Object Lessons is "an essay and book series about the hidden lives of ordinary things". Each of the essays (2,000 words) and the books (25,000 words) investigate a single object through a variety of approaches that often reveal something unexpected about that object. As stated in the Object Lessons webpage, "Each Object Lessons project will start from a specific inspiration: an anthropological query, ecological matter, archeological discovery, historical event, literary passage, personal narrative, philosophical speculation, technological innovation—and from there develop original insights and novel lessons about the object in question."[1]
In 2023, it was announced that the series was now based in the Program in Public Scholarship in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and will publish its 100th book in the series. [2]