cynthia g. falk
Associate Professor, Material Culture
Email: falkcg@oneonta.edu
Ph.D. University of Delaware
M.A. Winterthur Program in Early American Culture, University of Delaware
B.A. Pennsylvania State University
current projects
- Constructing Identity: Interpretations of Late Eighteenth-Century Pennsylvania German Material Culture (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press/Pennsylvania German Society, forthcoming).
- Field Guide to New York State Barns and Agricultural Outbuildings, a joint publication with The Farmers’ Museum with grant funding from Furthermore.
- Historic Furnishing Report for Herkimer Home State Historic Site, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.
major publications
- “Celebrating Years Together: Personal Commemorations and the Colonial Revival,” Winterthur Portfolio 40:1 (Spring 2005): 1-16.
- “Palatine Domestic Building Traditions in the Mohawk and Schoharie Valley,” The Western Frontier: Plantation Society in Colonial New York, 1750-1775 (New York: New York Council for the Humanities, 2005), 73-86.
- “‘The Intolerable Ugliness of New York’: Architecture and Society in Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, ” American Studies 42:2 (Summer 2001): 19-43.
- “Symbols of Assimilation or Status?: The Meanings of Eighteenth-Century Houses in Coventry Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania,” Winterthur Portfolio 23:2/3 (Summer/Autumn 1998): 107-134.
museum work
- Planning for the restoration, interpretation, and furnishing of the Jonas and Deborah More House, The Farmers Museum, 2006.
- Exhibition planning for “Beyond the Pennsylvania Dutch: Localism of Furniture in Rural Southeastern Pennsylvania,” Winterthur Museum funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities Consultation Grant, 2006.
- Reinterpretation planning for the Golden Plough Tavern, the General Gates House, the Barnett Bobb Log House, and the Colonial Court House, York County (Pennsylvania) Heritage Trust, funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities Consultation Grant, 2005-2006.
- Self-study team member, Museum Assessment Program (MAP), Collections Management Assessment, The Farmers’ Museum, 2003.
- Interpretive Planning for the Shaker Museum and Library (Old Chatham, New York), 2001.
- Campaign Coordinator, Campaign for the Winterthur Library, 1996.
- Curator and Interpreter, Chadds Ford (Pennsylvania) Historical Society, 1991-1993.
- Assistant Director, Summer History Camp, Brandywine Battlefield Park, 1993.
- Intern, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commision, 1992.
- Collections Processor, American Baptist Historical Society, 1991-1994.
professional societies
- Committee on Museum Professional Training, American Association of Museums
- Vernacular Architecture Forum
- Society of Winterthur Fellows
- Pennsylvania Historical Association
- Phi Beta Kappa
awards
- Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2006.
Courses: Culture & Collections I and II, Material Culture I and II, Topics in Museum Studies
Cindy at the Corning Museum of Glass
Cindy and the class of 2006 make wallpaper at the Farmers' Museum
Cindy Falk