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Further reproduction prohibited without permission. OPTICAL MACHINES, PRINTS AND GENTILITY IN EARLY AMERICA by Dennis Andrew Carr A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Early .American Culture Summer 1999 Copyright 1999 Dennis Andrew Can- All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1397421 ___ ® UMI UMI Microform 1397421 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. OPTICAL MACHINES, PRINTS AND GENTILITY IN EARLY AMERICA by Dennis Andrew Carr Approved:______y r w v w w __________ James C. Curtis, PWD. Professor in charge of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee Approved:__ James C. Curtis, Director of the Program in Early American Culture Approved: ________________________■ C John C. Cavanaugh, Ph.D. Vice Provost fm/Academic Programs and Planning Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS What follows is a suggestive essay that raises questions about the role of scientific instruments and experimentation in polite society in eighteenth- and early nineteenth- century .America, and also the impact of new ways of seeing on the visual imagination. Many people have raised interesting questions about my topic and provided me with crucial evidence, helping me to pull this narrative together at just the right moments. For their thoughtful advice and support. I want to give thanks to the following individuals and their respective institutions: Dean Lahikainen and Joan Whitlow of the Department of American Decorative Arts at the Peabody Essex Museum: Jenifer Kindig and Joe Kindig. III. of Kindig Antiques. Inc.: Margaret Pritchard. Jonathan Prown and Ronald Hurst at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation: Steven Turner. David Shavt and Richard Ahlbom at the Smithsonian Institution. National Museum of American History: Jonathan Fairbanks and Gerald Ward of the American Decorative Arts Department at the Museum of Fine Arts. Boston: Sharon Worley at the Cape Ann Historical Association: Maijorie Cohn of the Prints Department at the Fogg Art Museum. Harvard University: Jason and Samuel Hackler of Jason Samuel Antiques: Rick Boswell: and at the Winterthur Museum. Sherry Fowble. Wendy Cooper. Neville Thompson. Bert Denker and Donald Fennimore. In addition. I wish to extend special thanks to Richard Balzer for inviting me to see his superb collection of objects and prints related to peepshows. opening his in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. research files to me and providing many of the marvelous images from his collection that add life to this text. I want to give my warmest appreciation to Catherine Whalen for inspiring me to pursue this topic, to Erin Blake and Gretchen Buggeln for helping me revise earlier drafts of this paper, to my advisor James Curtis for encouraging in me an interest in early photographic devices and visual culture, and finally to my classmates in the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture for sharing their love of objects and for making the last two years a very special time in my life. i iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES.................................................................................................................. vi ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................viii THESIS Introduction....................................................................................................................1 The Plurality of Worlds................................................................................................3 Reverend John Prince and the Visual Life of Salem, Massachusetts.....................12 FIGURES.................................................................................................................................. 50 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................... 80 v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Tambour Desk Fitted with Zograscope for Viewing Prints, 1793-1811......... 51 Figure 2. Tambour Desk Fitted with Zograscope for Viewing Prints, 1793-1811.........52 Figure 3. Untitled. 1777..........................................................................................................53 Figure 4. Peepshow Box, 18th century.................................................................................. 54 Figure 5. The Inside of St. Peters Church at Rome, 1794.................................................. 55 Figure 6. Sergeant Bell and His Raree-Show, 1839............................................................56 Figure 7. Southwark Fair, 1733.............................................................................................57 Figure 8. Vue de Salem, c l776..............................................................................................58 Figure 9. Reverend John Prince, 1837.................................................................................. 59 Figure 10. Zograscope owned by Thomas Jefferson..........................................................60 Figure 11. Engraving of Air Pump, 1785............................................................................61 Figure 12. John Prince Air Pump..........................................................................................62 Figure 13. John Prince Air Pump..........................................................................................63 Figure 14. Gentleman with Scientific Devices, 1832..........................................................64 Figure 15. Gentleman with Scientific Devices (detail), 1832............................................65 Figure 16. Optique in the Form of a Book...........................................................................66 vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 17. Perspective Machine, 1795-1810........................................................................67 Figure 18. Perspective Machine, 1795-1810........................................................................68 Figure 19. Perspective Machine, cl 800................................................................................ 69 Figure 20. Perspective Machine, cl 800................................................................................ 70 Figure 21. The Gardens at Chiswick, cl738.........................................................................71 Figure 22. Tambour Desk Fitted with Zograscope for Viewing Prints, 1793-1811.........72 Figure 23. Tambour Desk Fitted with Zograscope for Viewing Prints, 1793-1811.........73 Figure 24. Portrait of Benjamin Pickman............................................................................. 74 Figure 25. L’Optique, cl 790...................................................................................................75