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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. ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY: ENVISIONING THE AMERICAN PAST IN GEORGE HENRY BOUGHTON’S PILGRIMS GOING TO CHURCH by Amanda J. Glesmann A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with a major in Early American Culture. Spring 2002 Copyright 2002 Amanda J. G lesm ann All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number; 1408635 Copyright 2002 by Glesmann, Amanda J. All rights reserved. UMI___ ® UMI Microform 1408635 Copyright 2002 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest 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. SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY: ENVISIONING THE AMERICAN PAST IN GEORGE HENRY HOUGHTON’S PILGRIMS GOING TO CHURCH By Amanda J. Glesmann Approved: etyhen en T. T. Buggeln, Buggeln, Ph.D. Ph.D.Gret/h Professor in charge of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee A pproved: ( bs C. Curtis, Ph.D. )ir^ctor of the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture A pproved: Mark W. Huddleston, Ph.D. Acting Dean of the College o f Arts and Science A pproved: Conrado M. Gempesaw II, Ph.D. Vice-Provost for Academic Programs and Planning Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The time spent on this project has itself been a journey of sorts; it would not have been nearly as pleasant or productive an undertaking without the assistance and encouragement of many people, and what a joy it is for me to thank them here. For research assistance and generosity with their time and collections, thanks are due to James and Peggy Baker in Plymouth, Massachusetts; Margi Hofer at the New- York Historical Society, and Neville Thompson and the staff at the Winterthur Library. I also offer special thanks to the Inter-Library Loan staff at the University of Delaware for help with tracking down elusive sources. A trip to the American Pilgrim Museum in Leiden and to various sites in the Netherlands was made possible in the Summer of 2001 by the Phyllis Williams Lehmann Travel Award; for this I thank Professor Lehmann and the faculty of the Art Department at Smith College. I am deeply grateful to Joanna Frang and Anne Verplanck, who provided sensitive readings of drafts and offered invaluable comments and suggestions; Jeremy Dupertius Bangs at the American Pilgrim Museum, Sara Caldwell Junkin, and Paul Stemberger, who graciously shared their current projects with me in advance of publication; Lee Edwards and Annette Stott, who kindly indulged my questions about iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. their research; and Frank Boyko, who offered expert technical assistance at critical moments. I am also grateful to John Davis, whose discerning comments helped shaped the early stages of my research; and to Zara Anishanslin-Bemhardt, for her support, her interest in all things Pilgrim, and her keen insights at every stage of this endeavor. Everyone should have such a perspicacious friend and reader. For their encouragement throughout the course of this project I offer thanks to my classmates in the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture, and especially to Rob Rudd, for introducing me to the wacky world of the Dutch Heritage Society; and Sarah Faven, for her unflagging interest in my research and her many thoughtful questions. I owe the greatest debt to Gretchen Buggeln and Michael Leja, who supported this project from the beginning and never ceased to share my enthusiasm for Boughton and his Pilgrims. Each of them offered perceptive advice, criticism, and suggestions, and seemed to have a knack for pushing me with a crucial question at the right moment. Finally, I thank my family, and especially my mother and stepfather, Linda and Dennis Hastings. Their unconditional support and encouragement sustained me throughout my time at Winterthur, for that I am more grateful than I can say. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES......................................................................................................vi ABSTRACT................................................................................................................... vii TEXT ................................................................................................................................. 1 LIFE AND CAREER OF GEORGE HENRY BOUGHTON ....................85 ENDNOTES ................................................................................................................. 88 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................103 GEORGE HENRY BOUGHTON: SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 116 v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF FIGURES 1 George Henrv Boughton, Pilgrims Going to Church, 1876 ............................................... 2 2 George Henrv Boughton, Winter Twilight Near Albany, NewYork, 1858 ...................10 3 Em m anuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851.......................................... 14 4 Robert Walter Weir, The Embarkation o f the Pilgrims, oil on canvas, 1857 ...............29 5 George Henrv Boughton, The March o f Miles Standish, 1872 ....................................... 32 6 George Henry Boughton, The First Sabbath in New England, 1869.......................... 33 7 George Henry Boughton, P riscilla, 1879.......................................................................... 63 8 George Henry Boughton, Hester Prynne, 1881 ................................................................ 64 9 George Henry Boughton, Rose Standish, 1881 ................................................................ 65 10 George Henry Boughton, Evangeline, 1880 ......................................................................66 11 Camille Piton, George Henry Boughton, 1882 .......................................................................81 12 George H. Boughton, A .R ^A ., c.1880 ...................................................................................... 82 13 Ralph Robinson, Portrait o f George Henry Boughton, 1891................................................ 83 14 “Boughton’s Studio,” The Century Magazine (August 1880) ........................................... 84 vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Pilgrims Going to Church (1867) was the first and best-known painting of American colonial life by the Anglo-American artist George Henry Boughton (1834-1905). Today the painting is often associated with the Colonial Revival movement and the Centennial Exposition of 1876; this essay demonstrates that Pilgrims Going to Church carried a much broader, more complex and ambiguous range of connotations in the minds of nineteenth-century viewers. Consideration of the painting’s relationship to popular genre and history paintings of the period and close reading of contemporary descriptions o f Pilgrims Going to Church and other nineteenth-century works o f art provides a context in which to understand the narrative and compositional openness that allowed the image to support a variety of meanings and interpretations over time. The continued success of Pilgrims Going to Church is rem arkable: The numerous other depictions of colonial history that proliferated throughout the nineteenth century have long since been forgotten; indeed, most of the genre and history paintings of the period— of any