Things American: Art Museums and Civic Culture in the Progressive Era

Author:   Jeffrey Trask
Publisher:   University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN:  

9780812222852


Pages:   277
Publication Date:   24 October 2013
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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Things American: Art Museums and Civic Culture in the Progressive Era


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Overview

American art museums of the Gilded Age were established as civic institutions intended to provide civilizing influences to an urban public, but the parochial worldview of their founders limited their democratic potential. Instead, critics have derided nineteenth-century museums as temples of spiritual uplift far removed from the daily experiences and concerns of common people. But in the early twentieth century, a new generation of cultural leaders revolutionized ideas about art institutions by insisting that their collections and galleries serve the general public. Things American: Art Museums and Civic Culture in the Progressive Era tells the story of the civic reformers and arts professionals who brought museums from the realm of exclusivity into the progressive fold of libraries, schools, and settlement houses. Jeffrey Trask's history focuses on New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, which stood at the center of this movement to preserve artifacts from the American past for social change and Americanization. Metropolitan trustee Robert de Forest and pioneering museum professional Henry Watson Kent influenced a wide network of fellow reformers and cultural institutions. Drawing on the teachings of John Dewey and close study of museum developments in Germany and Great Britain, they expanded audiences, changed access policies, and broadened the scope of what museums collect and display. They believed that tasteful urban and domestic environments contributed to good citizenship and recognized the economic advantages of improving American industrial production through design education. Trask follows the influence of these people and ideas through the 1920s and 1930s as the Met opened its innovative American Wing while simultaneously promoting modern industrial art. Things American is not only the first critical history of the Metropolitan Museum. The book also places museums in the context of the cultural politics of the progressive movement-illustrating the limits of progressive ideas of democratic reform as well as the boldness of vision about cultural capital promoted by museums and other cultural institutions.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jeffrey Trask
Publisher:   University of Pennsylvania Press
Imprint:   University of Pennsylvania Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.503kg
ISBN:  

9780812222852


ISBN 10:   0812222857
Pages:   277
Publication Date:   24 October 2013
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Introduction. Museums and Society Chapter 1. Progressive Connoisseurs: The Intellectual Origins of Education Reform in Museums Chapter 2. The De Forest Faction's Progressive Museum Agenda Chapter 3. The Educational Value of American Things: Balancing Usefulness and Connoisseurship Chapter 4. The Arts of Peace: World War I and Cultural Nationalism Chapter 5. The Art of Living: The American Wing and Public History Chapter 6. Americanism in Design: Industrial Arts and Museums Epilogue. Depression Modern: Institutional Sponsors and Progressive Legacies Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

Reviews

<p> Things American gives us, at last, a history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art based on genuine archival materials. Moreover, it reorients our thinking about art museums in the United States, demonstrating that there were important democratic, utilitarian, and civic impulses at work behind them. The book also broadens our thinking about progressivism, reminding us how it shaped art museums and how those museum-related programs it spawned continued beyond World War I. --Steven Conn, author of Do Museums Still Need Objects?


Jeffrey Trask's well-researched and engagingly written history of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art explores the expanding educational role of museums during the Progressive Era. . . . Trask successfully establishes the Met's efforts at cultural democracy and their unintended consequences. -Journal of American History In its revealing and canny glimpse of the convergence of money, stuff, intelligence, and social zeal in one institution at one critical time, Trask's work would constitute a worthy success. -American Historical Review Things American gives us, at last, a history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art based on genuine archival materials. Moreover, it reorients our thinking about art museums in the United States, demonstrating that there were important democratic, utilitarian, and civic impulses at work behind them. The book also broadens our thinking about progressivism, reminding us how it shaped art museums and how those museum-related programs it spawned continued beyond World War I. -Steven Conn, author of Do Museums Still Need Objects?


In its revealing and canny glimpse of the convergence of money, stuff, intelligence, and social zeal in one institution at one critical time, Trask's work would constitute a worthy success. -American Historical Review Jeffrey Trask's well-researched and engagingly written history of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art explores the expanding educational role of museums during the Progressive Era... Trask successfully establishes the Met's efforts at cultural democracy and their unintended consequences. -Journal of American History Things American gives us, at last, a history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art based on genuine archival materials. Moreover, it reorients our thinking about art museums in the United States, demonstrating that there were important democratic, utilitarian, and civic impulses at work behind them. The book also broadens our thinking about progressivism, reminding us how it shaped art museums and how those museum-related programs it spawned continued beyond World War I. -Steven Conn, author of Do Museums Still Need Objects?


Jeffrey Trask's well-researched and engagingly written history of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art explores the expanding educational role of museums during the Progressive Era... Trask successfully establishes the Met's efforts at cultural democracy and their unintended consequences. -Journal of American History In its revealing and canny glimpse of the convergence of money, stuff, intelligence, and social zeal in one institution at one critical time, Trask's work would constitute a worthy success. -American Historical Review Things American gives us, at last, a history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art based on genuine archival materials. Moreover, it reorients our thinking about art museums in the United States, demonstrating that there were important democratic, utilitarian, and civic impulses at work behind them. The book also broadens our thinking about progressivism, reminding us how it shaped art museums and how those museum-related programs it spawned continued beyond World War I. -Steven Conn, author of Do Museums Still Need Objects?


Author Information

Jeffrey Trask teaches history at Georgia State University.

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