Imagine holding in your hands a piece of the rope used to hang
the man who assassinated President James A. Garfield in 1882. Or
a handwritten letter Ephraim Williams’ sister wrote after his
death in 1755, describing her brother’s wounds in great detail
and decrying the French and Indian War. In the Williams College
Museum of Art’s Rose Study Gallery this month, the students in
Professor Patrick Spero’s “North American History” survey course
got to do just that. As they considered these primary sources
gathered from the college’s archives, the history the students
had been learning all semester came vividly to life. Spero
invited Jason Kittler, a teaching doctor affiliated with the
University of Massachusetts, to offer a medical perspective on
the historical materials and the museum portraits of a
Revolutionary War soldier, a conquistador, and an American
president that were on view in the Rose Gallery. Considering a
1626 portrait called “A Knight of Santiago,” Kittler prompted
students to suggest what might h