American Expansion Reflected Through Artwork
Today, Artbound goes back in time. For this throwback edition, we present five articles about artwork and exhibitions that examine the effects of American expansion and industrialization:
Savage Flowers and the Wild California Dream
The botanical illustrations in the Huntington's "When They Were Wild" exhibition function as a probe into what is real, what is fictional, and what lies somewhere in between.
Frances Anderton examines the role of guns in American culture since Samuel Colt pioneered the assembly line production of firearms in the early 19th century.
One Hundred and Fifty Years On: African American Military Portraits from the American Civil War
A California African American Museum exhibit describes a more complex picture of mid-nineteenth century America than is usually projected into the public realm.
Craig Russell: Unearthing California's Musical Missions
What did California mission music sound like? Cal Poly music professor Craig Russell has spent three decades tracking down the answer.
Witness to a Hanging: California's Haunted Trees
When a man dies hanging from a tree, is that tree an accessory to the act or a witness? The multiple second lives of the frontier "hang tree" reveal something unsettling about the Golden State.
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