This conference explores the ways material objects embody early American culture and provide opportunities for richer analysis of historical questions by combining history, art and architectural history, material culture studies, and other disciplines.  Examining portraits, decorative objects, spaces, buildings, and other material objects, it seeks a deeper understanding of how the colonists of British America constructed their identities and understood the world around them and their place within it.  In addition to sessions featuring scholarly papers, the conference will include site visits to encourage discussion and interpretation of the early American material environment.

“Faces and Places in Early America” is convened in celebration of the completion of the new McNeil Center building on the University of Pennsylvania campus, made possible through the generosity of the Robert L. McNeil, Jr., the Barra Foundation, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences. Program