DOCSLIB.ORG

Washington Allston and Edgar Allan Poe's Mandate for the American Artist

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Washington Allston and Edgar Allan Poe's Mandate for the American Artist INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 9303960 Smashing the monuments and saving the pedestals: Washington Allston and Edgar Allan Poe's mandate for the American artist Weston, Debra Faye, Ph.D. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1992 Copyright ©1992 by Weston, Debra Faye. All rights reserved. 300 N. ZeebRd. Ann Aibor, MI 48106 SMASHING THE MONUMENTS AND SAVING THE PEDESTALS: WASHINGTON ALLSTON AND EDGAR ALLAN POE'S MANDATE FOR THE AMERICAN ARTIST by Debra Weston A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School at Hie University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 1992 Approved by Dissertation/Advisor APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of the Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Dissertation Advisor Committee Members {lyj (Al /!_ - _ Cu^jct 7, jyy-L. Date 'of Acceptance by Committee 7 /9<7z- Date df Final Oral Examination ii © by Debra Weston 1992 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to those members of my committee, Murray Arndt, Charles Davis, Denise P iker and Jim Evans for their assistance throughout the course of this project. I would especially like to thanks Drs. Arndt and Davis for not only their insightful suggestions and their reading along the way, but for their support and encouragement in seeing this project to its completion. Thanks are also due to those faculty members who offered their knowledge and advice on various aspects of this work: Robert Calhoun, Robert Rosthal, Mark Gottsegen, Robert Langenfeld and Carl Goldstein. Also thanks to those members of the library staff who offered advice and assistance: Mark Schumacher, Kathy Levinson, Gaylor Callahan and Nancy Fogerty and also to Katherine Pollock and Kathleen Driskell who helped with typing and editing. A veiy special thanks goes to Mark Branson who not only offered his time and talents for proofreading and help in research but whose support and friendship during this time have been invaluable. My greatest debt, however, is to my parents. Their love and support has made all the difference. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page APPROVAL PAGE ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Ill CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction Content Notes 26 I. LIFE IN THE SOUTH 31 Chapter I Content Notes 58 II. LIFE IN THE NORTH 70 Chapter II Content Notes 131 III. THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST: ALLSTON'S MANDATE 168 Chapter III Content Notes 209 IV. THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST: POE'S MANDATE 252 Chapter IV Content Notes 291 WORKS CITED 301 iv WESTON, DEBRA, Ph.D. Smashing the Monuments and Saving the Pedestals: Washington Allston and Edgar Allan Poe's Mandate for the American Artist. (1992). Directed by Dr. Murray Arndt. 318 pp. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of the artist in nineteenth-century America as it was conceived by Washington Allston and Edgar Allan Poe. Washington Allston was the first American painter and Edgar Allan Poe the first American poet to define their aesthetic theories and practice in an attempt to fashion a more definitive and prominent role for the American artist. Allston's and Poe's contributions as artists and aesthetic theorists are significant in that both men seek to construct a mandate for the artist in an American environment void of both a native tradition and the necessary resources to promote and sustain American art and artists. In an effort to overcome these obstacles, Allston and Poe find themselves attempting to reconcile a number of paradoxes in their mandates: questions of the artist as elitist or democrat, the artist as aesthete or instructor and the artist as advocate of the traditional or the original. These were all issues confronted and reconciled in their mandates. For Allston and Poe the reconciliation of these paradoxes is, in turn, the similarity of their visions. Moreover, from a biographical perspective the lives and careers of Allston and Poe, each rife with ironies, similarly parallel. Both men spent childhoods in privileged circumstances in the antebellum South and adulthoods in a constant struggle with poverty in an industrial and unsympathetic North. Much of the ideology that shapes their mandates can be seen as a direct result of the social, cultural and political conflicts that existed between these two environments. These regional conflicts also have a direct relation to the ultimate failure of Allston and Poe to realize their mandates. As Romantic artists in a period when Ralph Waldo Emerson and Transcendentalist thought was considered the paradigm of American Romanticism, Allston and Poe found themselves on the fringe of this Romantic movement: neither man could accept the democracy, liberalism, or the theology inherent in Emersonian philosophy. As a result of both choice and circumstance Allston and Poe remained aloof from the mainstream of American Romanticism, with their mandates largely ignored. The importance then of Allston and Poe as aesthetic theorists, and indeed as American artists, is their desire to both recognize and rectify these paradoxes inherent in both the role of the artist and in American society. Given this, Allston's and Poe's conception of the American artist's mandate was a truly independent one. 1 INTRODUCTION That Edgar Allan Poe did not like either the painting or poetry of Washington Allston should not surprise anyone familiar with Allston's work or Poe's criticism. In his work on Autography, Poe writes of Allston's paintings: "... the most noted of them are not to our taste," and on Allston's poetry:"... the faults of his pen and pencil are identical" (Works 9: 302f). Critics cannot fault either man for his consistency. Present research has not uncovered any account of Allston's judgment on the younger Poe, even though Allston was certainly familiar with that poetry of Poe's appearing in the 1842 edition of Rufus Griswold's The Poets and Poetry of America. This first edition of Griswold's perennial anthology1 was dedicated to Allston as "the eldest of the living poets in America and the most illustrious of her painters" (iii). Readers of Griswold's dedication may concede a degree of correctness in his acknowledgement of Allston's place in American letters—at this time and in this volume. By the 1840s Allston had, for many Americans, answered the call to lead the New World in its cultural expression, for, whatever his successes and failures, Allston had become America's idea of an artist. His career as an American artist indicates the same level of promise and disappointment that readers find in Griswold's anthology. 2 In truth, Allston, like many of the writers included in Poets and Poetry of America, is just another of the "Sunday poets," as they were defined by an anonymous reviewer of this first edition in the North American Review, yet, for this reviewer Allston's work has "a moderate share of poetic faculty [and a] good deal of poetic feeling" (6). Allston's prominence in the anthology (in addition to the dedication Griswold also gives a full page biographical introduction as well as several pages of Allston's poetry) is testimony to Griswold's critical bias and further evidence of his notoriously poor critical judgment. For example, not only does this edition fail to recognize the merits of a Longfellow, Lowell, or Poe compared to a Charles Fenno Hoffman, Lydia Sigoumey, or even an Allston, but both the diversity and disparity of the volume also make the case clear: Griswold's dedication notwithstanding, America's literaiy tradition still lacked direction and leadership. Even Griswold seems somewhat aware of this absence of leadership, for in his "Historical Introduction" he adds his voice to the general call that American writers need to be "free from the vassalage of opinion and style which is produced by the constant study of the literature of that nation whose language we speak" (v). Allston, the "eldest of the living poets" at age 63 has neither the skill, energy, or desire to answer Griswold's call to become a literary pioneer. The task is left for some other writer to pick up, and to "free" American writers from their "vassalage" in much the same 3 way the younger Allston had been able to successfully "liberate" American painters, earning for himself the accolade as "the most illustrious of [American] painters." This leadership that Griswold, and many others, called for and that Allston is too old to consider seems to have fallen to Edgar Allan Poe and, in retrospect, Poe's place on the fringe of American letters In 1842 served him and his art well, considering the obstacles nineteenth century America hurled in the paths of her artists.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Hudson River School
    Art, Artists and Nature: The Hudson River School The landscape paintings created by the 19 th century artist known as the Hudson River School celebrate the majestic beauty of the American wilderness. Students will learn about the elements of art, early 19 th century American culture, the creative process, environmental concerns and the connections to the birth of American literature. New York State Standards: Elementary, Intermediate, and Commencement The Visual Arts – Standards 1, 2, 3, 4 Social Studies – Standards 1, 3 ELA – Standards 1, 3, 4 BRIEF HISTORY By the mid-nineteenth century, the United States was no longer the vast, wild frontier it had been just one hundred years earlier. Cities and industries determined where the wilderness would remain, and a clear shift in feeling toward the American wilderness was increasingly ruled by a new found reverence and longing for the undisturbed land. At the same time, European influences - including the European Romantic Movement - continued to shape much of American thought, along with other influences that were distinctly and uniquely American. The traditions of American Indians and their relationship with nature became a recognizable part of this distinctly American Romanticism. American writers put words to this new romantic view of nature in their works, further influencing the evolution of American thought about the natural world. It found means of expression not only in literature, but in the visual arts as well. A focus on the beauty of the wilderness became the passion for many artists, the most notable came to be known as the Hudson River School Artists. The Hudson River School was a group of painters, who between 1820s and the late nineteenth century, established the first true tradition of landscape painting in the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • Interactive Timeline
    http://knowingpoe.thinkport.org/ Interactive Timeline Content Overview This timeline includes six strands: Poe’s Life, Poe’s Literature, World Literature, Maryland History, Baltimore History and American History. Students can choose to look at any or all of these strands as they explore the timeline. You might consider asking students to seek certain items in order to give students a picture of Poe as a writer and the life and times in which he worked. This is not an exhaustive timeline. It simply highlights the major events that happened during Poe’s lifetime. Poe’s Life Edgar Poe is born in Boston on January 19. 1809 Elizabeth Arnold Poe, Poe’s mother, dies on December 8 in Richmond, Virginia. 1811 David Poe, Poe’s mother, apparently dies within a few days. John and Frances Allen adopt the young boy. The Allans baptize Edgar as Edgar Allan Poe on January 7. 1812 Poe begins his schooling 1814 The Allans leave Richmond, bound for England. 1815 Poe goes to boarding school. His teachers refer to him as “Master Allan.” 1816 Poe moves to another English school. 1818 The Allans arrive back in America, stopping for a few days in New York City 1820 before returning to Richmond. Poe continues his schooling. 1821 Poe swims against a heavy tide six or seven miles up the James River. 1824 In November, he also writes a two-line poem. The poem was never published. John Allan inherits a great deal of money and buys a huge mansion in Richmond 1825 for his family to live in.
    [Show full text]
  • 2017 Educational Performances
    2017 EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCES A Production of the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire Inside the imposing Mount Hope Mansion, visitors enter the world of Edgar Allan Poe, experiencing his tales recounted by those who have lived the stories, spinning tales of mystery, horror and suspense that guests to the Mansion will long remember. 2017 Theme Stories, and Poems— In this, the year of our Lord 1848, we here at Mount Hope Penitentiary are proud to be at the very forefront of the modern wave of prison reform and criminal rehabilitation. We pride ourselves on taking the worst, most horribly depraved felons of our age, and through a number of revolutionary techniques, reconditioning them to be mild, submissive, truly penitent individuals. For a very limited time, Mrs. Evangeline Mallard, President of the Prison Board of Inspectors, invites you to join us at Mount Hope for a demonstration of rehabilitation through the beauty of poetry! And we are especially pleased to be joined – at least until his court date – by the very famous Mr. Edgar Allan Poe! So witness the power of true criminal reclamation here at Mount Hope Penitentiary! And remember: for the worst of sinners, there’s always Hope. • The Raven • The Cask of Amontillado • Dream Within a Dream • To—Violet Vane • The Conqueror Worm • To Fanny • Romance • Sonnet to My Mother There may be other poems from but those shall be a surprise. Tremble and enjoy. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849): Timeline– 1809 Edgar Poe was born in Boston to itinerant actors on January 19. 1810 Edgar’s father died (may well have deserted the family before this point), leaving mother to care for Edgar and his brother and sister alone.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    Cambridge University Press 0521832810 - Gender and the Poetics of Reception in Poe’s Circle Eliza Richards Excerpt More information Introduction poe’s circle In 1845, at the height of his career, Edgar Allan Poe asked popular “poetess” Frances Sargent Osgood to write a poem “equal to my reputation” that he could present at the Boston Lyceum (EAP 286). The request presumes Osgood’s ability to emulate his work so closely that her poem could pass as his own. The mimic powers of poetesses intrigued Poe, and he was not above imitating them. That Elizabeth Barrett’s “Lady Geraldine’s Courtship” was a rhythmic prototype for “The Raven” is commonly known, but there are many other unacknowledged occasions when women’s poems inform his work. Soliciting his attention, poetesses also imitated Poe, writing tributes in the style of “Israfel” and “The Raven.” While this fluid exchange of copies renders the project of identifying an original questionable at best, critics have persistently credited Poe with the powers of innovation and the force of genius, even in recent studies that place him within the context of antebellum mass and print culture. The “poetess” tradition, on the other hand, has long been associated with the generic repetition of feminine forms that silence women’s attempts to speak as anyone in particular. This study of a male genius figure who impersonates women poets, and women poets who personify mimesis, offers a way to understand the collusion of genius and mimicry in the nineteenth-century lyric and its legacies. I aim to show that seemingly opposed poetic modes are inseparable aspects of a process of cultural transmission; that men’s and women’s literary traditions are overlapping and interdependent, though not identical; that the gendering of poetic practices is far more fluid and complex than has been previously portrayed; and that the poetics of creation are inseparable from the poetics of reception.
    [Show full text]
  • How Poe's Life Leaked Into His Works Ellie Quick Ouachita Baptist University
    Ouachita Baptist University Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita English Class Publications Department of English 11-25-2014 How Poe's Life Leaked into His Works Ellie Quick Ouachita Baptist University Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/english_class_publications Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Quick, Ellie, "How Poe's Life Leaked into His Works" (2014). English Class Publications. Paper 5. http://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/english_class_publications/5 This Class Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Class Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Quick 1 Ellie Quick Prof. Pittman American Lit I November 25th, 2014 How Poe’s Life Leaked into His Works Ask anyone about the author Edgar Allan Poe and most likely everyone will have a different opinion of him. Opinions on Poe range from a crazy, mad drunk to a genius, classic, thrilling author. There is no doubt that as an author Poe was different than other authors in his time, he is commonly referred to as the “father of modern mystery” and originator of science fiction stories (Olney 416). Much of Poe’s works reflect his life and who he was as a person. Poe began writing in 1832, publishing his first story anonymously. The recurrence of eerie themes in Poe’s writings brought much controversy; Poe’s works were the first of its kind. Poe’s stories have supernatural events in them, many involving death or life beyond death.
    [Show full text]
  • Read Book American Wilderness the Story of the Hudson River School
    AMERICAN WILDERNESS THE STORY OF THE HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL OF PAINTING 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Kevin J Avery | 9781883789572 | | | | | American Wilderness The Story of the Hudson River School of Painting 1st edition PDF Book Here, he painted many of his Hudson River School works of art, eventually marrying the niece of Cedar Grove's owner and relocating to the area permanently. In a period of six years, Reed had assembled a significant collection of European and American art, which he displayed in a two- room gallery in his lower Manhattan home on Greenwich Street. SKU Morse In , Cole, then a calico designer, had a cordial meeting with Doughty, in Philadelphia, and the men encouraged each other to follow their aesthetic interest. In retrospect the main benefit to Cole of returning to England was seeing paintings by J. One of the uncles, Alexander Thomson, continued ownership, and the Coles shared living space with the Thomson family. Artists with a connection to these places:. Sign In. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree However, recognition of the key roles of these early Hudson River painters in our fine-art heritage is increasing. Members included William Cullen Bryant , prominent literary figure, and historical-genre painter Samuel S. An American art journal called The Crayon, published between and , reinforced the Hudson River School painters and promoted the idea that nature was a healing place for the human spirit.
    [Show full text]
  • Lackawanna Valley
    MAN and the NATURAL WORLD: ROMANTICISM (Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Painting) NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICAN LANDSCAPE PAINTING Online Links: Thomas Cole – Wikipedia Hudson River School – Wikipedia Frederic Edwin Church – Wikipedia Cole's Oxbow – Smarthistory Cole's Oxbow (Video) – Smarthistory Church's Niagara and Heart of the Andes - Smarthistory Thomas Cole. The Oxbow (View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm), 1836, oil on canvas Thomas Cole (1801-1848) was one of the first great professional landscape painters in the United States. Cole emigrated from England at age 17 and by 1820 was working as an itinerant portrait painter. With the help of a patron, he traveled to Europe between 1829 and 1832, and upon his return to the United States he settled in New York and became a successful landscape painter. He frequently worked from observation when making sketches for his paintings. In fact, his self-portrait is tucked into the foreground of The Oxbow, where he stands turning back to look at us while pausing from his work. He is executing an oil sketch on a portable easel, but like most landscape painters of his generation, he produced his large finished works in the studio during the winter months. Cole painted this work in the mid- 1830s for exhibition at the National Academy of Design in New York. He considered it one of his “view” paintings because it represents a specific place and time. Although most of his other view paintings were small, this one is monumentally large, probably because it was created for exhibition at the National Academy.
    [Show full text]
  • The Oedipus Myth in Edgar A. Poe's "Ligeia" and "The Fall of the House of Usher"
    Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1996 The ediO pus myth in Edgar A. Poe's "Ligeia" and "The alF l of the House of Usher" David Glen Tungesvik Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Tungesvik, David Glen, "The eO dipus myth in Edgar A. Poe's "Ligeia" and "The alF l of the House of Usher"" (1996). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 16198. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/16198 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Oedipus myth in Edgar A. Poe's "Ligeia" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" by David Glen Tungesvik A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Major: English (Literature) Major Professor: T. D. Nostwich Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1996 Copyright © David Glen Tungesvik, 1996. All rights reserved. ii Graduate College Iowa State University This is to certify that the Masters thesis of David Glen Tungesvik has met the thesis requirements of Iowa State University Signatures have been redacted for privacy iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ... .................................................................................................... iv INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1 "LlGEIA" UNDISCOVERED ............................................................................... 9 THE LAST OF THE USHERS .........................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • An Eye for Landscapes That Transcend Nature,” the New York Times, May 22, 2009
    Genocchio, Benjamin. “An Eye for Landscapes That Transcend Nature,” The New York Times, May 22, 2009. An Eye for Landscapes That Transcend Nature One’s lasting impression of the April Gornik exhibition at the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington is the sheer virtuosity of the pictures. They glow with mystery and grandeur. Landscape painting of this quality is not often seen on Long Island. Assembled by Kenneth Wayne, the museum’s chief curator, the show focuses on the artist’s powerful, large-scale oil paintings. There are a dozen pictures, created roughly from the late 1980s to the present, nicely displayed in two of the Heckscher’s newly renovated galleries. The removal of a false ceiling in them has allowed the museum to accommodate much larger works than it could before. New Horizons. The large-scale oil paintings by April Gornik on display at the Heckscher include “Sun Storm Sea” (2005). At 56, Ms. Gornik is already a painter of eminence. She has had shows around the world, and her work is in several major museum collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. I would place her among the top landscape artists working in America today. That this is Ms. Gornik’s first major solo exhibition on Long Island in more than 15 years seems an oversight, especially given that she lives part of the year in Suffolk County. But better late than never, for there are probably dozens of artists living and working on Long Island who are deserving of shows.
    [Show full text]
  • Romanticism in European Literature
    A sample entry from the Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (London & New York: Continuum, 2005) Edited by Bron Taylor © 2005 All Rights Reserved 1422 Romanticism in European Literature what exceeded such boundaries, Romantic works are often the “sublime,” encouraged by the popularity of artists like difficult to engage and hence it is understandable that Salvator Rosa (1615–73), resulted in a new “aesthetics of their significance has been variously construed. As Bate the infinite” that coincided with changing religious views and Oerlemans convincingly demonstrate, however, of nature. critical engagement with Romantic works can be Behind the Latin tags natura naturans and natura an important stimulus for reflection on nature and naturata lie roots extending as far back as Classical times, religion of particular relevance to the concerns of modern but now revived in complex ways. The latter consists of environmentalism. the “forms of nature,” laid out to be investigated and observed. The former, literally “nature naturing,” is nature Joan Steigerwald experienced as active, dynamic and constantly changing. It refers to that animating principle that gives life to the Further Reading objects of nature, which may remain at the disposal of Abrams, M.H. Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and God, or else be regarded as a pantheistic “presence” or a Revolution in Romantic Literature. New York: W.W. “power of harmony” that in Wordsworth’s “Tintern Norton, 1971. Abbey” “rolls through all things” without God’s help. For Bate, Jonathon. Romantic Ecology: Wordsworth and the the Anglican priest John Keble, however, the Book of Environmental Tradition. New York: Routledge, 1991. Nature is precisely to be “read” as an indication of the Bénichou, Paul.
    [Show full text]
  • Survey the Library Resources in the Eight Mid-Hudson Counties of Columbia
    DOCIMENT RESLME ED 032 889 LI 001 311 By -Reichmann, Felix; And Others Library Resources in the Mid-Hudson Valley: Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam. Rockland. Sullivan, Ulster. Spons Agency-Mid-Hudson Libraries. Poughkeepsie. N.Y.; Ramapo Catskill Library System. Middletown. N.Y. Pub Date 65 Note -519p. EDRS Price MF -$2.00 HC -$26.05 Descriptors -Centralization. College Libraries. *Library Cooperation. sr-ibrary Networks. *Library Planning. Library Services, *Library Surveys, Public Libraries. School Libraries. Special Libraries Identifiers-New York The purpose of this study was to "survey the library resources in the eight Mid-Hudson Counties of Columbia. Dutchess. Greene. Orange, Putnam. Rockland. Sullivan. and Ulster in order to develop a plan of service in which assets would be shared. resources developed, and services extended." Survey data were collected by six questionnaires; visits and evaluations of college, public and special libraries; and a review of the literature of the field. Study findings are presented in sections on the history of the region, the present situation. and libraries of all types. A summary and projections are also included. Thirty-five specific recommendations are made which cover overall planning. public libraries. college libraries. school libraries. central services, and future development. The basic recommendation of the study is that the eight counties of the Hudson Valley be considered as a unified library area, with the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council designated as theagency to work toward integration of alllibraries at alllevels in the eight counties. Appendixes include tables of survey data. the survey questionnaires. and checklists used in the library evaluations.
    [Show full text]
  • The Hudson River School at the New-York Historical Society: Nature and the American Vision
    The Hudson River School at the New-York Historical Society: Nature and the American Vision Marie-François-Régis Gignoux (1814–1882) Mammoth Cave, Kentucky , ca. 1843 Oil on canvas Gift of an Anonymous Donor, X.21 After training at the French École des Beaux-Arts , Gignoux immigrated to the United States, where he soon established himself as a landscape specialist. He was drawn to a vast underground system of corridors and chambers in Kentucky known as Mammoth Cave. The site portrayed has been identified as the Rotunda—so named because its grand, uninterrupted interior space recalls that of the Pantheon in Rome. Gignoux created a romantic image rooted in fact and emotion. In contrast to the bright daylight glimpsed through the cavern mouth, the blazing fire impresses a hellish vision that contemporaneous viewers may have associated with the manufacture of gunpowder made from the bat guano harvested and rendered in vats in that very space since the War of 1812. William Trost Richards (1833–1905) June Woods (Germantown) , 1864 Oil on linen The Robert L. Stuart Collection, S–127 Richards followed the stylistic trajectory of the Hudson River School early in his career, except for a brief time in the early 1860s, when he altered his technique and compositional approach in response to the Pre-Raphaelite aesthetics of the English critic John Ruskin. Ruskin’s call for absolute fidelity to nature manifested itself in the United States in a radical 1 group of artists who formed the membership of the Association for the Advancement of Truth in Art, to which Richards was elected in 1863.
    [Show full text]