Art for the Middle Classes

CONTENTS

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pp. v-

LIST OF FIGURES

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pp. vii-viii

LIST OF COLOR PLATES

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pp. ix-

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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pp. xi-xii

1. Introduction: THE PHILADELPHIA PICTORIALS AND AMERICAN VISUAL CULTURE IN THE 1840S

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pp. 3-17

In January 1844, publisher Louis A. Godey offered to his “fair patrons” of The Lady’s Book a frontispiece engraving of a flower garland–draped vase surrounded by books and a decorative fan prepared by the artist, William Croome (see plate 1). Godey used his editorial column that month to remind his “kind and constant readers” of the tremendous expense of providing them with the “numerous beautiful engravings”...

2. “From the Burin of an American Artist”: ARTISTIC PRODUCTION IN THE 1830S AND 1840S

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pp. 18-36

In his “Editor’s Table” for the March 1839 issue of his magazine, Louis A. Godey promises to offer his fair readers, besides the monthly color fashion plate, “a beautiful engraving on steel,” either a portrait, landscape, or historical subject. Then, in a special column entitled “OUR PLATES” published two months later in the May issue, he promises that these steel engravings will be “always from the burin of an American artist.”...

3. “Superior Embellishments”: INNOVATIONS TO THE GRAPHIC ARTS IN THE PHILADELPHIA PICTORIALS

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pp. 37-54

In January 1843, an upstart little monthly entitled Miss Leslie’s Magazine: Home Book of Fashion, Literature and Domestic Economy entered the Philadelphia magazine fray with a bold new claim to its readership: “. . . we have caused our fashion plates for the present month to be arranged in a novel and ingenious manner, such as has not before been attempted in this country...

4. “The Fluttering Host of Many-Colored Competitors”: REGIONAL IMITATORS IN THE NORTHEAST, WEST, AND SOUTH

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pp. 55-86

An August 1842 puff printed on the inside back cover of the newly launched Boston Miscellany queried, “Why cannot Boston produce a first-rate literary magazine as well as Philadelphia?” Clearly, by the early 1840s Philadelphia’s illustrated monthly magazines of art and literature set the standards against which newcomers sought to compete...

5. “Illustration of a Picture”: AMERICAN AUTHORS AND THE MAGAZINE EMBELLISHMENTS

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pp. 87-118

In a letter dated April 6, 1839, Joseph H. Ingraham writes this to Philadelphia publisher Edward Carey: “I have forwarded to you . . . the MS of the tale written by me, at your request, to illustrate the painting by Mount, which I saw at your residence when in Philadelphia.” Carey published, among other literary matter, the popular annual The Gift...

6. “Engravings from Original Pictures”: COMPETING FOR AUDIENCES AND ORIGINAL ART

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pp. 119-141

In the “Editors’ Table” for the May 1844 of his magazine, Louis Godey features a letter from a reader who complains: “The great objection to the Monthlies of Chestnut Street is their plates. Each has generally thirty-six plates a year— women and children. Now these may be scarce on Chestnut Street, but they are not so here.” This astute reader alludes to the fact that all the major Philadelphia illustrated periodicals emanated from publishing houses...

7. “A Mezzotint in Every Number”: BATTLING FOR EMBELLISHERS, BATTLING OVER ART

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pp. 142-159

When Godey promised his readers in May 1844 “a mezzotint in every number,” he had at his command all the best artists and engravers working in Philadelphia. Just as the list of American painters featured in his magazine argues for their inclusion in a comprehensive narrative of nineteenth-century American art, Godey’s roll call of mezzotint and line engravers stands out as a who’s who in the graphic arts at mid-century...

8. Conclusion: THE ASCENDANCY OF NEW YORK, AND MARKET STRATIFICATION

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pp. 160-168

As early as January 1844, George Graham looked nervously to the New York publishing houses. In a January 1844 “Review of New Books” column, he swooned over the “swarm of new works” coming out of the “prolific press of the Harpers” (46). In 1848 Charles Peterson also wondered what the brothers would be up to next. As a new decade dawned, new forms of competition arrived...

NOTES

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pp. 169-202

INDEX

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pp. 203-210