Description

150. Barnhill, Georgia B. “The Markets for Images from 1670 to 1790 in America.” Vol. 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000), 2-15.

This essay discusses the demand for images during the colonial period by book publishers, governments, artisans, merchants, and mariners. Prints, illustrations, and ephemera are not produced in a vacuum, but are created for specific purposes and audiences.

151. Brust, James S. “The Celebrated Fighting Pig, ‘Pape’ A Currier Rarity.” Vol. 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000), 34-6.

Although noted by Harry T. Peters in a newspaper advertisement, no impression of this elusive print had ever been located until this impression came to light recently in California. Its scarcity may be due the lack of an imprint on the lithograph, advertised by N. Currier in 1851 as a sporting print.

152. Holton, Randall and Tanya. “Excavating the Past: Prints and Sandpaper Paintings of the Ancient World.” Vol. 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000), 2-14.

The Holtons are scholars and collectors of sandpaper paintings, a popular folk-art medium in the nineteenth-century using charcoal on marble-dusted drawing board. In this essay, they define the technique and explore a genre of works–reproductions of engravings of the ancient world that reflect the aspirations of the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Views of Athens, Palmyra, Sodom, Delhi, and Italian ruins are among the subjects that were popular. The Holtons have been successful in identifying the prints that served as sources for these remarkable drawings.

153. Warner, Deborah Jean. “Portrait Prints of Men of Science in Eighteenth-Century America.” Vol. 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000), 26-33.

An important aspect of the 1999 National Portrait Gallery exhibition, “Franklin and His Friends: Portraying the Man of Science in Eighteenth-Century America,” was the importance of portrait prints in establishing scientific identity and in disseminating ideas about the scientific community. Portraits of Benjamin Franklin, David Rittenhouse, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Banneker, John Jeffries, and Benjamin Thompson are discussed in detail.