"This monograph is the first scholarly study of John Ferguson Weir (1841-1926). Weir has been long overshadowed by his father, Robert Walter Weir (1803-89), and his Impressionist brother, Julian Alden Weir (1852-1919). This volume definitively restores John's reputation. Two major contributions - as an artist and as a teacher - insure his prominent place in the history of American art. In his paintings, he tackled significant subject matter of broad cultural resonance. Weir's forty-four-year-long career as director of Yale University's School of the Fine Arts also represents a seminal contribution to the nation's cultural history." "John Ferguson Weir: The Labor of Art contains over 140 illustrations, seven in color. In addition, a detailed chronology of Weir's life is contained in an appendix."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The first major study to examine the artistic output of Robert Walter Weir and his two sons, John Ferguson Weir and Julian Alden Weir

The Centennial decade was an era of ambivalence, the United States still unresolved about the incomprehensible damage it had wrought over four years of Civil War, and why. Philadelphia’s 1876 Centennial Exhibition -- a spectacular international event celebrating one hundred years of American strength, unity, and freedom -- took place in the immediate wake of this trauma of war and the failures of Reconstruction as a means to restore power and patriotism in the nation’s struggle to rebuild itself. The Unfinished Exhibition, the first comprehensive examination of American art at the Centennial, explains the critical role of visual culture in negotiating memories of the nation’s past that conflicted with the optimism that Exhibition officials promoted. Supporting novel iconographical interpretations with myriad primary source material, author Susanna W. Gold demonstrates how the art galleries and the audiences who visited them addressed the lingering traumas of battle, the uneasy re-unification of North and South, and the persisting racial tensions in the post-Emancipation era. This careful consideration of the visual record exposes the complexities of the war’s impact on Americans and clarifies how the Centennial art exhibition affected a nation still finding its direction at a critical moment in its history.

Marking the centennial of the 1916 establishment of a professional program, Pedagogy and Place is the definitive text on the history of the Yale School of Architecture. Robert A. M. Stern, current dean of the school, and Jimmy Stamp examine its growth and change over the years, and they trace the impact of those who taught or studied there, as well as the architecturally significant buildings that housed the program, on the evolution of architecture education at Yale. Owing to the impressive number of notable practitioners who have attended or been affiliated with the school, this book also contributes a history, beyond Yale, of the architecture profession in the twentieth century. Featuring extensive archival research and illuminating firsthand accounts from alumni, faculty, and administrators, this well-rounded and engaging narrative is richly illustrated with historic photos of the school and its studios, images of student work, and important architectural achievements on and off campus.