding of self-made commemorative objects.
Lea Lane
Elisabeth Mallin grew up in the shade of church spires and barn silos in
south central Pennsylvania. To enrich her bucolic life, her family took
frequent trips to museums and parks throughout the United States, and
Elisabeth began traveling on her own as soon as she left for college. By
the time she graduated from Yale University in 2011, she had lived in
Italy and Israel, and spent time in Britain, Hungary and Canada. After
graduating with a degree in History, Elisabeth went to work as a Warnock
Fellow at the Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell where
she honed her research skills in 18th century literary and social history.
She has continued to travel, visiting Turkey, France and the Netherlands,
a pursuit that has fueled her love for investigating the stories and
particulars that make up people’s lives, past and present. At Winterthur,
Elisabeth is excited to be exploring people and things with lower airfares.
Elisabeth Mallin
Katie McKinney developed an interest in early American decorative arts
while growing up in Williamsburg, Virginia. At fifteen, she volunteered
in Colonial Williamsburg’s conservation lab, progressing over five
years from polishing silver after school to completing object treatments
as a full-time intern. She double-majored in art history and history
at James Madison University, with coursework in early American
material culture, Southern culture, and African American history.
During an internship in 2010, she created a furnishing plan for an 18thcentury dairy at Colonial Williamsburg. Her honors thesis focused
on the changing attitudes toward death and the commercialization of
mourning clothing in 19th-century America. After graduation, Katie
attended the Historic Deerfield Summer Fellowship Program before
becoming a Curatorial Assistant at Monticello. At Winterthur, she looks
forward to exploring her interests in dress, African American material
culture, historic interiors, outbuildings, Southern culture and history,
and visual representations of life and death in the Early Republic.
Emily Rebmann
A native Ohioan, Emily Rebmann graduated summa cum laude
from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture,
Art, and Planning with a B.A. in art history and a concentration in
classical civilization. As an undergraduate, she presented a paper on
classical Greek lion funerary sculpture at the Jonathan B. Riess Art
History Symposium and the Cincinnati Art Museum. She has explored
material culture as a Fine and Decorative Arts intern at Cowan’s Fine
Art Auctioneers and Appraisers and as an interpreter at the Cincinnati
Museum Center’s Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit. Emily is fascinated
by antique jewelry because of its aesthetic appeal and its value in
understanding an important aspect of women’s history. She spent a
year working at a Cincinnati jewelry store in order to gain experience,
photographing and cataloguing antique and contemporary pieces for the
store’s website. Emily is working to become a Graduate Gemologist
through the Gemological Institute of America’s distance learning
program. At Winterthur, she looks forward to expanding her interpretive
skills while experiencing material culture in new and exciting ways.
Katie McKinney
Growing up in central Ohio, Christian Roden’s enthusiasm for
architecture, art, and ocean liners inspired him to raid the libraries
of two counties for more information. His family’s tradition of
watching This Old House and Antiques Roadshow every Thursday
night fostered an interest in history and things. Educated in Virginia,
England, and France, he graduated from Washington and Lee
University with a B.A. in Art History and English Literature. He
returned to France as a Fulbright Research Fellow in 2011, studying
the cultural iconography and political significance of French ocean
liners at L’Association French Lines in Le Havre. He aided his hosting
institution by translating documents and recording English versions
of museum audio guides. Back in the States, he drove the county
bookmobile and helped manage its circulating collection. He enjoys
reading, singing, and hiking, and is also an accomplished painter.
While at Winterthur, Christian looks forward to guiding, getting lost
in the collection, and exploring the further reaches of the gardens.
Growing up in Ottawa, Canada, and London, England, Natalie Wright
quickly realized her insatiable passion for exploring identity and its
negotiations, as well as its ties to the material world. She discovered
the field of Material Culture as a researcher for University College
of London’s Daniel Miller, for whom she conducted interviews to
investigate the nature of Skype. These experiences inspired Natalie to
couple Diaspora and Transnational Studies with Material Culture at
the University of Toronto. During her undergraduate career, Natalie
worked alongside the Textile Museum of Canada’s staff to uncover the
significance of Victorian undergarments, and shortly thereafter, worked
at the Canadian Museum of Civilization as an assistant curator. There,
she conducted research for an upcoming exhibit on national icon Terry
Fox. In her spare time, Natalie enjoys writing for Toronto’s Worn Fashion
Journal, as well as working on InDesign for print and web publications.
At Winterthur, Natalie will continue to hone her skills in object
analysis and explore further how things shape identity and memory.
Natalie Wright
Christian Roden
Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, Class of 2015