Making Culture Visible: The Public Display of Photography at Fairs, Expositions and Exhibitions in the United States, 1847-1900 [Paperback]

First published in 2001. Making Culture Visible provides a fresh focus on the history of nineteenth-century photography. The narrative moves from a close focus on several selected events between 1847 and 1900, beginning with six industrial fairs of the 1840s-1860s to the looming presence of the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in the mid-1870s. The last two chapters deal with the exhibition work of the Smithsonian Institutions US National Museum in the 1880s and finally the collecting and displays of public libraries in the 1890s. The evolution of the increasingly complex social function of photography is clearly demonstrated.

Introduction to the Series;  Preface;  Introduction;  1. The Photograph as Commodity  2. Photographs and the New Culture of Commerce  3. The Paradox of Independence  4. The Image as Tool  5. The Photograph as Cultural Artifact 6. The Photograph as Information; Afterword; Appendix; Selected Bibliography; Index

First published in 2001. Making Culture Visible provides a fresh focus on the history of nineteenth-century photography. The narrative moves from a close focus on several selected events between 1847 and 1900. The evolution of the increasingly complex social function of photography is clearly demonstrated.