Nation's First Monument and the Origins of the American Memorial Tradition
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A01=Sally Webster
American Memorial Tradition
American Monuments
Author_Sally Webster
Benjamin Franklin studies
Category=AMG
Category=AMX
commemorative art
Continental Congress
De Lancey Family
early American monument culture
eighteenth-century America
Enlightenment influence
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Equestrian Statue
Fire Works
Firemen
Fort Jay
George III
Honored William Pitt
John Smibert
King George III
Leventhal Map Center
Liberty Pole
Marquis De Chastellux
Marquise De Pompadour
Montgomery's Death
Montgomery’s Death
National Trust Images
New York history
Paul's Chapel
Paul’s Chapel
Princess Firyal Map Division
public sculpture
Stamp Act
Stamp Act Crisis
Stowe Landscape Gardens
United States Capitol
York's General Assembly
York’s General Assembly
Product details
- ISBN 9781472418999
- Weight: 680g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 28 Mar 2015
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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The commemorative tradition in early American art is given sustained consideration for the first time in Sally Webster's study of public monuments and the construction of an American patronymic tradition. Until now, no attempt has been made to create a coherent early history of the carved symbolic language of American liberty and independence. Establishing as the basis of her discussion the fledgling nation's first monument, Jean-Jacques Caffiéri's Monument to General Richard Montgomery (commissioned in January of 1776), Webster builds on the themes of commemoration and national patrimony, ultimately positing that like its instruments of government, America drew from the Enlightenment and its reverence for the classical past. Webster's study is grounded in the political and social worlds of New York City, moving chronologically from the 1760s to the 1790s, with a concluding chapter considering the monument, which lies just east of Ground Zero, against the backdrop of 9/11. It is an original contribution to historical scholarship in fields ranging from early American art, sculpture, New York history, and the Revolutionary era. A chapter is devoted to the exceptional role of Benjamin Franklin in the commissioning and design of the monument. Webster's study provides a new focus on New York City as the 18th-century city in which the European tradition of public commemoration was reconstituted as monuments to liberty's heroes.
Sally Webster is Professor of American Art, Emerita at Lehman College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, USA.
