Dr. Peter Shapinsky's ECCE HIS 486: Exhibiting Asia: Trans-Pacific Material Culture course has unveiled the culmination of all the hard work put in by its students! “Legacies of Everyday Life in Early Modern and Modern Japan: East Asian Artifacts from the Illinois State Museum” is a publicly accessible digital archive and exhibition produced as the final product of semester long efforts of historical interpretation and cultural connection, with the assistance of the Illinois State Museum.

Throughout the course, Shapinsky’s students explored the changing meanings of the Illinois State Museum’s collection of Asian artifacts from their creation to their arrival in Springfield, reflecting different worldviews. The students investigated how specific items shape their owners' identities in shifting Trans-Pacific contexts and the connections between ownership and identity formation, along with themes like politics, status, gender, orientalism, and militarism. One student, Tori Kolanowski, expressed her gratitude for being able to collaborate with the Illinois State Museum. “We got connected with local historians and archivists throughout the semester in order to not only further our class project, but to gain some experience of what the history field is like in a professional sense. I found it to be super beneficial as well, as I myself am interested in the public history track, so these interactions were especially unique to me in comparison to other undergraduate classes that follow similar themes about museum studies and general archiving.” The 2024 exhibit aims to illustrate how artifacts communicate cultural ideas, preserve the legacies of individuals, and reflect people's self-expression in their daily lives.

To see the work of Tori Kolanowski and other students who took the class, visit the digital exhibit “Legacies of Everyday Life in Early Modern and Modern Japan: East Asian Artifacts from the Illinois State Museum · Exhibiting Asia 2024."