According to Anthropologist Mark Auslander, the most basic features of our society – its myths, rituals, power relations, social facts, etc. – are often conveyed not only through speech, but also through their concretization in material forms. In and around the Knox College campus, there are a number of places which attempt to narrate our collective past. These include (amongst other places), Hope Cemetery; the artifacts, monuments, and posters around Old Main; the museum-style exhibits on the third floor of Alumni Hall; the Carl Sandburg House; and the Galesburg Railroad Museum.
In this project, students chose one such object and constructed an argument about how it relates to the myths that define our collective identities. All artifacts have been added as both items and exhibits. As an item, students entered important metadata alongside media files to represent the object in digital form. As an exhibit, students then crafted succinct, public-facing narratives about the meaning of their objects and how they relate to local myths, history, identities, and power relations. Please browse the items and exhibits to learn more about the intersection of myth and materiality within and around Knox College.