Programs > Academic Programs > CHAViC

2009 Conference

Destined for Men:
Visual Materials for Male Audiences, 1750 - 1880

October 16-17, 2009
Worcester, Massachusetts

Through the emergence of women's studies programs in academic institutions in the past generation or two, many aspects of women's lives have been documented through publications and academic courses. The third conference of the Center for Historic American Visual Culture focuses not on women but on men. Looking at examples of visual materials of and for men is a way to look at a different gendered audience. In the literature on American graphic materials, little has been written about the audience for historical images. The papers presented at this conference begin to address this need.

The presentations by scholars from a variety of disciplines address images of the male body, public portraiture, prints and illustrations for male audiences, boxing, erotica, using drawings as examples of friendship among men, and men and fashion advertisements. Speakers include curators, librarians, historians, art historians, and literary scholars.

Joshua Brown, executive director of the American Social History Project, located in the Graduate Center of The City University of New York, will present "Catching His Eye: The Sporting Male Pictorial Press in the Gilded Age," the Twenty-Seventh James Russell Wiggins Lecture in the Program in the History of the Book in American Culture at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, October 16. A reception will follow.

Between the final session and the Wiggins Lecture, there will be time to view selected materials from the graphic arts collection in the Council Room in Antiquarian Hall.

~ SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM ~

FRIDAY AFTERNOON
1 p.m.
Opening remarks, Antiquarian Hall, AAS

Session 1: The Male Body

• Megan Kate Nelson, visiting lecturer, American Antiquarian Society, "Returning to My Family Complete: Amputation and the Crisis of Masculinity during the American Civil War"
• Alice Shukalo, American Studies, University of Texas, "After the Civil War: The Reconstruction of the White Male Body"
• Ellery Foutch, History of Art, University of Pennsylvania, "Barbells and Fig Leaves: Eugen Sandow and Nineteenth-Century Exercise"

BREAK

3:30-5 p.m.
Session 2: Male Spaces

• Nancy Siegel, History of Art, Towson University, "'Necessaries' for Men: The Chamber Pot as Meeting Place in Eighteenth-Century Prints"
• Allison Stagg, History of Art, University College, University of London, "For Men's Eyes Only: Caricatures in New York, 1800-1808"
• Katherine Hijar, History, California State University, San Marcos, "Manly Rule and Middle-Class Femininity in Henry Bebie's Nineteenth-Century Baltimore Brothel Paintings"

6 p.m.

Twenty-Seventh Annual James Russell Wiggins Lecture in the Program in the History of the Book in American Culture
"Catching His Eye: The Sporting Male Pictorial Press in the Gilded Age,"
by Joshua Brown, Executive Director, American Social History Project, The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

A reception will follow.

SATURDAY MORNING
9 a.m.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Salisbury Laboratories

Session 3: Objects and Empire

• Hillary Anderson Stelling, National Heritage Museum, "Tokens of Friendship, Brotherhood, and Self: American Mark Medals from the 1790s-1820s"
• Kevin Muller, History of Art, Chabot College, "Optical Toys, Vision, and the Making of Middle-Class Manhood in Nineteenth-Century America"
• Jeffrey Gagnon, Women's Studies, California State University, San Marcos, "Manning the Clipper Ship: Maritime Commerce, Visual Culture, and Nineteenth-Century Imperial Manhood in Clipper Ship Sailing Cards"

Break

11:00 - 12:30 p.m.
Session 4: Work & Play

• Jane Turano-Thompson, independent scholar, "All in a Day's Work: Consumerism and Self-Image in American Working Men's Photographic Portraits, 1840-1880"
• Hannah Carlson, American and New England Studies, Boston University, "Surrendering to the Tailor: Picturing Male Consumers in Nineteenth-Century Fashion Advertisements"
• Bob Sennett, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, "Boston, Black and Blue: The Image of the Nineteenth-Century Irish-American Boxer"

Lunch 12:30-1:30 p.m.

1:30-3 p.m.
Session 5: Public/Private

• Joy Peterson Heyrman, The Walters Art Museum, "Drawn Together: Revealing Male Cohesion in Antebellum America"
• Jaclyn Penny, American Antiquarian Society, "The Grand Tour Gone Awry: The European Sketches of Augustus Hoppin"
• Sally Pierce, Curator Emerita, Boston Athenaeum, "Men and Their Relationships, as Seen Through the Camera Lens of John Adams Whipple, 1845 to 1855"

Break

3:30 - 5:00 p.m.
Session 6: For Men's Eyes

• Thomas Bruhn, William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, "Nineteenth-Century American Erotica"
• David Stewart, Department of English, National Central University, Taiwan, "Sex and Innuendo in Antebellum Illustration"
• Julie Vogt, Theatre and Drama, University of Wisconsin, "Brawlers versus Beauties: Gendering American Entertainment in The National Police Gazette"

Registration

The registration fee is $65; the graduate student registration fee is $30. The cost of Saturday lunch is $12.

Register online

Accommodations

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Courtyard by Marriott, 72 Grove Street, Worcester, 508 363-0300. To take advantage of the discounted rate, please mention your attendance at the CHAVIC conference sponsored by AAS. The cut-off date is Thursday, September 24, 2009. Rates are: king $89 and queen/queen $99. State and local tax apply currently 12.45%

Other Worcester hotels include:

• Crowne Plaza
  (508) 791-1600
• Hampton Inn
  (508) 757-0400
• Hilton Garden Inn
  (508) 753-5700

Contact

For more information, contact:

Georgia B. Barnhill
Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Graphic Arts
Director, Center for Historic American Visual Culture
American Antiquarian Society
(508) 471-2173

Conference Committee

Bruce Laurie, Chair
Georgia B. Barnhill
Robin Bernstein
Joshua Brown
Daria D'Arienzo
Joshua Greenberg
Nancy J. Siegel