- Includes works by pre-eminent artists, including Winslow Homer, Frederic Church, Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Cole
- Features rarely seen prints, survey photographs, zoological and botanical illustrations, patent models, and engineering diagrams
- Accompanies the exhibition The Great American Hall of Wonders at Smithsonian American Art Museum from 15th July 2011 to 8th January 2012
The Great American Hall of Wonders is a vividly illustrated survey of the American ingenuity that energised all aspects of 19th-century society, from the painting of landscapes and scenes of everyday life, to the planning of scientific expeditions and the development of new mechanical devices.
It focuses on six iconic objects that inspired the American imagination: the buffalo, the giant sequoia, and Niagara Falls (symbolising vast natural bounty), and the gun, the railroad, and the clock (representing all things mechanical and the purposeful use of time). Each of these served as cultural lightning rods, sparking creativity across a wide swathe of American society. Visions of buffalo herds, railroad trestles, enormous trees, and Winchester rifles engaged not only artists, scientists, and inventors, but also poets, educators, farmers, chaplains, and members of Congress. This new book is a stunning tribute to the pioneering and inventing spirit that symbolizes America.
Contents:
Foreword and Preface
The Hall of Wonders
Democratic Time
Niagara Falls
The Peacemaker
The Buffalo
A Locomotive People
The Big Tree
Epilogue
Claire Perry is a guest curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and her work focuses on the art and cultural history of the United States in the nineteenth century. Before working for the Smithsonian, Perry served as curator of American art at the Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University. She is the author of Young America: Childhood in Nineteenth-century Art (2005) and Culture Pacific Arcadia: Images of California, 1600-1915 (1999).
