In this video, Middlebury College Assistant Professor of American Studies Dr. Ellery Foutch and her students discuss the semester-long project of their Material Culture in Focus course. Dr. Foutch and her students collaboratively explored the idea of relics by studying an 1884 “relic chair,” built by Middlebury resident and amateur historian Henry Luther Sheldon. After researching the chair and its spindles, which were each derived from local and/or historical sites, Dr. Foutch and her students then created their very own 2018 relic chair with the help of chairwright Timothy Clark.