University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-2017 American Controversy: Nudity in Art and its Discontents Sarah Katherine McPhaul University of Tennessee, Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation McPhaul, Sarah Katherine, "American Controversy: Nudity in Art and its Discontents. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2017. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/4762 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Sarah Katherine McPhaul entitled "American Controversy: Nudity in Art and its Discontents." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in History. Lynn Sacco, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Timothy Baumann, Ernest Freeberg Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) American Controversy: Nudity in Art and its Discontents A Thesis Presented for the Master of Arts Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Sarah Katherine McPhaul May 2017 ABSTRACT While walking through an exhibit at the East Tennessee Historical Society last year, I witnessed one of the curators tape sheets of white paper on top of some of the paintings. The exhibit served to remember the artwork of the Knoxville artist Lloyd Branson (1853 – 1925). His paintings consisted of mostly portraits, large-scale history scenes, and peaceful landscapes. Of the portraits displayed in the gallery, a few of them showed nude women. One of the paintings titled The Weeping Magdalene referred to a biblical narrative of Mary Magdalene crying. The other painting was not a biblical story, but one likely pulled from the Romantic period entitled The Nude. It showed a woman distressed by a presumable nightmare. Both paintings show the women nude above the waist, but fabric covered their bodies below the waist. They were small-scale paintings whose purpose was to present a dramatic story. These two “controversial” paintings of nude women were, in fact, the very ones that the curator carefully covered up. As I saw this action taking place, I wondered why. I would later find that the reasoning was due to a fifth grade Christian school group that was scheduled to tour the exhibit. The school requested that the paintings depicting nudity be covered during their visit. After consideration, the East Tennessee Historical Society staff decided to grant their request. My observation of censorship at this local historical society led me to question not only the organization’s decision, but also the reasons why the school felt it imperative to censor the art of their students. This event in Knoxville, Tennessee is reflective of a longer and complex history of Americans’ debates on nudity in art and also its ideas on whether that material is harmful to children. In this thesis, I take a public history approach to understand how museum censorship occurs and the history of why ii many Americans are uncomfortable with nudity in art. Through this approach, I argue that censorship can be harmful to the development of children and young students. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Introduction……..………..……..……………………...…………………..1 Chapter Two: Museum Exhibits of Controversy………………………………………….7 Chapter Three: Nudity in Art as a Controversial Subject………………..………............21 Chapter Four: Gender and Sexuality in American Politics…….……………...…………30 Chapter Five: Thoughts on Nudity in Art from the Christian Perspective………............34 Chapter Six: Proposal for a Methodology…………….…………………………..…..…39 Chapter Seven: Conclusion………………………………………………………..……..51 Bibliography.…...………………...……………………………...………………………53 Appendix……………………………………………………...………………...………..59 Vita...………………………..……………………………………………………………63 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. The Weeping Magdalene…………………………………………………..…..60 Figure 2. The Nude………………………………………………………………………60 Figure 3. Gathering of Overmountain Men at Sycamore Shoals…………..…………….61 Figure 4. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone……………………………………..…61 Figure 5. Tea Leaves……………………………………………………………………..62 Figure 6. Dust Storm, Fifth Avenue………………………………………….…………..62 v CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION While walking through an exhibit at the East Tennessee Historical Society last year, I witnessed one of the curators tape sheets of white paper on top of some of the paintings. The exhibit served to remember the artwork of the Knoxville artist Lloyd Branson (1853 - 1925). His paintings consisted of mostly portraits, large-scale history scenes, and peaceful landscapes. Of the portraits displayed in the gallery, a few of them showed nude women. One of the paintings titled The Weeping Magdalene (Figure 1) referred to a biblical narrative of Mary Magdalene crying. The other painting was not a biblical story but one likely pulled from the Romantic period entitled The Nude (Figure 2). It showed a woman distressed by a presumable nightmare. Both paintings show the women nude above the waist, but fabric covered their body below the waist. They were small-scale paintings whose purpose was to present a dramatic story. These two “controversial” paintings of nude women were, in fact, the very ones that the curator carefully covered up. As I saw this action taking place, I wondered why. I would later find that the reasoning was due to a fifth grade Christian school group that was scheduled to tour the exhibit. The school requested that the paintings depicting nudity be covered during their visit. After careful consideration, the East Tennessee Historical Society staff decided to grant their request because covering the paintings would not impede the intended learning outcome for the school group tour. The censorship at this local historical society led me to question not only the organization’s decision but also the reasons why the school felt it 1 imperative to censor the art for their students. This event in Knoxville, Tennessee reflects a longer and complex history of Americans’ debates on nudity in art and also its ideas on what material is harmful to children and who gets to decide. In this Master’s thesis, I plan to discuss this topic through a public history approach. I divide my paper into five sections. The first section discusses museum exhibits that presented or attempted to present “difficult” histories. There have been a number of exhibits that stirred controversy among Americans over the story of American history and who tells the story. Some of these shows included Back of the Big House at the Library of Congress in 1995, which attempted to examine slavery through plantation architecture. Another was the Enola Gay exhibit at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum also in 1995. I discuss these exhibits and why exactly they were deemed controversial. With exhibits surrounding topics on slavery and America’s role in warfare, there is a legitimate debate about what happened and how to publicly commemorate it. Especially when presenting this material to schoolchildren, these aspects of history might better serve older students in middle school or high school who have a larger knowledge base to understand the nuances of complicated ideas and events. There are a number of works by public historians and historians dedicated to public history and controversial exhibits and museum topics. Julia Rose’s book Interpreting Difficult History at Museum and Historic Sites (2016) addresses some museum exhibits that discussed difficult topics. She also lays out a methodological approach of how to discuss them at historic sites and museums.1 Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory (2006) offers a collection of essays on the 1 Julia Rose, Interpreting Difficult History at Museums and Historic Sites (Lanham, Boulder, New York, and London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016). 2 James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton, Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff 2 topic of how to accurately and respectfully teach and represent slavery to the public along with real cases where different controversies occurred.2 Public history also can mesh into the field of archaeology with Barbara Little and Paul Shackel’s collection of essays entitled Archaeology as a Tool of Civic Engagement (2007), which relates to using archaeology educationally as a way to build relationships in communities and create engaged citizens.3 These works and others discussing public history arise out of museum exhibit controversies from the 1990s and also the increasing interest for museum and historic sites to develop critical educational programming to connect visitors and students through their museums in better ways. The second section of my thesis moves to the paper’s main issue of nudity as an area of contention in American museums and institutions. Why is nudity controversial? More specifically why is it in some cases determined to be inappropriate for children? Who is arguing this? It is true