The Transatlantic Travels of James Thomson's the Seasons and Its Baggage of Material Culture, 1730-1870.

The Seasons, a 5,541-line epic poem by James Thomson (1700-1748) of Scotland, first published in 1730, became a transatlantic publishing phenomenon despite its modest literary quality. The author discusses the widespread popularity of the verbal and visual texts of The Seasons and investigates the Whig or republican ideas that accompanied this poem to America and how the ideas that it promoted were widely spread and consolidated. Evidence is drawn from decorative arts, paintings and prints, political theory and philosophy, novels and poetry, newspaper advertisements, and schoolgirl embroidery.