Instead she uses objects as evidence that can be read for cultural meaning and she connects this reading to external cultural evidence that validates the reading. For her, objects are invested with symbolic meaning by those who use them and thus from objects a historian can learn about past cultural values. With these ideas Grier is able to clearly show how Victorian parlor furnishings reflect dual values of domestic comfort and social respectability. Kenneth Ames uses a similar process in deciphering Victorian hall furnishings and concludes that hall furniture reflects important aspects of social interaction. Both works are grounded in objects, but neither gives exhaustive descriptive and technical detail about the objects utilized.
Objects are central to both works, but equally central is an exploration of historical themes.
While Prown offers a methodology for analyzing artifacts, Grier and Ames provide me with a guide for how to put material culture analysis into actual practical application. McCracken outlines a theoretical perspective that traces the movement of consumer goods' cultural meaning. McCracken establishes three locations of meaning and he explores how meaning is transferred from one location to the next. Meaning originally rests in the culturally constituted world and from here it is transmitted to consumer goods and finally to the individual consumer. Goods themselves are objects of culture and they are invested with meaning through a process of meaning transfer.