Geographic Tour of American Art History: Resources from other websites

Geographic Tour of American Art History

with an emphasis on representational art

Text resources from other websites

For overall art history prior to 1900 see American Art Directory, by American Federation of Arts, 1898. Accessed 2/22

An Amazon.com search within "books" conducted March 24, 2008 located 1,363 pages with the search phrase "American art." Many of the books offer a "Search Inside" feature. The following books are examples:

American Art: History and Culture by Wayne Craven (includes excerpt)
American Visions : The Epic History of Art in America by Robert Hughes (includes excerpt)
Artful Players: Artistic Life in Early San Francisco by Birgitta Hjalmarson (search inside)

Art in America: a Critical and Historical Sketch, Harper & Brothers, 1880 - 214 pages. Accessed 2/22

The Art Story Foundation has a website containing articles about American art movements and artists.

A Google Book Search conducted April 26, 2008 located:

641 books featuring either full view or limited view with the search phrase "American art history"
2,533 books featuring either full view or limited view with the search phrase "American art"

Historic Artists' Homes and Studios from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Historic Artists' Homes and Studios from Wikipedia

MetPublications from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In October 2012 The Metropolitan Museum of Art launched MetPublications, an online resource that offers in-depth access to the Museum's print and online publications, covering art, art history, archaeology, conservation, and collecting. Beginning with nearly 650 titles published from 1964 to the present, this new addition to the Met's website will continue to expand and could eventually offer access to nearly all books, Bulletins, and Journals published by the Metropolitan Museum since its founding in 1870, as well as online publications. Publications to be added to the program on a continuing basis include recently published books and online publications, and print titles published by the Metropolitan Museum from 1870 to 1964, as well as print-on-demand options for out-of-print titles.

Following are relevant titles available for.pdf download:

American Art from American Collections; Biddle, James (1963)

American Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1, Painters Born by 1815; Gardner, Albert TenEyck, and Stuart P. Feld (1965)

American Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Gardner, Albert TenEyck (1965)

American Paintings and Historical Prints from the Middendorf Collection; Feld, Stuart P. (1967)

Nineteenth-Century America: Paintings and Sculpture; Howat, John K., and Natalie Spassky, with an introduction by John K. Howat and John Wilmerding (1970)

Nineteenth-Century America: Furniture and Other Decorative Arts; Tracy, Berry B., Marilynn Johnson, Marvin D. Schwartz, and Suzanne Boorsch (1970)

Baltimore Federal Furniture in The American Wing; Bordes, Marilynn Johnson (1972)

American Impressionist and Realist Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz; Howat, John K., and Dianne H. Pilgrim (1973)

The American Wing: A Guide; Davidson, Marshall B. (1980)

The Guennol Collection. Vol. 2; Rubin, Ida Ely, ed. (1982)

The American Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Davidson, Marshall B., and Elizabeth Stillinger (1985)

American Furniture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Late Colonial Period. Vol. II, The Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles; Heckscher, Morrison H. (1985)

American Musical Instruments in The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Libin, Laurence (1985)

Masterpieces of American Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Salinger, Margaretta, with a foreword by John K. Howat (1986)

In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement; Burke, Doreen Bolger, et al. (1986)

American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School; Avery, Kevin J., Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, John K. Howat, Doreen Bolger Burke, and Catherine Hoover Voorsanger (1987)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 9, The United States of America; introduction by Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque (1987)

American Art Posters of the 1890s in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, including the Leonard A. Lauder Collection; Kiehl, David W., with essays by Phillip Dennis Cate, Nancy Finlay, and David W. Kiehl (1987)

American Pastels in The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Bolger, Doreen, ed., with Marjorie Shelley (1989)

American Porcelain, 1770-1920; Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney (1989)

American Portrait Miniatures in the Manney Collection; Johnson, Dale T. (1990)

American Kasten: The Dutch-Style Cupboards of New York and New Jersey, 1650-1800; Kenny, Peter M., Frances Gruber Safford, and Gilbert T. Vincent (1991)

American Rococo, 1750-1775: Elegance in Ornament; Heckscher, Morrison H., and Leslie Greene Bowman (1992)

The Robert Lehman Collection. Vol. 8, American Drawings and Watercolors; Clark, Carol (1992)

American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915; Weinberg, H. Barbara, Doreen Bolger, and David Park Curry (1994)

Art and the Empire City: New York, 1825-1861; Voorsanger, Catherine Hoover, and John K. Howat, eds., with essays by Dell Upton, Carrie Rebora Barratt, John K. Howat, Kevin J. Avery, Thayer Tolles, Morrison H. Heckscher, Elliot Bostwick Davis, Jeff L. Rosenheim, Caroline Rennolds Milbank, Amelia Peck, Catherine Hoover Voorsanger, Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, and Deborah Dependahl Waters (2000)

A Walk Through The American Wing; The curators of the American Wing, with an introduction by Morrison H. Heckscher and H. Barbara Weinberg (2002)

American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915; Weinberg, H. Barbara, and Carrie Rebora Barratt, eds., with essays by Carrie Rebora Barratt, Margaret C. Conrads, Bruce Robertson, and H. Barbara Weinberg (2009)

The Timeline of Art History section of the Metropolitan Museum of Art web site contains thematic essays on American art. As of December 17, 2007 there are:

27 essays on Colonial American Art
51 essays on American Art in the Nineteenth Century
60 essays American Art in the Twentieth Century

Modern Painting, by George Moore (reprint of the entire book) from Project Gutenberg

Teachers' Guide to American Art, from Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

[Click here for more on digitizing initiatives.]

See these online videos:

BBC Television presented American Vision: The History of American Art and Architecture produced by Planet 24 in association with BBC Television; a Time Inc.-BBC co-production; produced in association with Thirteen/WNET. Clips from epispdes are via YouTube. (Links found expired as of 7/6/09 audit. Video were removed due to terms of use violation. TFAO is saving the citation for use by researchers.)

The Republic of Virtue "Demonstrates how the new republic adopts and transforms the classical style to serve a new, democratic ideal. Examples range from heroic statues of George Washington to the architecture of Thomas Jefferson." Episode one titled "The Republic of Virtue" part 1 of 5 10:48; part 2 of 5 10:54; part 3 of 5 10:57; part 4 of 5 10:58; part 5 of 5 10:57
The Promised Land "Explores ways that religion had a fundamental impact on the shaping of American culture. From the Spanish missions in New Mexico to the Puritan churches of New England, a new American culture emerges through architecture and portraiture." Episode two titled "The Promised Land" part 1 of 6 10:41; part 2 of 6 8:37; part 3 of 6 8:59; part 4 of 6 10:42; part 5 of 6 9:31; part 6 of 6 6:35
The Wilderness and the West "Travels from Yellowstone to the Hudson Valley via works of artists Albert Bierstadt (1830--1902), John James Audubon (1785--1851), Frederic Church (1826--1900), Frederic Remington (1861--1909), and Thomas Cole (1801--1848)." Episode three titled "The Wilderness and the West" covering The US West, Manifest Destiny, and national identity part 1 of 6 10:46; part 2 of 6 10:37; part 3 of 6 9:36; part 4 of 6 9:09; part 5 of 6 7:29; part 6 of 6 7:25
The Gilded Age "Reveals widely different experiences of the American Dream through images of the Brooklyn Bridge, photographs of the Civil War, portraiture, and impressionist and realist paintings." Episode four titled "The Gilded Age" part 1 of 5 10:57; part 2 of 5 10:57; part 3 of 5 10:55; part 4 of 5 10:57; part 5 of 5 10:58
A Wave from the Atlantic "Describes the impact of the waves of immigrants in the early-20th century. Follows the development of the socially conscious art circle called the Ashcan School, the historic 1913 Armory Show, and the artists who forged a modernism that is uniquely American" Episode five titled "A Wave from the Atlantic" part 1 of 5; 10:54; part 2 of 5 9:40 part 3 of 5 10:58; part 4 of 5 10:58; part 5 of 5 10:57
Streamlines and Breadlines "Compares the mythic images of the 1920s and 30s, as urban as the skyscrapers rising up in New York and as rural as the heartland realized by regionalist painters like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975)." Episode six titled "Streamlines and Breadlines" part 1 of 5 10:57; part 2 of 5 10:58; part 3 of 5 10:57; part 4 of 5 10:58; part 5 of 5 10:58
The Empire of Signs "Details how America's power becomes unrivaled in the post-war era, and how artists of the period make an explosive break with the past. Considers the impact of Hiroshima on art, traces the development of abstract expressionism and the life of Jackson Pollock, and explores how artists as different as James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, and Jasper Johns reacted to the new consumer culture." Episode seven titled "The Empire of Signs" part 1 of 5 10:57; part 2 of 5 10:57; part 3 of 5 10:58; part 4 of 5 10:58; part 5 of 5 10:58
The Age of Anxiety" "Explores how American art reflects the upheavals of the last twenty-five years, from the evolution of abstract art to minimalism. The program also considers the spiritual richness of earth works, in which nature is the artist's medium." Description source: Amon Carter Museum Teacher Resource Center. Episode eight titled "The Age of Anxiety" part 1 of 5 10:55; part 2 of 5 10:52; part 3 of 5 10:50; part 4 of 5 10:55; part 5 of 5 10:57

The WGBH/Boston Forum Network is an audio and video streaming web site dedicated to curating and serving live and on-demand lectures, including a number of videos on Art and Architecture. Partners include a number of museums, colleges, universities and other cultural organizations. See listings of related videos in this catalogue indexed by partner name. Boston Athenaeum partnered with the WGBH Forum Network for a series of lectures on American art by David Dearinger, who is Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Boston Athenaeum. An art historian and curator, he received his Ph.D. from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, with a specialty in nineteenth-century American art. Titles include:

Sculptors and Their Patrons at Mount Auburn, 1820-1870 (47 minutes). David Dearinger discusses the American NeoClassic sculptors and their patrons that are buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. [March 1, 2007]
Life Drawing in 19th Century America, (55 minutes) an illustrated lecture by Elliot Bostwick Davis, John Cabot Chair, Museum of Fine Arts, compares Darwin's evolutionary theory to the style of life drawing taught in Boston and New York by William Rimmer (1816-1879). [February 24, 2005]
Hudson River School of American Landscape Painting, (1 hour, 11 minutes) a general introduction to the famous Hudson River School of American landscape painting. [March 29, 2005]
The Academy and Art in America, (1 hour, 5 minutes) a lecture about the role of the formal art academy in the development of American art and art criticism. [March 24, 2005]
Seen But Not Heard: Images of Children in American Art (1 hour, 27 minutes) uses nineteenth and early twentieth-century American art to illustrate perceptions of childhood. [November 30, 2004]
Marmorean Affair: Neoclassic Sculptors and Boston (1 hour, 6 minutes) reveals the Bostonian obsession with neoclassical sculpture from the 1820s through the 1860s. [May 6, 2004]

and also from the Boston Athenaeum:

Familar Faces: Gilbert Stuart's George & Martha Washington (53 minutes) is an illustrated lecture by Ellen Miles, curator, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian in which she "... discusses Gilbert Stuart's creation in 1796 of his very familiar life portrait of George Washington, together with its companion portrait of Martha Washington, often known as the 'Athenaeum portraits' because they were owned by the Boston Athenaeum for more than 150 years. Ellen Miles describes the relationship between the Washingtons and the artist, the reason for the incomplete composition of the two portraits, and the immediate and lasting success of the portrait of the President, in contrast to the relative obscurity of the portrait of Martha Washington."
The White House: A Pop-Up Book (38 minutes) is a lecture by Chuck Fischer, pop-up book artist. Chuck Fischer is one of the most talented and sought-after artists in America today and is the author and illustrator of the acclaimed Great American Houses and Gardens: A Pop-Up Book and Wallcoverings: Applying the Language of Color and Pattern, both published by Universe. His wallcovering and fabric designs are in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, and he has recently been a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome. [March 22, 2005]
Life Drawing in 19th Century America, (55 minutes) an illustrated lecture by Elliot Bostwick Davis, John Cabot Chair, Museum of Fine Arts, compares Darwin's evolutionary theory to the style of life drawing taught in Boston and New York by William Rimmer (1816-1879). [February 24, 2005]
Banjo-Wielding Women (56 minutes) is a lecture by Leo G. Mazow, curator, American Art, Palmer Museum of Art, who discusses the many female banjoists that appear in myriad American paintings, photographs, illustrations, and advertisements through history. [September 19, 2006]

Accessed May, 2015.

C-Span Video Library presents John Updike, delivering the 37th Annual Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, "The Clarity of Things: What Is American about American Art?" 31 minutes, 5/22/08 Accessed May, 2015.

Links to sources of information outside of our web site are provided only as referrals for your further consideration. Please use due diligence in judging the quality of information contained in these and all other web sites. Information from linked sources may be inaccurate or out of date. TFAO neither recommends or endorses these referenced organizations. Although TFAO includes links to other web sites, it takes no responsibility for the content or information contained on those other sites, nor exerts any editorial or other control over them. For more information on evaluating web pages see TFAO's General Resources section in Online Resources for Collectors and Students of Art History.

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