ARTH 588-601
American Art
Instructor: Professor Milroy
M 6-9:10

Course Description

In this course we shall explore the history of the arts and arts institutions in Philadelphia's first two hundred years with a view to understanding how public and private constituencies have collaborated to use works of art and arts institutions both to define and to map the city's political and cultural identity. The course will be structured around a series of "snapshots" in time: significant dates (for example 1701; 1789; 1854; 1876; 1926; 1976) that will serve as portals through which we can access selected arts objects or projects and the individuals involved in their creation. Students will pursue focused research on individual objects, projects or institutions. Among the individuals whose contributions to the city and its self-image will be discussed are William Penn, Charles Willson Peale, Stephen Girard, Thomas Eakins, Elizabeth Duane Gillespie, Fiske Kimball, and Edmund Bacon. Selected Reading List Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1976) Gary Nash. First City (Philadelphia, 2002) Philip Stevick. Imagining Philadelphia: Travelers' Views of the City from 1800 to the Present (Philadelphia, 1996) Sam Bass Warner. The Private City: Philadelphia in Three Periods of Its Growth (Philadelphia, 1968) Russell Weigley et al. Philadelphia: A 300-Year History (New York, 1982).