Category Archives: Books

R.B. Shead: Art Director

If you have been following along, you will recognize the crescendo of  this Shead story has taken over my posts and summer research. It is hard to think of anything else I could add to what I’ve discovered so far save just adding to his already herculean numbers of completed pieces of art. Following the magazine covers that were part of his enormous portfolio and utilizing the interlibrary loan services at my library I secured a few copies of the Specialty Salesman Magazine. 

Continue reading R.B. Shead: Art Director →

THE ROAD TO COMPS PART 19: ART IN THE AMERICAN WEST IN THE 19TH CENTURY: Scientific Visualization

This will be my shortest post: I’m done.

The End.

To wrap this list up there are several books which were recalled that I read several weeks ago and am working from my notes on for this. That being said, there wasn’t anything new in any of these books that wasn’t in some of the earlier reads/posts. That doesn’t mean they aren’t interesting or useful, they just add more content to the footnotes when you defer you opinions to someone else work.  I will look specifically at a few of them, but will include the rest in the list/images just for completion’s sake.

Continue reading THE ROAD TO COMPS PART 19: ART IN THE AMERICAN WEST IN THE 19TH CENTURY: Scientific Visualization →

The Road to Comps Part 17: Art and the American West in the 19th Century: Photography

I have found it odd that the case has to be made to study photography and art as source material and not merely “visual aids.” The only think that is even more odd is that this case is relatively recent.

Continue reading The Road to Comps Part 17: Art and the American West in the 19th Century: Photography →

The Road to Comps part 16: Art and the American West in the 19th Century: Studies of Individual Artists

This will be one of the shortest posts made on this travelogue through everything in print (Every time I start this way I drone on for over 1000 words). This is not due to the end of the semester doldrums (I’ve been on 12 -month work contracts since moving up here) or the holidays (I’d rather not do them), but because the bulk of what I have read is review of review of things that I have already written about at great length. In fact, it was precisely such foci that started my posting in earnest as I collected and transcribed my notes for class. In addition to typing up the notes I was able to track down most of the images that we used in class and included them in with their appropriate author. There is no need to re-invent the wheel at this point, so I will link to them throughout the post. This is an excellent time to realize that my previous work is now back paying dividends.

Continue reading The Road to Comps part 16: Art and the American West in the 19th Century: Studies of Individual Artists →

The Road to Comps part 15: Art and the American West in the 19th Century: General Background

Art and the American West is the most recent undertaking of my long and checkered career as an academic. Since finishing my MA in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine I have spent a great deal of time in our Art History department learning ways to tie in the  arts to the American cultural studies that I seem to have fallen into in recent years.

Continue reading The Road to Comps part 15: Art and the American West in the 19th Century: General Background →

THE ROAD TO COMPS PART 13: REPRESENTATIVE STUDIES OF AMERICAN CULTURE AND SOCIETY IN THE 19TH CENTURY PART 3

The final installment of these representative studies works means that I am onto the final third of this monstrosity. This far into the project has led to the interlibrary loan due dates shaping the reading order which, at first, looked like it would throw a couple odd books out from the main theme of the post.  Fortunately they all talk about the same thing in some form or another so they aren’t as disjointed as it looked on first arrangement.

Continue reading THE ROAD TO COMPS PART 13: REPRESENTATIVE STUDIES OF AMERICAN CULTURE AND SOCIETY IN THE 19TH CENTURY PART 3 →

The Road To Comps Part 12: Representative Studies of American Culture and Society in the 19th Century Part 2

This section will be a three parter, so here is the middle child. I have been reading about the antebellum period for over 2 months straight now, only to have the present completely reassemble itself over the same template.

Continue reading The Road To Comps Part 12: Representative Studies of American Culture and Society in the 19th Century Part 2 →

The Road To Comps Part 11: Representative Studies of American Culture and Society in the 19th Century Part 1

As this starts the downhill side of the list it is only appropriate for things to get weird. Since many of these literary, print, American culture books are from interlibrary loans, the reading order is currently being structured by when the books are due back to their respected libraries. The other somewhat bizarre occurrence is that the books are starting to all say the same thing. I would like to think this is due to some achievement of enlightenment  on my part and not simply due to the fact that the only people publishing on this topic are the ones on this list. That being said it is getting harder to figure out how these books fit together in the sense that many of them use the same early secondary source and then interpret it slightly differently. I want to keep up the series here until I am finished with the readings and then I can go back and study through here and my notes, but I can see the usefulness starting to drop off at this point. Maybe it is just a lull, maybe not. Either way, I am keeping on keeping on.

Empire and Slavery
Continue reading The Road To Comps Part 11: Representative Studies of American Culture and Society in the 19th Century Part 1 →

The Road to Comps Part 10: Literary and Print Culture Part 2

Welcome back to the “teach yourself literary criticism in 12 easy steps” portion of this endeavor.  This will actually (likely) be s shorter than average post as almost half of the readings subdivided here were companions or intros to Poe or Twain.  The differences in which are interesting themselves and something I will come back to at the end.

Temple and the Forum
Continue reading The Road to Comps Part 10: Literary and Print Culture Part 2 →