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This thesis proposes a fresh engagement with the idea of the archaic as a means to recover and replenish some of the lost vitality suffered during what William Barrett characterized the modern period as “the gigantic externalization of life.” An introductory essay examines how the related ideas of the archaic, the primal, and the prehistoric have at key moments provided a source of creative energy for the arts of the last century. Collections of found material, and several photographic studies document the city of Niagara Falls—icon of American pop culture and faded relic of romanticism. The photographs present an alternative to the world of the touristic snapshot, and address the questions: In the age of simulation how do we know what is real anymore? Can we learn to see with archaic eyes?

This thesis proposes a fresh engagement with the idea of the archaic as a means to recover and replenish some of the lost vitality suffered during what William Barrett characterized the modern period as “the gigantic externalization of life.” An introductory essay examines how the related ideas of the archaic, the primal, and the prehistoric have at key moments provided a source of creative energy for the arts of the last century. Collections of found material, and several photographic studies document the city of Niagara Falls—icon of American pop culture and faded relic of romanticism. The photographs present an alternative to the world of the touristic snapshot, and address the questions: In the age of simulation how do we know what is real anymore? Can we learn to see with archaic eyes?

This dissertation examines how American businesses’ focus on transportation and trade came to be key agents of US imperialism at the turn of the twentieth century. Extending our understanding of the architecture and urbanism of US industry and commerce, “Empire’s Stores” turns to the design, construction, and maintenance of transnational and transimperial supply chains and the physical infrastructure that made them possible—what I call the architecture of conveyance. Divided into four chapters, the project examines the built environment created by a set of firms and related industries selected geographically: to the West, the “Big Five” sugar factors and their predecessors operating in the Hawaiian Islands; to the North, the Niagara Falls Power Company and related hydroelectric concerns located along the Niagara Frontier; to the South, the United Fruit Company’s operations, including both tourism and trade, anchored in the Port of New Orleans; and, to the East, the storage, handling, and shipment of freight at the Bush Terminal Company in Brooklyn, New York. Through these case studies I show how American corporations produced and profited from imperial formations and, in doing so, reshaped territorial, geographic, and economic borders.

No Abstract / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)