Maine Historical Society

Headstone of William Pepperrell Hale, 1738, Portland, ME. Photo by Mason Philip Smith, 1966. MMN #12476.

Material culture refers to objects created by a person or group of people for a specific purpose. Material culture generally refers to utilitarian, everyday things, and can encompass a wide variety of objects including but not limited to bowls and other vessels, tools, utensils, clothing, toys, medical equipment, and furniture.

Discussion Question: How do you think everyday objects might help historians understand more about people in different regions at different points in time? What else do historians use to learn about people in the past?

Discussion Question: Are headstones part of material culture? What kinds of objects can you think of from your own time, culture, and community that are important to burial customs?

Throughout the activities in this kit, you will have the opportunity to view the evolution of material culture related to burial customs and other memorials, and discuss how historians can use this information to track and learn about populations over a period of time.

Introduction to Material Culture in Burial Customs

Headstone of Joshua Allen, 1805, carved by Bartlett Adams (1776-1828). Photo by Mason Philip Smith, 1966. MMN #12470.

Joshua Allen's Headstone

Material culture refers to objects created by a person or group of people for a specific purpose. Material culture generally refers to utilitarian, everyday things, and can encompass a wide variety of objects. Headstones are created by an artisan, whether trained or untrained, for the specific purpose of giving information about a deceased person or family group. Take a look at the headstones in this slideshow: using your iconography worksheets, see what you can infer about the people who made these headstones, and the people they were made for.

The Material Culture of Headstones

The population of what we now know of as the State of Maine has changed throughout the centuries as people establish communities. Maine exists within unceded Wabanaki Homelands, which includes the Homelands of the Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and Abenaki peoples. Some of the earliest settler-colonial communities were French, who established Catholic missions and communities, and English, who established Protestant missions and communities. Many of the burial grounds throughout Maine reflect these earliest European and European-influenced customs, and changed over time. As towns grew, communities were primarily established around places of worship. One thing that all communities tend to have in common is a set of rituals or objects of material culture related to mourning and burying the dead, though what those customs are vary across communities and cultures, sometimes influencing each other. 

Learning About Communities through Funerary Material Culture

Another way many communities honor their dead is through monuments. In the wake of the Civil War (1861-65) especially, local groups, primarily women, would gather community funds in order to create monuments to fallen soldiers. Monuments also honor other figures from a town, state, or country's history. How do monuments differ from headstones? How are stories told in monuments, and what do they tell us about communities?

Monuments

This lesson plan will give students an overview of how burial sites and gravestone material culture can assist historians and archaeologists in discovering information about people and migration over time. Students will learn how new scholarship can help to dispel harmful archaeological myths, look into the roles of religion and ethnicity in early Maine and New England immigrant and colonial settlements, and discover how to track changes in population and social values from the 1600s to early 1900s based on gravestone iconography and epitaphs.

-       English Language Arts: Reading for Literature – RL 1.6, RL 2.6, RL 4.6, RL 5.6, RL 1.7, RL 2.7, 
RL 4.7, RL 5.7, RL 1.8, RL 2.8, RL 4.8, RL 5.8; Reading for Literacy in History/Social Studies – 
RH 1.6-8, RH 5.6-8, RH 7.6-8; Speaking & Listening – SL 1.6, SL 2.6, SL 3.6, SL 4.6, SL 1.7, SL 2.7, 
SL 3.7, SL 4.7, SL 1.8, SL 2.8, SL 3.8, SL 4.8 

-       Social Studies, Grades 6-8: History 1 – F1, F2, D1, D2; History 2 – F1, F2, F3, D1, D2, D3 

-       Visual & Performing Arts: A2, B1 (if extension activity is chosen), B2 (if extension activity is chosen), D1,  E1

"MMN" numbers on images refer to the corresponding object number on the Maine Memory Network, Maine's statewide digital museum maintained by the Maine Historical Society. Learn more or view closeups/transcripts of images at mainememory.net, or follow the link in the Educator Resources PDF for this lesson.

Maine Historical Society Lesson Plan What Remains for MDL 2021.pdf

Maine Historical Society What Remains Student Vocabulary Handout for MDL 2021.pdf

Resource Kits

Object Library

Museums

What Remains: Learning About Maine Populations Through Burial Customs

Introduction to Material Culture in Burial Customs