In the Looking Glass: Mirrors and Identity in Early America

Shrum is an assistant professor of history and the assistant director of the public history program at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis.. Rebecca K

Drawing from archival research, as well as archaeological studies, probate inventories, trade records, and visual sources, Shrum also assesses extant mirrors in museum collections through a material culture lens. Focusing on how mirrors were acquired in America and by whom, as well as the profound influence mirrors had, both individually and collectively, on the groups that embraced them, In the Looking Glass is a piece of innovative textual and visual scholarship.. Shrum argues that mirrors became objects through which white men asserted their claims to modernity, emphasizing mirrors as fulcrums of truth that enabled them to know and master themselves and their world. Shrum asks, for peoplelong-accustomed to associating reflective surfaces with ritual and magicto became as familiar with how they looked as they were with the appearance of other people? Fragmentary histories tantalize us with how early Americanspeople of Native, European, and African descentinteracted with mirrors. Mirrors thus played an important role in the construction of early American racial and gender hierarchies. What did it mean, Rebecca

"A very interesting and thought-provoking book about the cultural role, multifaceted meanings, and uses of mirrors and looking glasses in early America. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Shrum offers a rich and compelling account." (Jennifer L. Anderson, author of Mahogany: The Costs of Luxury in Early America)