Early Modern Caribbean Material Culture, c.1600-1830

Ranging from earthenware ceramics to mahogany furniture, textiles, metalwork, oil paintings, architecture, maps, and prints — the material world of the early modern British, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Afro- Caribbean (c.1600-1830) was richly layered, dynamic, and vast. Many of these objects were scattered into material archives across the Atlantic World, destroyed by earthquake and hurricane, or remain misattributed in western collections. Consequently, the study of the Caribbean’s early modern material culture constitutes a serious void in art history and the decorative arts. This panel addresses this gap. We invite papers that critically examine the material culture of the early modern Caribbean and the complex social and cultural histories these objects carry.

Objects have lives. From the extraction of raw materials to craft an object, their formation into decorative objects in a workshop, to their circulation as consumer goods, and their lasting presence in collections today, objects from the early modern Caribbean bear witness to the Caribbean’s expansive histories of artistic creativity and extractive violence. In embracing the full breadth of object lives, this panel asks: What does the study of Caribbean material culture reveal about histories of slavery, freedom, empire and the disparate lived experiences in the early modern Caribbean? What do Caribbean objects reveal about the lives of makers and consumers (enslaved and free)? Where are Caribbean objects today? What memories do these objects embody?

We invite papers that engage early modern Caribbean material culture in relation to themes of slavery, empire, historical memory, and collecting practices.

Submit your Paper via this form. Please download, complete and send it directly to the Session Convenor(s) below by Sunday 2 November 2025:

Catherine Doucette, University of Virginia, cd2bv@virginia.edu

Sarah Brokenborough, Tulane University, sbrokenborough@tulane.edu