In 1807, Charles Fraser lauded fellow miniature artist Edward Greene Malbone's ability to produce "such striking resemblances, that they will never fail to perpetuate the tenderness of friendship, to divert the cares of absence, and to aid affection in dwelling on those features and that image which death has forever wrested from it." The explanations traditionally given for the commissioning of portraits--the perpetuation of family or institutional memory--correspond with Fraser's comments. Yet these explanations rarely incorporate the social context: the communities in which images were produced and the individual, familial, or group meanings of portraits.;"Facing Philadelphia: The Social Functions of Silhouettes, Miniatures, and Daguerreotypes, 1760-1860" explores some of the forces that shaped a century of portrait patronage in one of America's most prosperous urban centers. My research reveals that different sectors of Philadelphia's elites had decided preferences for specific types of portraits. These patterns suggest that production and patronage were rooted in the meanings that portraits had for certain groups, meanings that were connected to social, economic, religious, and political conditions in Philadelphia.;Whether stark silhouettes for Quakers or individual artists' miniatures for the established mercantile elite, the appeal of small-scale portraits was partially due to their appearance and to their traditional desirability as gifts. Novelty, price, and availability helped create demand for daguerreotypic likenesses. Yet local scientific interest, Quaker mores regarding material life, and the desire for engravings and miniatures based on photographic images also determined daguerreotype patronage. The connections among the different sectors of the art market also suggest ways in which the distinctions between "high" and "low" art become blurred upon closer examination.;In their portrait choices, Philadelphians extended long-term cultural practices and modified others in ways that embodied local needs as well as incorporated broader national and international trends. They used small-scale portraits in particular ways, adapting widely available forms to specific, socially derived needs. Through their commission and use of portraits, Philadelphians simultaneously crafted their identities and shaped art markets.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Between 1837, when the first railraod were authorized by the July Monarchy, through the 1870s there were vociferous public debates on the utility of the train, large scale government funding for rail infrastructure, and notable depictions of the train in print, photography and literature. During this period there was also a notable - if currently unrecognized - dearth of painted depictions. This absence suggests that the Impressionists' paintings of the railroad in the 1870s were more than novel images of modern life, and provide evidence of the contested perception of the railroad, industrialization and aspects of modernization in the aftermath of l'année terrible that so far have been unaddressed by art historians and scholars of the nineteenth century.