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Autumn, an 1856 sunset landscape painting by Frederic Church.

The Sound of the Picturesque

Charles Ives and the visual.
by Tim Barringer via The American Scholar on September 13, 2024
Unidentified African American soldier in Union uniform with wife and two daughters.

Race in Black and White

Slavery and the Civil War were central to the development of photography as both a technology and an art.
by Alexis L. Boylan via Boston Review on June 3, 2019
original

Mum’s the Word

In the height of the Cold War, the NSA created a series of posters to keep its secrets from leaking. They're both wonderful and creepy.
by Benjamin Breen on October 5, 2018
Garry Winogrand book on a shelf.

Garry Winogrand’s Photographs Contain Entire Novels

A photographer whose work resembles that of a realist novelist, we observe a cast of characters as they change over time.
by Geoff Dyer via Literary Hub on April 25, 2018
W.E.B. Du Bois.

Racial Violence in Black and White

From lynching photos to Black Lives Matter – what does it mean to look at images of African Americans being murdered?
by Benjamin Balthaser via Boston Review on July 13, 2016

By Which Melancholy Occurrence: The Disaster Prints of Nathaniel Currier, 1835–1840

Why Americans living in uncertain times bought so many sensational images of shipwrecks and fires.
by Genoa Shepley via Panorama on October 14, 2015
Photo by Ralph Ellison of men standing by a street in New York City.

Ralph Ellison’s Alchemical Camera

The novelist's aestheticizing impulse contrasts with the relentless seriousness of his observations and critiques of American society.
by Jed Perl via New York Review of Books on October 17, 2024
The Phrygian cap derives its name from the ancient region of Phrygia, in what is now Turkey. Also known as a liberty cap, it inspired revolutionaries in both the Colonies and France.

The Paris Games' Mascot, the Olympic Phryge, Boasts a Little-Known Revolutionary Past

The Phrygian cap, also known as the liberty cap, emerged as a potent symbol in 18th-century America and France.
by Greg Daugherty via Smithsonian on June 18, 2024
Carbinari seal of a woman holding a liberty cap.

Lady Liberty in Restoration Italy? Crime, Counterfeit, and Carbonari Revolutionary Politics

Following Napoleon’s fall, international secret societies emerged promoting dissent from absolutist forms of power and sharing ideologies and iconographies.
by Giuseppe Perelli via Age of Revolutions on June 3, 2024
Liberty holding an American flag with "For the Union" written on it.

Capturing the Civil War

The images, diaries, and ephemera in Grand Valley State University’s Civil War and Slavery Collection reveal the cold realities of Abraham Lincoln’s world.
by Susanna Ashton via JSTOR Daily on May 23, 2024
Postal stamp featuring Benjamin Franklin.

Why We Still Use Postage Stamps

The enduring necessity (and importance) of a nearly 200-year-old technology.
by Andrea Valdez via The Atlantic on April 28, 2024
Covers from Lippincott's and Harper's from the 1890s.

Advertising as Art: How Literary Magazines Pioneered a New Kind of Graphic Design

Allison Rudnick on the rise and fall of the 19th century "Literary Poster."
by Allison Rudnick via Literary Hub on April 3, 2024
No parking sign.

The No Symbol: The History Of The Red Circle-Slash

One of the best-known icons of modern society is a classic example of a symbol—it’s easy to spot, but hard to explain. Who came up with it?
by Ernie Smith via Tedium on March 9, 2024
Title page of the "Manual of the Corporation of The City of New York."

The Bittersweet Legacy Of David T. Valentine

Valentine devoted his time to writing the Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York. These were annual compendiums of data about the city.
by Claudia Keenan via The Gotham Center on March 6, 2024
"Alien Embrace" repeated artwork

The Institute for Illegal Images

Meditating on blotter not just as art, or as a historical artifact, but as a kind of media, even a “meta medium.”
by Erik Davis via The Paris Review on March 4, 2024
Lady Columbia drawing from 1890.

Before Lady Liberty, There Was Lady Columbia, America's First National Mascot

The forgotten figure symbolized the hopes—and myths—of the early United States.
by Cari Shane via Smithsonian on August 30, 2023
Drawing from "Little Nemo in Slumberland" by Winsor McCay

The Cutting-Edge Cartoons of Winsor McCay

A prolific, meticulous artist, McCay created characters and storyscapes that inspired generations of cartoonists and animators.
by Betsy Golden Kellem via JSTOR Daily on July 26, 2023
Good Housekeeping cover with girl looking at wedding cake topper

Wedding Cake Toppers: Miniatures, Excess, and Fantasy

Tying frilly white doves and normative bride-and-groom couples to feminist art and DIY craft practices that offer opportunities for creativity and fantasy.
by Kendall DeBoer via Dilettante Army on May 1, 2023
A poster made by Ghazal Foroutan showing solidarity with the women of Iran

Was She Really Rosie?

The unlikely, true story of the Westinghouse “We Can Do It” work-incentive poster that became an international emblem of women’s empowerment.
by Michelle C. Smith via JSTOR Daily on March 15, 2023
Painting of classical ruins, called the 'Temple of Aphaea, Aegina,' by John Rollin Tilton.

18th- and 19th-Century Americans of All Races, Classes & Genders Looked to the Ancient Mediterranean for Inspiration

In a new land, the ancient past held special meaning.
by Sean P. Burrus via The Conversation on November 21, 2022
A still from "Ulitza Sezam" with the cast and puppet characters sitting around a table.

When the Muppets Moved to Moscow

A new book details the tangled tale of "Ulitsa Sezam," a "Sesame Street" spinoff that aired until visions of Russia's democratic future faltered.
by Brigit Katz via Smithsonian on October 14, 2022
Black-and-white collage style poster for the Jewish Museum

Fuzz! Junk! Rumble!

A show at the Jewish Museum surveys three eventful years of art, film, and performance in New York City—and the political upheavals that defined them.
by J. Hoberman via New York Review of Books on October 10, 2022
Eugene Sandow lifting a dumbell.

Buff Boys of America: Eugen Sandow and Jesus

Under the influence of Muscular Christianity, Jesus transformed into a muscle-bound Aryan, saving souls through strength and masculinity.
by Matthew Wills, Rachel McBride Lindsey via JSTOR Daily on July 6, 2022
The United States of America, or as it’s also known: New York’s “back yard”.

Satirical Cartography: A Century of American Humor in Twisted Maps

Satire and an inflated sense of self-importance collide in a series of maps that goes back more than 100 years in American history.
by Frank Jacobs via Big Think on April 19, 2022
A Jewish family welcomes home their Navy man and gathers for a Passover Seder at their home in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1943.

How a Coffee Company and a Marketing Maven Brewed Up a Passover Tradition

A collaboration between advertiser Joseph Jacobs and the famous coffee company produced the classic U.S. haggadah.
by Kerri Steinberg via The Conversation on April 13, 2022
Victor Duhem, Woo Dunn and two other men (1910), posed in a portrait studio as if they were driving a car.

The Photos Left Behind From the Chinese Exclusion Era

The California Historical Society contrasts how Chinese people were portrayed in the press with the dignified studio portraits taken in Chinatown.
by Emily Wilson via Hyperallergic on March 13, 2022
Illustration of bishops titled "The Mitred Minuet"

No Bishops, No Kings: Religious Iconography and Popular Memory of the American Revolution

Popular religious iconography and art in the decades preceding the Revolution offer a fuller narrative arc of the development of revolutionary ideas within American society.
by J. L. Tomlin via Age of Revolutions on December 6, 2021
Front page of the Saturday Evening Post

The Persistence of the Saturday Evening Post

When George Horace Lorimer took over as editor of the Saturday Evening Post, America was a patchwork of communities. There was no sense of nation or unity.
by Amanda Darrach via CJR on November 9, 2021
John B. Castleman statue in Louisville, Kentucky, on the ground in a field, covered.

Nearly 100 Confederate Monuments Were Toppled Last Year. What Happened to Them?

A striking photo project reveals the maintenance yards, cemeteries, and shipping containers where many of the memorials to white supremacy ended up.
by Melissa Lyttle via Mother Jones on October 22, 2021
“Linen” postcard, depicting cars parked along a city street, in front of "Chop Suey" building, where people are standing outside.

Street Views

Photographs of empty city streets went out of fashion, but lately are coming back again. What's lost in these images of vacant streets?
by Kim Beil via Cabinet on October 14, 2021
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