Interpreting the Material Text

On Tuesday, we worked on actual 19th-century materials during class. For this post, craft an individual response to each of the below queries/instructions based on one artifact from our class work:

1. Author a description & provide an image of your artifact (2-3 sentences including title, author, publisher, size, etc.);
2. To begin, make reference to at least 2 of the below readings (use quotes & proper MLA citation style):
   • "Reading as a Means of Culture" (VPM 61)
   • "Periodical Literature" (VPM 14)
   • "Progress of the People" (VPM 22)
   • "The Influence of the Press" (VPM 25)
   • "The Printed Image in the West" (MetMuseum)
   • "Print Culture" (Taunton)
   • Introduction, from Popular History in Victorian Magazines Database
3. Use the Making Sense of Evidence (Links to an external site.) articles or Guide for using primary sources to assess historical object Links to an external site. (pdf) to create a list of 3-5 bullet points to help you interpret/analyze your artifact or a portion of your artifact; write 300 word analysis of your artifact based on those bullet points;
4. Search Google N-Gram Viewer (Links to an external site.) for a significant concept from your artifact; articulate in 3-5 sentences about what you find; include term/phrase, years searched, corpus; and
5. Upload any images; add all links to keep track of your discoveries.

This is the first formal piece of writing that you're submitting. Take a look at the Writing Tips for formal writing, including how to cite using the 8th edition of the MLA. Also note that first person is not allowed, neither is "you."