Syllabus and Schedule of Activities

2014 Summer Seminar in Historic American Visual Culture

The Art of Science and Technology, 1750-1900

Sunday, July 13

10:00	Meet at Antiquarian Hall (AH), 185 Salisbury Street Welcome and Introductions Nan Wolverton, Director, CHAViC, AAS
10:30	Orienting the Week Seminar Leader: Gregory Nobles, Professor of History; Director, Honors Program, Georgia Institute of Technology
11:00	Tour of the library, Antiquarian Hall (AH)
12:00-1:15	LUNCH Goddard Daniels House (GDH), 190 Salisbury Street
1:30-2:30	The Labor of Art (Council Room) Greg Nobles Reading: Laura Rigal, “Peale’s Mammoth,” in The American Manufactory: Art, Labor, and the World of Things in the Early Republic (Princeton, 1998), pp. 91-113.
2:30	BREAK
3:00-4:30	The Technology Behind Printmaking in America (AH) Lauren Hewes, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Graphic Arts, AAS
5:00-8:00	Reception followed by Dinner at the Goddard Daniels House (GDH)

Monday, July 14

9:00-10:30	Introduction to AAS Online Resources and the Reading Room; Meet the Curators (AH—half of group to Orientation Room, half of group to Council Room)
10:30	BREAK (GDH)
11:00-12:15	Ornithological Gothic: John James Audubon and the Tale of the Golden Eagle (GDH) Greg Nobles Reading: John James Audubon, “The Golden Eagle,” in Ornithological Biography, or an Account of the Habits of the Birds of the United States of America; Accompanied by Descriptions of the Objects Represented in the Work Entitled The Birds of America, and Interspersed with Delineations of American Scenery and Manners, 5 vols. (1831-1839), II, pp. 464-468; reprinted in John James Audubon: Writings and Drawings, ed. Christophe Irmscher (New York, 1999), pp. 354-358. Christophe Irmscher, “Audubon at Large,” in The Poetics of Natural History: From John Bartram to William James (New Brunswick and London, 1999), pp. 188-235.
12:30-1:30	LUNCH (GDH)
1:45-2:45	Visual Culture and Science (Council Room) Nan Wolverton and Greg Nobles View examples from the collection
3:00-5:00	Research on your own in the Library

Tuesday, July 15

9:00	Depart for Tower Hill Botanic Gardens, Boylston, MA
10:00-11:00	From Forest to Fashion: American Botanicals and Material Culture Guest faculty: Susan Branson, Professor of History, Syracuse University Reading: Anne Secord, “Botany on a Plate: Pleasure and the Power of Pictures in Promoting Early Nineteenth-Century Scientific Knowledge” in Isis, Vol. 93, No. 1 (March 2002), pp. 28-57. PDF
10:30	BREAK
11:00-1:00	Tour the botanical garden and box lunch
1:00	Return to Worcester
1:30-3:15	Demonstration on Ambrotypes & Tintypes (GDH) France Scully Osterman, Rochester, NY
3:15	BREAK
3:30-5:00	Individual consultations with Greg Nobles, Susan Branson, and AAS staff
5:30	Dinner or cookout on the Goddard-Daniels patio

Wednesday, July 16

9:00- 10:00	Workshop: groups of 4 or 5 (Council Room) Reading: Michael Gaudio, “Surface and Depth: The Art of Early American Natural History,” in Stuffing Birds, Pressing Plants, Shaping Knowledge, ed. Sue Ann Prince (Philadelphia, 2003), pp.55-73. PDF
10:30	BREAK
11:00	Workshop: group work (Council Room)
12:00-1:00	LUNCH (GDH)
1:00-3:00	Participant group presentations (GDH)
3:00-8:00	Free time or research in Library

Thursday, July 17

9:00	Group photo (GDH)
9:15-10:15	Worcester Polytechnic Institute student project/AAS collaboration: Scientific American as an online resource (GDH) Steve Bullock and Dave Sampson (WPI professors) Tori Miller and Tyler Alexander (WPI students)
10:15	BREAK
10:45-12:00	Using the Visual Culture of Science and Technology for Scholarship and Teaching Greg Nobles
12:00-1:00	LUNCH (GDH)
1:00-2:00	Group Discussion and Concluding Comments (GDH) Greg Nobles and Nan Wolverton
2:00-5:00	Departure or research in library

Additional background reading:

Georgia B. Barnhill, “The Dissemination of Technology through Book and Periodical Illustrations,” in The Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association June 2008, pp. 45-55.