Editor’s Introduction

Previous articleNext article FreeEditor’s IntroductionCatharine Dann RoeberCatharine Dann Roeber Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmailPrint SectionsMoreCrafting an independent identity requires many types of tools. This issue of Winterthur Portfolio examines how two artists harnessed papier-mâché, paint, and other materials in service of creating and representing individual and communal freedoms. Nicholas Rinehart’s article “Essence of Stillness: Temporality and Materiality in the Dioramas of Gerrit Schouten” examines Schouten’s works as complex reflections on the life and circumstances of free and enslaved Black residents of nineteenth-century Surinam as they navigated moments of joy and respite in the face of enslavement. In “Brett & Toby: Asserting the Disabled Gaze,” Jai Virdi examines the long-standing relationship between artist Dorothy Brett and her hearing trumpet, Toby, as she forged her identity as a deaf woman and artist.Previous scholars of the Schouten dioramas have often used them as direct documents of life in Surinam or have pointed to the artist’s use of stereotype in the papier-mâché figures and backgrounds. Rinehart admits that these complex objects reflect hierarchies within the communities of free and enslaved people of African birth or descent depicted and acknowledges the evidence of the brutality of the international slave economy. But, by reexamining carefully the clues of the dioramas, along with comparative research on paintings and documents, Rinehart picks up on subtle details, precisely rendered by Schouten, to make an argument for a new and more complex reading of the figures and scenes. Rinehart’s location of Black communities and Black joy among the evidence of trauma has implications far beyond specific geography and circumstances in Surinam and encourages readers and scholars to reexamine historical representations of enslaved dance and life created throughout the African diaspora.Virdi’s work explores how one individual carved out a space for herself with an object of tin and solder. Virdi unpacks the relationship between Dorothy Eugenie Brett and Toby and other assistive devices she used to navigate and frame her position as a woman experiencing increasing deafness in the early twentieth century. Brett’s choice to include Toby and later assistive devices in her portraits and self-portraits reinforces that these were not mere “tools” but extensions of self. Through detailed analysis of devices, Brett’s words, and images of Brett from her youth as a socialite in England to her more independent adulthood in New Mexico, Virdi presents an intimate and nuanced reading of Brett and of assistive technologies. The argument presented by Virdi encourages new readings and directions in disability scholarship informed by her framing of the “disabled gaze.”Both articles skillfully blend readings of representations in visual culture, material culture artifacts, and documentary analysis to reappraise and reconsider the subject matter in the face of significant voids. Brett’s ear trumpet, Toby, is not extant and the du dances depicted in Schouten’s dioramas were ephemeral, but attention to detail and triangulation with other primary sources and scholarship make these “lost” material stories come alive. And when they do, both authors perform a sort of recovery. Papier-mâché dancers become not just static stereotypes, but evocations of communities flourishing in the shadow of enslavement. And Brett is not an awkward woman, dependent on a tool, but a woman who chose to use or not use the tools she had when, and how, she pleased.Both case studies highlight that individuals and communities would, with purpose, be selectively anti-innovative. Schouten’s dioramas and Brett’s use of Toby did not reflect particularly new methods or tools, but they worked for their users to communicate and represent themselves and others best. The stories of Schouten and Brett encourage us to consider how the role of tradition, or even outdated tangible and intangible heritage, can be effectively used to craft identity and create change.We at Portfolio intend for our pages to provide a forum for rigorous discussion and thoughtful reconsideration of methodologies and practices related to material culture in the Americas, and we welcome manuscript submissions that engage with similarly essential and timely questions. We welcome conversations with any scholars and practitioners of material culture who are considering a submission. For more information about publishing in Portfolio, please view our videos on submitting manuscripts and reviewing for the journal, contact managing editor Gary Albert ([email protected]), or visit https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/wp.We are pleased to welcome Gary Albert to the Portfolio team. As our managing editor, Gary is involved with all aspects of the publication process, including review of prospective articles, editing manuscripts, and overseeing production. Gary brings a wealth of experience in editing and publications, decorative arts scholarship, and cultural heritage work to his role and in his few short months on staff he has made substantive and welcome contributions to the journal and to Winterthur. Please help us welcome him and be in touch with your ideas for submissions.We are also thrilled to announce the winner of Winterthur Portfolio’s fifth Grier Prize, Dr. Tiya Miles, the Michael Garvey Professor of History, Radcliffe Alumnae Professor, and Director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University. Her article “Packed Sacks and Pieced Quilts: Sampling Slavery’s Vast Materials” (vol. 54, no. 4, Winter 2020) was published in the first Enslavement and Its Legacies special issue. Members of the Winterthur Portfolio editorial board and Winterthur’s in-house editorial team voted for articles among the fourteen in competition from volumes 53 and 54. The Grier Prize is awarded to an article making significant scholarly contributions in Winterthur Portfolio during the last two publication years. The prize was established by Winterthur’s Academic Affairs Division in recognition of Dr. Kasey Grier’s distinguished service as executive editor of Winterthur Portfolio. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Miles! Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Winterthur Portfolio Volume 57, Number 1Spring 2023 Published for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/727480 © 2023 The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.