Wigmore Udel 0060D 1

ALBERT BIERSTADT AND THE SPECULATIVE TERRAIN OF AMERICAN LANDSCAPE PAINTING, 1866-1877 by Spencer Wigmore A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Art History Spring 2020 © Spencer Wigmore All Rights Reserved ALBERT BIERSTADT AND THE SPECULATIVE TERRAIN OF AMERICAN LANDSCAPE PAINTING, 1866-1877 by Spencer Wigmore Approved: __________________________________________________________ Sandy Isenstadt, Ph.D. Chair of the Department of Art History Approved: __________________________________________________________ John Pelesko, Ph.D. Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Approved: __________________________________________________________ Douglas J. Doren, Ph.D. Interim Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education and Dean of the Graduate College I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Wendy Bellion, Ph.D. Professor in charge of dissertation I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Jessica L. Horton, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Jason Hill, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Martin Brückner, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Although the writing for this project took place in solitude, this was at heart a collaborative undertaking, one whose roots extend back to my first forays into art history. First, I want to extend the deepest gratitude to Wendy Bellion, whose guidance, instruction, and moral support had a transformative impact on my scholarship and love for art history. I truly cannot thank Wendy enough. As my graduate advisor at the University of Delaware, she offered peerless insight, scholarship, and patience as I developed and shaped my research interests. She was the first to suggest that I revisit Bierstadt, and she read each section of this project several times over, helping to mold it not only into a finished product, but a foundation for years of future inquiry. I am also a beneficiary of the expertise and enthusiasm of my committee members, Martin Brückner, Jason Hill, and Jessica Horton. Their thoughtful criticism and suggestions enriched this dissertation in innumerable ways. In this light, I would also like to thank to the rest of the UD art history faculty for making my graduate coursework such a rewarding and enjoyable experience, especially Sandy Isenstadt, whose incisive feedback has left an indelible impact on my writing. A Wyeth Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship at the Smithsonian American Art Museum allowed me to complete the bulk of my research for this project. Most notably, SAAM funded an extended research trip to San Francisco, where I was able to reconstruct traces of Bierstadt’s previously unknown mining investments in the microfilm room at the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley—a topic that became the focus of Chapter Four. I thank Eleanor Jones Harvey and iv William Truettner for their academic and professional guidance during my fellowship, as well as their unwavering interest in my research. Cheers to Gwen Manthey, for lively conversations in SAAM’s conservation lab about baseball and Bierstadt’s underdrawings, and to my great cohort of fellows, especially Michaela Rife, whose expertise on the topics of environmental history and mining helped shape Chapter Two of this project. As every current and former SAAM fellow knows, Amelia Goerlitz worked tirelessly to run a truly exceptional program, while Anne Evenhaugen and Stacy Weiland offered useful research and administrative support, respectively. A McNeil Fellowship at the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania provided a unique opportunity to examine the visual culture of nineteenth-century mining speculation. During my residency, Rachel D’Agostino, James N. Green, Cornelia King, Erika Piola, and Sarah Weatherwax delved into obscure and often uncatalogued parts of the Library Company’s holdings, turning up troves of mining maps and prospectus for me to study. In was in the Library Company’s archives that the core arguments of this dissertation first took shape. I also thank the University of Delaware Department of Art History for awarding me a Global Dissertation Development Grant to examine nineteenth-century landscape paintings in collections in England, Germany, and the Netherlands. I am also grateful to the University of Delaware’s Center for Material Culture Studies, which provided invaluable summer funding during my dissertation research through a Finkle Fund in Support of Curatorial Internships and a Delaware Public Humanities Institute (DELPHI) fellowship. Thanks as well to Thomas Brent Smith and the Petrie Institute of Western American Art at the Denver Art Museum. I spent two consecutive summers at the Petrie as part of a Bruce and Dorothy Dines Fellowship, undertaking v collection research and testing out some of the preliminary ideas for the dissertation. I could not mention my time in Denver without also acknowledging the generosity of Jon and Susan Bernhardt during my stay. The final year and a half of writing for this project took place while I was an Assistant Curator of Paintings, Sculpture, and Works on Paper at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. The Carter’s curatorial team has offered an exceptional blend of friendship, mentorship, humor, and scholarly insight. The welcoming environment created by Brett Abbott, Maggie Adler, Jonathan Frembling, Kristen Gaylord, Shirley Reece-Hughes, John Rohrbach, Andrew Walker and others made the completion of this project possible. Prior to joining the Carter, I benefited from an exceptional cohort of graduate students in the Department of Art History at the University of Delaware, many of whom offered invaluable perspectives on my project at key moments in its development. This dissertation bears traces of the insights of Emily Casey, Kristina Gray, Caitlin Hutchinson, Margarita Karasoulas, Craig Lee, Sarah Leonard, Galina Olmsted, Jeff Richmond-Moll, Vanessa Reubendale, Kaila Schedeen, Hannah Segrave, Laura Sevelis, Elizabeth Simmons, Amy Torbert, Karli Wurzelbacher, and the members of Wendy Bellion’s Delaware Americanist Writing Group. My interest in American Western art history took shape prior to the University of Delaware, when I was the inaugural Weitz Family Fellow at the Joslyn Art Museum. At the Joslyn, Jack Becker and Toby Jurovics fueled my interest in the art and environmental histories of the Upper Missouri River and the American Southwest, and offered useful suggestions on how to integrate my burgeoning geographic interests into broader narratives of American art. They also made introductions, shared books vi and research, and went out of their way to support my application to the University of Delaware. My passion for art history gained focus and zeal as an undergrad at Carleton College. The committed and passionate pedagogy of Ross Elfline, Alison Kettering, and Katie Ryor has proven life-changing in all of the best ways. The many hours I spent in their seminars count amongst my favorite academic memories. In this light, I also extend a hearty thanks to Jim Smith, whose supervision at the Carleton College Art Gallery shaped my interest in curatorial work and gave me my first opportunities to practice skills of connoisseurship. Lastly, I owe a special thanks to Baird Jarman, who, in addition to his exceptional pedagogy, has continued to offer mentorship, advice, and friendship at every step of my postgraduate career. Were it not for a scheduling conflict in my senior year of high school, I would have never become an art historian. By chance, I ended up in Dennis Odette’s AP Art History class. Just a few weeks into the semester, despite having no prior interest or knowledge in the topic, I knew definitively that I wanted to be an art historian. Denny’s thoughtful and enthusiastic teaching infused my work with an excitement and energy that persists today. I cannot thank him enough. I want to extend my gratitude to the following friends and scholars for their perspectives and support: Layla Bermeo, Aaron Bernhardt, Mindy Besaw, Andrea Blandford, Alan Braddock, Laurel Bradley, Maggie Cao, Sarah Cash, Hollis Clayson, David Peters Corbett, Ellery Foutch, Michael Gaudio, Steve Good, Tyler Green, Diana Greenwald, Michaela Haffner, Annika Johnson, Lisa Koenigsberg, Michael Kowalewski, Patricia Limerick, Alex Mann, Anna Marley, Karen McWhorter, John Meissner, Joseph Larnerd, Nenette Luarca-Shoaf, John Ott, Eric Paddock, Nicole vii Parks, Christian Roden, Tod Ruhstaller, Ian Sampson,

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