Decorative cut glass and the working class in America, 1876 to 1916

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract
My project develops a social art history of a once-popular genre of decorative art called "cut glass, " domestic glassworks like bowls and vases incised with geometric patterns against stone and metal wheels. Specifically, I consider how the medium, its widely-discussed manufacture, and representations of each intervened in how working-class citizens created and negotiated their perceptions of themselves, their compatriots, and their nation. Scholarship on cut glass privileges the stories of upper- and middle-class consumers, but wage laborers—including those who made and maintained cut glass—encountered cut glass, its marketing, and their attendant class biases as well. Over five object-centered chapters, I show how public demonstrations of glass cutting, illustrations of domestics with cut glass, President McKinley's much-publicized punch set, and other artifacts reinforced and, often, unintentionally challenged prevailing conceptions of social class, privilege, and mobility. Given what one period journalist called "the rage for cut glass, " the medium offers a privileged site for apprehending the intersections of class, labor, and materiality in Gilded Age America, and their implications for working-class life and culture.

Description

Type of resource text
Form electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource
Extent 1 online resource.
Place California
Place [Stanford, California]
Publisher [Stanford University]
Copyright date 2019; ©2019
Publication date 2019; 2019
Issuance monographic
Language English

Creators/Contributors

Author Larnerd, Joseph Harold
Degree supervisor Nemerov, Alexander
Thesis advisor Nemerov, Alexander
Thesis advisor Barry, Fabio
Thesis advisor Roberts, Jennifer L, 1969-
Thesis advisor Troy, Nancy J
Degree committee member Barry, Fabio
Degree committee member Roberts, Jennifer L, 1969-
Degree committee member Troy, Nancy J
Associated with Stanford University, Department of Art and Art History.

Subjects

Genre Theses
Genre Text

Bibliographic information

Statement of responsibility Joseph Harold Larnerd.
Note Submitted to the Department of Art and Art History.
Thesis Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2019.
Location electronic resource

Access conditions

Copyright
© 2019 by Joseph Harold Larnerd
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

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