TELL ME a STORY: NARRATIVE and ORALITY in NINETEETH-CENTURY AMERICAN VISUAL CULTURE by Catherine H. Walsh a Dissertation Submit
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TELL ME A STORY: NARRATIVE AND ORALITY IN NINETEETH-CENTURY AMERICAN VISUAL CULTURE by Catherine H. Walsh 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 2016 © 2016 Catherine H. Walsh All Rights Reserved ProQuest Number: 10156487 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ProQuest 10156487 Published by ProQuest LLC (2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346 TELL ME A STORY: NARRATIVE AND ORALITY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICAN VISUAL CULTURE by Catherine H. Walsh Approved: __________________________________________________________ Lawrence Nees, Ph.D. Chair of the Department of Art History Approved: __________________________________________________________ George H. Watson, Ph.D. Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Approved: __________________________________________________________ Ann L. Ardis, Ph.D. Senior Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education 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: __________________________________________________________ Martin Brückner, 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: __________________________________________________________ Leo Mazow, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I want to thank my advisor Wendy Bellion, who has gifted me with advice, support, and helpful insights as I worked on this project, showing great patience and confidence and providing invaluable, thoughtful critical analysis that has helped make this dissertation what it is today. I have also benefited from the insights and advice of Martin Brückner, who helped bring a literary perspective to my analysis of texts and primers in particular. Leo Mazow’s work has been heavily influential on my interest in sound and its relationship to viewing and artistic composition, and his input as a member of my committee assisted me as I thought about the ramifications of my interpretations. Jason Hill brought a different perspective to my committee, and his critical approaches to the dissertation and its place in the field of art history as a whole helped me to conceptualize why any of this matters. I also want to thank the faculty and staff at the University of Delaware Art History Department for helping to shape me into a more attentive scholar and providing a community rich with intellectual debate and camaraderie, as well as financial support through teaching assistantships and fellowships. I am also exceedingly grateful for the fellowships I received specifically allowing me to advance the research and writing of this dissertation, including a Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Dissertation Fellowship in American Art, a Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a Smithsonian American Art Museum Dissertation Fellowship. My particular thanks go out to my advisors and iv contacts at those institutions, especially Bill Truettner, Amelia Goerlitz, Barbara Weinberg, and Cindy Mueller. Month-long fellowships at the American Antiquarian Society, Winterthur Museum and Country Estate, and the Library Company of Philadelphia provided me irreplaceable access to amazing archives of original source material, without which this dissertation would be an empty shell. I also want to thank all the curators, librarians, and archivists who helped me in my seemingly endless quest to acquire source material for this dissertation, especially those at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Archives of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, the University of Delaware, Princeton University, the New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Columbia University, the New-York Historical Society, the American Antiquarian Society, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and Winterthur Museum and Country Estate. While writing this dissertation, I benefited from the intellectual and emotional support of all my friends and family, including colleagues at the University of Delaware who read and commented upon various chapters, as well as friends and loved ones across the country who listened tolerantly to endless discussions of subject matter about which they knew very little while still providing helpful advice for writing, editing, and living through the process. My special thanks go out to my father, whose help and confidence in me can never be repaid; his support for me and my art history goals was endless, despite his not-so-secret wish that I had studied math or engineering instead. I also want to thank my mother, who got me started on this path so long ago with her wonderful storytelling and continual encouragement of my academic ambitions. She taught me to read and think and live and love, and this dissertation is dedicated to her. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... viii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ xix Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 Structure of the Dissertation ............................................................................... 7 Significance of the Dissertation and Historiography ........................................ 10 ENDNOTES ..................................................................................................... 18 2 TALKING PICTURES: VOICE AND IMAGE IN NINETEENTH- CENTURY AMERICA .................................................................................... 24 The Rise of Genre Painting .............................................................................. 29 A New Art for a New America ......................................................................... 33 A World of Images ........................................................................................... 38 American Stories and Talk ............................................................................... 42 Speeches and Images ........................................................................................ 56 Speech and Images ........................................................................................... 67 Reading Is Seeing ............................................................................................. 77 The Voice of a Generation ............................................................................... 87 ENDNOTES ................................................................................................... 100 3 THE LOOK OF LISTENING: THE ORAL AND THE AURAL IN THE WORKS OF WILLIAM SIDNEY MOUNT ................................................. 114 A Conversation Piece ..................................................................................... 114 Tough Stories and Tall Talk ........................................................................... 120 Telling and Re-telling: Four Viewers, Four Stories ...................................... 129 From Image to Story to Image, Oh My! ......................................................... 148 Sound and Story ............................................................................................. 150 ENDNOTES ................................................................................................... 157 vi 4 HOW TO SEE A STORY: REPRESENTATIONS FOR CHILDREN IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICAN VISUAL CULTURE ................. 170 Pictures in the Classroom ............................................................................... 171 A Picture and a Story ...................................................................................... 177 Jacob Abbott’s Talking Pictures ..................................................................... 183 Object and Picture Lessons ............................................................................ 201 Fun and Games ..............................................................................................