The 2021 volume of American Furniture is intensely object-focused, with articles ranging from new discoveries in Rhode Island furniture to those on specific pieces: two associated with Jefferson’s drafting of the Declaration and two with fraudulent components and additions. Underlying these essays are a diverse group of topics including “labor and memory in furniture history,” redemption and reimagination of furniture, and the exploitation of history and trauma in the creation and marketing of a fake.
Cradling the Past: Labor and Memory in Furniture History
Kenneth Cohen
An “Ingenious” Man: George Peabody, Newport Cabinetmaker
Patricia E. Kane
Newly Discoveries in Furniture by Christopher Townsend
Erik Gronning and Amy Coes
Thomas Jefferson’s Writing Box and Rotating Windsor Writing Chair
James Gergat
Reimagining and Redemption: The Chipstone Foundation’s Secretary with Chipmunk
Beth Lipman and Jonathan Prown
“Forging the Real War”: Nostalgia, Memory, and Trauma in the Bingham Memorial Secretary
Brandy Culp and Ruthie Dibble