I
am pleased to announce that two new books on John Cotton Dana and the Newark Pulbic Library as well as the
Newark Museum have been recently published:
Carol G.
Duncan's book, A Matter of Class: John Cotton Dana, Progressive Reform, and
the Newark Museum, has just been released by Periscope
Publishing.
Ezra Shales's book,
Made in Newark: Cultivating Industrial Arts and Civic Identity in the
Progressive Era, has been published by Rutgers University Press.
.
Please see below for
more information on these books.
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A Matter of Class: John
Cotton Dana, Progressive Reform, and the Newark Museum by Carol G.
Duncan (Periscope Publishing, 2010).
From the
flysheets:
From the 1880s to the
1920s, the United States become the wealthiest and most dynamic nation in the
world. Violent conflicts roiled the U.S. in those same years, and demands for
social and political reform mounted on all sides. Some of the strongest
champions of reform were intellectuals like the subject of this book, the New
Englander John Cotton Dana (1856-1929). Dana was convinced that a more
democratic and secular system of education would resolved the conflicts brought
on by rapid industrialization and the daily arrival of thousands of
immigrants.
Dana, a lifelong
bibliophile, saw an opportunity in the public library: it could and should be a
catalyst for public enlightenment and progressive change. His first experiment
took place in Denver where he created a new kind of city library, an up-to-date
institution offering entertainment, practical information, and intellectual
stimulation to one and all. His policies, from open stacks to newspaper rooms,
would eventually become standard. Coupled with a nonstop stream of smart, brash
writing, they propelled Dana into national prominence.
This highly original book
tracks Dana's career from its beginnings in the Denver Public Library to his
move back East, where he met stiff opposition to his plans for a "museum of
service" -- his term for the alternative museum he envisioned. Here Carol G.
Duncan uses her incomparable knowledge of the history of museums to assess
Dana's conflicts with influential supporters of the arts, first in Springfield,
Massachusetts, and then, for almost three decades, 1902-1929, in Newark, New
Jersey.
Years of work and
politicking and funds from the department store magnate Louis Bamberger finally
enabled Dana to build his ideal museum. In its light and flowing galleries, Dana
banished the "gloom" he had long decried in the Metropolitan Museum. In stark
contrast to the usual museum fare, the Newark Museum held exhibitions of items
sold in five-and-dime stores or manufactured in New Jersey -- hats, bathtubs,
pillowcases, and toys. Instead of Old Master oils, Newark showed work by living
Americans -- affordable prints and paintings by modern artists such as John
Sloan, Stuart Davis, and Max Weber.
No previous book has
reconstructed Dana's role in the Progressive Movement or been more perceptive
about his fiery personality and vision of modernity. A Matter of Class
is, as well, an astute guide to the social and political agendas still mixed
into the public offerings of our museums and libraries.
Carol G. Duncan, Professor
Emerita of Art History at Ramapo College of New Jersey, is internationally known
for her pioneering work on the representation of women and patriarchal authority
in art. The Aesthetics of Power (Cambridge University Press, 1993) is a
collection of her essays on these and other subjects. For the past two decades,
her work has centered on the ideological meaning of art museums. Civilizing
Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums (Routledge, 1995), her groundbreaking
inquiry into the ritual nature of museums, used anthropological concepts to
examine representative museums from the 18th century to the present. A
Matter of Class keeps within a single historical moment -- the Progressive
Era -- and studies a singular institution -- The Newark Museum -- as a
product of early 20th-century reform culture.
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Made in Newark: Cultivating
Industrial Arts and Civic Identity in the Progressive Era by Ezra
Shales (Rutgers University Press,
2010).
From the flysheets:
What does it mean to turn the public library or museum
into a civic forum? Made in Newark describes a turbulent industrial
city at the dawn of the twentieth century and the ways it inspired the library's
outspoken director, John Cotton Dana, to collaborate with industrialists, social
workers, educators, and New Women.
This is the story of experimental exhibitions in the
library and the founding of the Newark Museum Association -- a project in which
cultural literacy was intertwined with civics and consumption. Local artisans
demonstrated crafts, connecting the cultural institution to the department
store, school, and factory, all of which invoked the ideal of municipal
patriotism. Today, as cultural institutions reappraise their relevance, Made
in Newark explores precedents for contemporary debates over the ways the
library and museum engage communities, define heritage in a multicultural era,
and add value to the economy.
Ezra Shales teaches at the New York State College of
Ceramics at Alfred University. He has worked as a museum educator at the
Brooklyn Museum and the Katonah Museum of Art.
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