1. The conferences were held at the Winterthur Museum in 1975 and 1985 respectively. 2. Ian M. G. Quimby, ed., Material Culture and the Study of American Life (New York: W. W. Norton for the Winterthur Museum, 1978). Cary Carson, “Doing History with Material Culture,” in Ibid., pp. 41-64. 3. Gerald W. R. Ward, ed., Perspectives on American Furniture (New York: W. W. Norton for the Winterthur Museum, 1988). 4. One of the most forceful arguments along these lines is “New Connoisseurship,” a lecture presented at the 1995 Williamsburg Antiques Forum by Jon Prown, Assistant Curator of Furniture at Colonial Williamsburg.