Visual Images as Texts

American Beginnings: The European Presence in America, 1492–1690
Illustrating the New World (I)	John White, paintings of the Algonquian Indians (North Carolina), 1585 [Virtual Jamestown] Author unknown, The Natural History of the [West] Indies (Caribbean), ca. 1586, selection of drawings Louis Nicolas, Unique Aspects of the [West] Indies (Canada), 1670s, selection of drawings
Illustrating the New World (II)	Theodore de Bry, engravings and publication of Harriot’s account of the 1584 Roanoke expedition and the Algonquian Indians (North Carolina), 1590, selections Theodore de Bry, engravings and publication of Le Moyne’s account of the 1564 French settlement at Fort Caroline and the Timucua Indians (Florida), 1591, selections Maps (zoomable) [University of Alabama] Roanoke, 1590, by de Bry after White (map #1, America pars, Nunc Virginia dicta) Florida, 1591, by de Bry after Le Moyne (map #1, Floridae Americae Provinciae)
Spanish Conquest	Spanish illustrations of the Indians, 1500s [Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America] Aztec juggler Feather-working scenes Burning of “idols”
Europe’s Literary Response	Albrecht Durer, letter on Aztec gold (with images)
English Colonies I: New England Colonies	Portraits (zoomable) [Worcester Art Museum] John Freake & Sarah Freake, ca. 1671–1673 Thomas Smith & Maria Catherina Smith, ca. 1680–1694
English Colonies III: Chesapeake/Southern Colonies	Portraits [Virginia Historical Society] Rebecca Bonum Eskridge, ca. 1690 William Fitzhugh, 1697
Africans II: Spanish and French Colonies	Illustrations: Labor of enslaved Africans (3), 1500s–1600s
Becoming American: The British Atlantic Colonies, 1690-1763
Cities & Towns	Engravings (zoomable) [New York Public Library, #1-3; Library of Congress, #4] A south east view of the great town of Boston, ca. 1730 A view of Fort George with the city of New York, depicted date, 1730s; published after 1764 An east perspective view of the city of Philadelphia, depicted date, 1752; created ca. 1778 A view of Charles Town, the capital of South Carolina, 1776
New Settlers	Map & drawings of Savannah, Georgia, by P. G. F. von Reck [Royal Library of Denmark] Map Drawing 1 Drawing 2
The Land	The animals, plants, and natural resources of British America, commentary and drawings, 1692–1760
Europeans I: British	Portraits Benjamin Franklin, by Robert Feke, 1736–1748 [Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary] Captain-Lieutenant John Larrabee, by Joseph Badger, ca. 1750 [Worcester Art Museum]
Native Americans	Portraits by European artists Iroquois leaders, New York/Great Lakes, oils by John Verelst, 1710 [Portrait Gallery of Canada] Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow Etow Oh Koam Ho Nee Yeath Taw No Row Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row Lenni Lenape leaders, Pennsylvania, oils by Gustavus Hesselius, 1735; overview by K. A. Lockridge, University of Montana [Common-Place] Lapowinsa [Explore PA History] Tishcohan [Explore PA History] Yuchi Indians, Georgia, watercolors by P. G. F. von Reck, 1736 [Royal Library of Denmark] Kipahalgwa, Yuchi leader Yuchi “king and queen” An Indian camp Indian man and woman An Indian man who lived with us A war dance
African Americans	Three depictions of African Americans by white artists, 1710–1761
Diversity	The Van Bergen overmantel, oil on wood, attributed to John Heaten, New York, ca. 1728–1738
Merchants	Merchants satirized in art John Greenwood, Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam, oil, ca. 1752-1758 George Roupell, Mr. Peter Manigault and His Friends, ink drawing, ca. 1760
Consumers	Luxury consumer goods [Metropolitan Museum of Art] Desk, ca. 1695–1720 Gold toy, ca. 1755–1768 Chocolate pot, 1700–1710 Bureau table, ca. 1765 Teapot, ca. 1700–1720 Sauceboats, by Paul Revere, ca. 1765 Punchbowl, ca. 1745 Home interiors of the wealthy [Metropolitan Museum of Art] Hewlett House room, New York, ca. 1740–1760 Powell House room, Pennsylvania, 1765–1771 Fitzhugh House room, Virginia, 1770–1780
Planters	Portraits [Virginia Historical Society] William Byrd II, ca. 1724 Virginia’s Colonial Dynasties: online exhibition, 24 portraits, ca. 1697–1773
Union?	Benjamin Franklin, “Join, or Die,” engraving & editorial, 1754 [History Carper]
MAKING THE REVOLUTION: AMERICA, 1763–1791
1763: Britain Victorious	Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe (1759), oil on canvas, 1770 [National Gallery of Canada]
1765–66: Stamp Act Crisis	Paul Revere, A View of the Obelisk, engraving with verse, 1766 (pp. 3–4 in compilation)
1766–69: The Crisis Deepens	Artists’ depictions of the arrival of British troops in Boston, 1768 Paul Revere, arrival of troops, woodcut, 1770 [Library of Congress: click image for high-resolution tiff] Christian Remick, arrival of troops, watercolor, ca. 1768 [Massachusetts Historical Society; view high-resolution image] Christian Remick, troops encamped on Boston Common, watercolor, 1768
1770: Violence — and Pause	Paul Revere, The Bloody Massacre, engraving with verse, 1770 (p. 11 in compilation)
1772–73: Crisis Renewed	“Liberty Triumphant,” cartoon, 1774 (pp. 12–13 in compilation)
Leading the War	Portraits: George Washington as Commander in Chief, 1779, 1780, 1785
Reporting the War	Engraving and broadside on a parade condemning the treason of Benedict Arnold, 1780
Losing the War	British cartoons on Britain’s defeat in the war, 1782
Portraying the Founders	Portraits of the Founders in a transitional era, 1780–early 1790s
LIVING THE REVOLUTION: AMERICA, 1789–1820
The Politics of Foreign Affairs: Five Cartoons	“The Providential Detection,” ca. 1800 [Library of Congress] “The Prairie Dog Sickened,” ca. 1804 “Intercourse or Impartial Dealings,” ca. 1809 “A Scene on the Frontiers,” ca. 1812 “Columbia Teaching John Bull a Lesson,” ca. 1813
THE MAKING OF AFRICAN AMERICAN IDENTITY: VOL. I, 1500–1865
An Enslaved Person’s Life	Photographs of enslaved African Americans, 1847–ca. 1863
Plantation	Green Hill plantation, Virginia, photographs, 1960
Artists	Joshua Johnson, portrait paintings, ca. 1803–1810 White elite of Baltimore, Maryland (Family Group) [National Portrait Gallery] African American man [Bowdoin College] Robert Scott Duncanson, landscape paintings, 1848–1862 Mayan Ruins, Yucatan [Dayton Art Institute] Uncle Tom and Little Eva [Detroit Institute of Arts] David Drake, ceramic pots and verses, 1830s–1860s Ceramic pieces [McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina] Collected verses on pots Augustus Washington, daguerreotypes, 1844–1877 [National Portrait Gallery] White elite of Hartford, Connecticut Black leaders of Liberia
Soldiers	Photographs of a fugitive recruit in the Union army (Civil War), 1864
Civil War I: Slaves	Photographs of African Americans during the Civil War [Library of Congress]
Civil War II: Soldiers	Portrait photographs, 1861–1865 [Library of Congress] “Two brothers in arms” Seated black soldier Black soldier with pistol Standing black soldier Sailor with cigar
THE GILDED & THE GRITTY: AMERICA, 1870–1912
Memory: Winslow Homer	Winslow Homer, The Veteran in a New Field, oil on canvas, 1865
Re-Union and the Railroad	“Does not such a meeting make amends?“, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, engraving, 29 May 1869
Visions of the West	Oil paintings of landscapes, 19th century Thomas Cole, View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow, oil on canvas, 1836 Albert Bierstadt, Storm in the Mountains, oil on canvas, ca. 1870 Frederic Edwin Church, Hooker and Company Journeying through the Wilderness from Plymouth to Hartford in 1636, oil on canvas, 1846 Albert Bierstadt, The Oregon Trail, oil on canvas, 1869
Human Machines	Thomas Anshutz, The Ironworkers’ Noontime, oil on canvas, 1880 Silent film: American Mutoscope & Biograph Co., Steam hammer, Westinghouse Works, East Pittsburgh, film, 1904 [Library of Congress]
*Gross Clinic*	Thomas Eakins, The Gross Clinic, oil on canvas, 1875
Edison	Thomas Edison, Observation, 13 Feb. 1921, with photograph of Edison and Charles Steinmetz, n.d.
The American Metropolis	The American Metropolis “State Street, Chicago,” photograph, 1905 George Bellows, New York, oil on canvas, 1911
Coney Island	Silent film: Thomas A. Edison, Inc., Rube and Mandy at Coney Island, film, 1903 [Library of Congress]
Ellis Island	Lewis W. Hine, photographs of immigrants, Ellis Island, 1905
Indians	Gertrude Käsebier, photographs of Zitkala-Sa, 1898
The Image of the Octopus	Six cartoons, 1882–1909 “The Curse of California”, The Wasp, 19 Aug. 1882 “The Forty T—s [Thieves]”, Harper’s Weekly, 17 March 1888 “The Menace of the Hour”, The Verdict, 30 Jan. 1899 “An English Country Seat…”, Puck, 23 Oct. 1901 “Next!”, Puck, 7 Sept. 1904 “The Puzzled Citizen”, Chicago Daily News, 3 Feb. 1909
The Octopus in the West	Frank Bellew, “The American Frankenstein“, cartoon, New York Daily Graphic, 14 April 1874 [History Matters]
Images of Big City Politics	John Sloan, Election Night, oil on canvas, 1907 Henry Glintenkamp, “Voting Machines“, illustration, The Masses, November 1913 [Marxists.org]
The Future of the Red Man	Studio portraits of Native Americans, 1886–1907
Two Wars	Two images Memorial Day, 1898, drawing, [Chicago] Inter Ocean, [May 1898] The Twelve-Inch Gun, watercolor by Rufus F. Zogbaum and poem by James Barnes, in Barnes, Ships and Sailors: Being a collection of songs of the sea as sung by the men who sail it, 1898
THE MAKING OF AFRICAN AMERICAN IDENTITY: VOL. II, 1865–1917
The Moment of Freedom	Winslow Homer, Untitled [At the Cabin Door], oil on canvas, 1865 and 1866 Edmonia Lewis, Forever Free, marble sculpture, 1867
Citizens	Alfred R. Waud, “The First Vote“, illustration in Harper’s Weekly, 16 Nov. 1867 [HarpWeek]
Reconstruction	Winslow Homer, Visit from the Old Mistress, oil on canvas, 1876 Thomas Anshutz, The Way They Live, oil on canvas, 1879
Public Image	The “Negro banjo player”: images from the 19th century W. E. B. Du Bois, African American photographs assembled for the 1900 Paris Exposition [Library of Congress]
History	Meta Warrick, “Negro Tableaux” created for the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition, 1907 Images Article for teachers by W. Fitzhugh Brundage
Africa	Leigh Richmond Miner, photographs reflecting African traditions at Penn School, St. Helena Island, S.C., early 1900s
Education	Frances Benjamin Johnston, photographs of students and teachers at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, 1902
Business	Edward Bannister, Newspaper Boy, oil on canvas, 1869
Family	Photographs of African American families, 1870s–1910s
Racial Politics	Images of African American political action, 1860s–1910s [Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library]
“Race Problem”	Winslow Homer, The Gulf Stream, oil on canvas, 1899
The Vote	“Negro Rule”, The [Raleigh, NC] News and Observer, cartoon, 27 Sept. 1898 [University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries]
Lynching	“The Dogwood Tree”, photograph postcard, 1908
Protest	D. W. Griffith, Birth of a Nation, film, 1915, videoclips
Popular Culture	Meta Warrick-Fuller, Ethiopia Awakening, sculpture, 1914 Realization of a Negro’s Ambition, film poster, 1915 George Bellows, Both Members of This Club, oil on canvas, 1909 [National Gallery of Art]
THE MAKING OF AFRICAN AMERICAN IDENTITY: VOL. III, 1917–1968
Life Under Segregation	Robert Gwathmey, Poll Tax Country, oil on canvas, 1945
Segregation and the Black Psyche	Elizabeth Catlett, The Negro Woman, linoleum cut series, 1946–1947, selections
The Ambiguity of Integration	Norman Rockwell, The Problem We All Live With, oil on canvas, 1964 [Guggenheim Museum] Ruby Bridges Integrating Frantz Elementary School escorted by federal marshals, New Orleans, photograph, 1960 [AP Photo]
The Promised Land?	William H. Johnson, Moon over Harlem, oil on plywood, ca. 1943–1944 [Smithsonian American Art Museum]
Old Timers, Newcomers	Leslie Rogers, “People We Can Get Along Without,” cartoon, Chicago Defender, 9 July 1921 [History Matters]
New Art	Aaron Douglas, Song of the Towers, in mural series Aspects of Negro Life, 1934 [American Studies at the University of Virginia]
Painting the Migration	Jacob Lawrence, The Migration of the Negro, series of sixty paintings, casein tempera on hardboard, 1940–41 Even-numbered panels [Museum of Modern Art] Odd-numbered panels [Phillips Collection]
Marching	Reginald Gammon, Freedom Now, acrylic on board, 1963 [American Studies at the University of Virginia]
Images	Claude Clark, Slave Lynching, oil on canvas, 1946 [Driskell Center, University of Maryland] Charles White, lithograph in Wanted Poster series, 1970 [NegroArtist.com]
Community on Film	H. Lee Waters, Kannapolis, N.C., film, 1941, in series Movies of Local People, video clips Part 1 (22:49) Part 2 (22:25)
Image of Community, 1939	Augusta Savage, Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp), plaster sculpture, 1939
Image of Community, 1968	Elizabeth Catlett, Black Unity, wood sculpture, 1968
From Negro to Black	Romare Bearden, Sermons: The Walls of Jericho, photomechanical reproductions, pencil, brush & ink, and watercolor on paperboard, 1964 [Hirshorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution]
Attacking Stereotypes	Joe Overstreet, The New Jemima, acrylic on fabric over plywood, 1964 Betye Saar, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, mixed media assemblage, 1972 [Netropolitan.org]