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179.  Catharina Slautterback, “Charles Sumner and Political   Prints in the Election of 1862,” Vol. 29, no. 2 (Autumn 2004), 2-17.

This article looks at the political prints surrounding the controversial career of Massachusetts senator, Charles Sumner. Particular focus is given to the Massachusetts state election of 1862 and the campaign print, I’m Not to Blame for Being White, Sir!  Slautterback examines the contemporary concerns expressed in this and other prints regarding the direction of the Civil War, abolitionism, and the emancipation of slaves. The works of the lithographic artists Joseph E. Baker, Dominique C. Fabronius, and Alfred Kipps are considered, as is the role of the Boston lithographic firms of Louis Prang & Co. and J. H. Bufford in the production of Civil War era political prints.

180. Michael J. McCue, “A Fashionable Excursion to the Arcadia of Appalachia: Sheppard’s Images for The Land of the Sky,” Vol. 29, no 2 (Autumn 2004), 18-27.

McCue analyzes the tone and the messages of illustrations by William Ludwell Sheppard (1833-1912) for Christian Reid’s 1875 travel novel that popularized the Asheville, North Carolina region as “The Land of the Sky.” He argues that the prints had much to do with creating a highly positive impression of that area, in contrast to negative stereotypes of Appalachia generally. The relationship between designer and author is discussed, their creative roles deriving from precedents of Sheppard.s innovative collaboration with writer William Dean Howells for the novel A Chance Acquaintance. McCue points out that the enduring moniker “The Land of the Sky” was coined, not by Reid, as previously has been assumed, but rather by Felix G. de Fontaine in Picturesque America. Twelve selected Sheppard illustrations from The Land of the Sky are presented, with commentary on the artist’s unconventional images of nineteenth-century tourism and of Black and White residents in the Southern mountains.

181. Aimee E. Newell, “‘Most walls were bare’: How Prints Are Used at Old Sturbridge Village,” Vol. 29, No. 2 (Autumn 2004), 28-36.

Newell provides an overview of the historic print collection at Old Sturbridge Village, a history museum in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. The Village interprets rural New England life between the years of 1790 and 1840, so the collection is strong in prints from these decades. The museum also specializes in everyday life, relying on its collection of vernacular items rather than high style fashions. Specific examples of lithographs and engravings from the collection are used to explore several of the themes introduced in the museum’s village of early-nineteenth-century households.