Curator Richard Murray examines Emanuel Leutze's painting Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way, looking at the mythological view of U.S. westward expansion it represents and how the painting's composition and individual elements justify Manifest Destiny.
Olana was created as a singular work of art by Fredrick Edwin Church (18261900), one of the foremost artists of the Hudson River School. Church's estate unites picturesque landscapes, romantic architecture, and scenic vistas of the Hudson River Valley. The house is restored to its 1890s appearence with original furnishings and paintings.
A second website for the site can be found here.
The site offers tours, workshops, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events.
The Connecticut Firemen's Museum presents firefighting history within the United States. Particular emphasis is given to Connecticut history. Located within a 1901 fire station, the museum's collections include a Gamewell Fire Alarm System, lighting equipment, leather equipment, paintings, toy fire engines, and photographs, among other artifacts. Highlights include one of two known Portland Steam Fire Engines.
The museum offers exhibits, tours, and video displays. Appointments are required for all tours.
Although not open to the public, visitors are welcome to view the house from the outside as Grant Wood did in 1930 when he was inspired by its unusual Gothic window. Visitors can enjoy the collection of American Gothic parodies, an educational exhibit, and videos on Grant Wood's life.
A second website for the site can be found here.
The site offers short films, exhibits, and tours (of the visitor center, not the house itself).
The Hammond-Harwood House was built in 1774 for the 25-year-old tobacco planter Matthias Hammond of Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Collecting since 1938, the museum now housed in it has long been the home of some of the finest decorative and fine arts the state of Maryland has had to offer. Today, the museum houses one of the largest collections of paintings by Charles Willson Peale and furniture by John Shaw in the area.
The house offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, occasional lectures, and occasional recreational and educational events.
From the National Gallery of Art website:
"This seminar will explore American art of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, emphasizing the country's rich and diverse visual heritage. Instruction will focus on the Gallery's collection of American paintings, which are closely allied to European traditions of fine art.
Through lectures, gallery talks, discussion groups, and hands-on activities, participants will study portraiture, historical and commemorative art, scenes of everyday life, still life, and landscape, including works from the uniquely American Hudson River school. John Singleton Copley, Benjamin West, Thomas Cole, George Catlin, Winslow Homer, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens are among the artists in the Gallery's collection whose work will be considered.
Supplementing the study of American paintings will be an examination of ceremonial and utilitarian art objects. Textiles, pottery, and furniture—including pieces created by enslaved and free blacks—will highlight regional preferences in design and material, while performance of Native American stories will emphasize the importance of the oral tradition across tribal boundaries.
The seminar highlights the social and cultural context of art and demonstrates interdisciplinary teaching strategies. Participants will explore connections to literature and music and visit other local cultural institutions. Activities are designed to meet teachers' personal and professional enrichment needs."
From the National Gallery of Art website:
"This seminar will explore American art of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, emphasizing the country's rich and diverse visual heritage. Instruction will focus on the Gallery's collection of American paintings, which are closely allied to European traditions of fine art.
Through lectures, gallery talks, discussion groups, and hands-on activities, participants will study portraiture, historical and commemorative art, scenes of everyday life, still life, and landscape, including works from the uniquely American Hudson River school. John Singleton Copley, Benjamin West, Thomas Cole, George Catlin, Winslow Homer, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens are among the artists in the Gallery's collection whose work will be considered.
Supplementing the study of American paintings will be an examination of ceremonial and utilitarian art objects. Textiles, pottery, and furniture—including pieces created by enslaved and free blacks—will highlight regional preferences in design and material, while performance of Native American stories will emphasize the importance of the oral tradition across tribal boundaries.
The seminar highlights the social and cultural context of art and demonstrates interdisciplinary teaching strategies. Participants will explore connections to literature and music and visit other local cultural institutions. Activities are designed to meet teachers' personal and professional enrichment needs."
Heroes, kings, popes, and saints are but a few of the roles mankind uses to depict figures possessing power. How have artists portrayed this power? Museum Educator Joseph Covington provides some answers as he leads you through the Museum's European and American collections.
The third in this series of workshops featuring different areas of the permanent collection focuses on images of the West. Depictions of pioneers, Native Americans, and western scenes are used to enhance your curriculum. Landscapes, history paintings, and portraiture are featured.
This institute explores the primary pictorial forms in American art from the British colonial settlement to the aftermath of the Civil War. The three units—portraiture, history painting, and landscape—will include a particular focus on works drawn from the National Endowment for the Humanities' new initiative "Picturing America." This NEH poster series, which has already been distributed to thousands of schools, captures 40 canonical works of American art that reflect the artistic and cultural history of the United States. Through the institute, participants will come to a deeper understanding of these works in their historical contexts and explore different methods of visual analysis. They will develop strategies and tools to use the "Picturing America" series in their classrooms.