In recent years, American art scholars have increasingly focused on the importance of cross-cultural exchanges during the nineteenth century. As essayist François Brunet puts it, mid-nineteenth century landscapes were “transnational . . . permeated by complex transactions where ‘American’ originality produced itself not only in imitation of or reaction against ‘European’ influences, . . . but as critical mirroring and incorporating of ‘European’ images.” Articles in this collection make clear that the “conversation of cultures” went both ways, with American artworks and culture also affecting European artistic and literary practice. Essays explore the transnational origin of many types of American artworks, from stained glass windows, which usually copied their European originals with great exactitude, to paintings and sculptures using distinctly American motifs, such as the Puritan and the cowboy, to distinguish American art students from their Parisian masters. It also examines American cultural icons, particularly the American Indian, appropriated by European writers, artists, and philosophers to embody primeval wisdom. A distinguished international group of scholars, including Brunet, Robert Rydell, and Peter Gibian, offer valuable perspectives on the ever-broadening field of transnational cultural studies.

The 55th report, submitted Sept. 27, 1886, includes a historical sketch of the institution from 1836-86.

First book on the Centennial in nearly four decades, offering a new insight into this seminal event. The Centennial was America’s first world’s fair, taking place only twenty-five years after the first international exposition in London. The exhibition was a paean to progress by people fascinated by science and technology. The organizers—largely leading Pennsylvania industrialists and merchants—wanted to show the world that the United States was as advanced as any nation in Europe and for the most part their plan succeeded. Everyday Americans attended the fair to be reassured of their nation’s economic and technological past, present, and future. Mystery and Marvel looks at the 1876 Centennial Exposition through the eyes of the ten million visitors to the fair to help us understand the technological enthusiasm of middle-class Victorians. Although this enthusiasm was not unbounded and was occasionally tinged with a combination of nostalgia and uncertainty, overall the women and men of the late nineteenth century were usually happy to be part of a world they thought was as modern and as cutting edge as the one we live in today. In and around the buildings that appeared in the city’s Fairmount Park that spring and summer were the physical embodiments of this culture. The sights, the sounds, and even the smells of the exhibition presaged the coming of a modern America. In 1876 Philadelphia was the nation’s largest manufacturing city and Pennsylvania one of the most important industrial states. The exposition can serve as a wonderful lens to examine America’s shift from the young agricultural republic of 1800 to the industrial empire of 1900.

In this classic study of the relationship between technology and culture, Miles Orvell demonstrates that the roots of contemporary popular culture reach back to the Victorian era, when mechanical replications of familiar objects reigned supreme and realism dominated artistic representation. Reacting against this genteel culture of imitation, a number of artists and intellectuals at the turn of the century were inspired by the machine to create more authentic works of art that were themselves "real things." The resulting tension between a culture of imitation and a culture of authenticity, argues Orvell, has become a defining category in our culture. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition includes a new preface by the author, looking back on the late twentieth century and assessing tensions between imitation and authenticity in the context of our digital age. Considering material culture, photography, and literature, the book touches on influential figures such as writers Walt Whitman, Henry James, John Dos Passos, and James Agee; photographers Alfred Stieglitz, Walker Evans, and Margaret Bourke-White; and architect-designers Gustav Stickley and Frank Lloyd Wright.