2002 Summer Seminar
"Books in American Lives, 1830-1890"
Sunday, June 9 - Thursday, June 13, 2002
SEMINAR LEADER: Louise Stevenson (History, Franklin and Marshall
College)
FACULTY: Amy Thomas (English, University of Montana) and members of the
AAS staff
Participants in the seminar will investigate how Americans of that period
lived in a literary culture. We will investigate how books made
themselves felt in home and public life through readings, discussion, and
workshops based in part on the American Antiquarian Society's extensive
collections of manuscripts, periodicals, and visual sources. Seminar
participants will consider the material culture of literary culture. Our
investigations may take us to historic sites with literary associations,
antiquarian bookstores, public sculptures, and flea markets.
Stevenson has written extensively on higher education and
nineteenth-century cultural and intellectual life in scholarly reviews and
articles. Her books include Scholarly Means to Evangelical Ends: The New
Haven Scholars and the Transformation of Higher Learning in America,
1830-1890 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), and The Victorian
Homefront: American Cultural and Intellectual Life, 1860-1880 (1991, new
ed., Cornell University Press, 2001). Her recent work includes articles on
books and reading in everyday Victorian life, including a contribution for
volume 3 of A History of the Book in America.
Seminar leader Louise Stevenson is professor of history and American
studies at Franklin and Marshall College, where she has taught since
1982. Stevenson has written extensively on higher education and
nineteenth-century cultural and intellectual life in scholarly reviews and
articles. Her books include Scholarly Means to Evangelical Ends: The
New Haven Scholars and the Transformation of Higher Learning in America,
1830-1890 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), and The Victorian
Homefront: American Cultural and Intellectual Life, 1860-1880 (1991,
new ed., Cornell University Press, 2001). Her recent work includes
articles on books and reading in everyday Victorian life, including a
contribution for volume 3 of A History of the Book in America to be
published by the American Antiquarian Society and Cambridge University
Press.
Visiting faculty will include Amy Thomas, associate professor of English
at Montana State University, where she teaches courses in
nineteenth-century American literature and the history of the book. Among
her publications are, Reading Acts: U.S. Readers' Interactions with
Literature, 1800-1950, co-edited with Barbara Ryan, to be published
this
spring by the University of Tennessee Press; "There Is Nothing So
Effective as a Personal Canvass': Revaluing Nineteenth-Century American
Subscription Books," Book History 1 (1998): 140-55, and "Literature
in
Newsprint: Antebellum Family Newspapers and the Uses of Reading," in
Reading Books: Essays on the Material Text and Literature in
America,
edited by Michele Moylan and Lane Stiles (Amherst: University of
Massachusetts Press, 1996), 101-16. Amy's current work includes a
contribution for volume 3 of A History of the Book in America to be
published by the American Antiquarian Society and Cambridge University
Press and a project on reconceptualizing Louisa May Alcott's writing and
career in the context of her publishing history.
Members of the American Antiquarian Society staff will also present
sessions during the seminar.
The general fee $650 includes tuition and admissions on the field trips,
three lunches, and two dinners. (Overnight accommodations are not included
in the general fee.) A limited amount of financial aid is available, but
applicants requiring assistance should make every effort to locate sources
within their own institutions.
A reading list will be sent to all matriculants upon the payment of their
non-refundable deposit for the seminar.
Sessions will be held in the Society's air-conditioned facilities,
Antiquarian Hall and the Goddard-Daniels House. These sessions will
include discussion of shared readings, thematic exhibitions of library
materials, and hands-on exercises using library materials. There will be
field trips to nearby literary sites and other places in Worcester
itself. Also included in the comprehensive fee are coffee breaks, lunches
each day, and two dinners.
Overnight accommodations: Rooms have been reserved in two different venues
to accommodate different tastes and needs for comfort. Both are within
walking distance of the Society. A block of hotel rooms has been reserved
in the Courtyard by Marriott at $119 per night, single or double. We will
attempt to match up roommates, but cannot guarantee that this will be
possible. A second block of rooms has been reserved in one of the
dormitories at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Matriculants choosing WPI
accommodations should be aware that these are student-grade rooms in a
dormitory during vacation. Single or double accommodations are
available; bathrooms are shared by the residents of the four rooms in each
suite. Since sessions will be offered in the morning, afternoon, and some
evening blocks, and because the collegial experience is an important
aspect of the seminar, we suggest that all matriculants, including those
who live within commuting distance of the Society, stay in Worcester. Room
fees are not included in the general fee for the seminar quoted above.
Your registration packet will include a list of nearby restaurants for
breakfasts and dinners.
Research in the library during the seminar is not advised because of the
full schedule of activities during the seminar. The seminar will end in
the morning on Thursday, June 13, and matriculants wishing to do personal
research should plan to do so at the conclusion of the seminar.
Matriculants should plan to arrive in Worcester on Sunday, June 9. The
program will begin late on Sunday afternoon with an introductory session,
the opening reception and dinner. Those who will have attended the
Berkshire Conference at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT,
should plan on a one-hour drive to Worcester. Although there is no direct
public transportation, we will make every effort to arrange for shared
rides.
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