Breathing life into old records and stripping away familiar abstractions, this work reveals the vital–and often unrecognized–roles of women in colonial New England.

Drawing on the diaries of one woman in eighteenth-century Maine, this intimate history illuminates the medical practices, household economies, religious rivalries, and sexual mores of the New England frontier.

Based on the rich museum collections of Harvard University, Tangible Things challenges rigid distinctions between history, anthropology, science, and the arts. Through 20 entertaining and inspiring case studies it demonstrates…