In 1932, Alfonso Caso, a rising professor of anthropology and employee of the Mexican National Museum of Anthropology and History made a huge archeological discovery; a centuries old tomb in the ancient citadel of Monte Alban located in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. In the months that followed the discovery the find was excavated, cleaned, cataloged and put on display. Altogether the cache consisted of hundreds of objects made of gold, precious stone, sea shells and human remains. Dubbed the Monte Alban Treasure by its discoverer, the find soon became a worldwide sensation. Public interest in a travelling exhibition exacerbated demands for the treasures public display in the United States. This dissertation traces the discovery, exhibition and consequences of the display of Monte Alban Treasures in the United States following the end of the armed phase of the Mexican Revolution. I argue that as the Revolution was in full swing, the existing new leadeship used archeology and art to dictate the cultural monikers that represented the country after the civil war. Defining the national character, establishing a cohesive cultural history and developing a visual narrative that coalesced with the governments aspirations informed the basis of the social changes fomented between 1921-1936. I argue that a series of popular art and archeological shows in Mexico and the United States in the late 1920's primed audiences for a revolutionary re-interpretation of Mexico's past that integrated indigenous populations into the history of the nation. This narrative minimized the impact and influence of European colonial powers and instead focused upon emphasizing the origins of Mexico's independent cultural identity. The display of Monte Alban Treasures in Mexico and the United States between 1922 and 1934 was part of this emergent revolutionary rhetoric. This research project explores the popular audience responses to the exhibit, but also charges alleging that the artifacts selected for display were fabricated. This twist demonstrates some of the major problems associated with using art and archeological evidence to represent broader political agendas. In this case, the Mexican government appropriated the Monte Alban Treasures, assigned them a narrative of indigenous appreciation and inclusivity and used their subsequent display to promote this abroad. This project will show how science and art were not contradicting fields of study, but fused to forge the public Revolutionary identity of Mexicans in the mid twentieth century.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-134). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

This dissertation focuses on the interdependency between causality, context and history in selected novels by E.L. Doctorow: The Book of Daniel (1971), Ragtime (1974), Loon Lake (1980), World's Fair (1985) and The Waterworks (1995). Doctorow' s fiction is marked by an apparent paradox: while it underscores fictionalization and sometimes distorts late nineteenth and twentieth century American history, it simultaneously purports to be a valid representation of the past. The novelist's implementation of causality which is a significant component of "the power of freedom", constitutes fiction's ability to convey truth without relying on factuality or "the power of the regime". According to Doctorow, the documented fact is already an interpretation which induces the perception that all documentation is subjective. The author composes fictional contexts that disregard the pretence of reliability in non-fictional texts. Doctorow focuses on how contexts are formed: the contexts are usually defined through the experience of characters who have been exposed to an event or events that were generated by motivations, for example, emotions of fear, racism, conviction, desire and greed, i.e., the catalysts that form history. Each of the novels discussed focuses on various aspects of society and the fate of specific individuals. The Book of Daniel proposes that a human being can only survive physically and spiritually by remaining a social entity. Ragtime focuses on the persistent illusion in history that society is fragmented. The various "faces" of society encountered by the main character in Loon Lake, mirror one another and reflect spiritual poverty. Consequently, Loon Lake demonstrates that the search for personal fulfilment does not require a physical journey, but an inner or spiritual exploration. World's Fair postulates that reality is never exclusively defined by either fortune or misfortune alone. The Waterworks offers perhaps one of the most significant evaluations of history as it perceives that the world in which we live is essentially unknown to us. We have neither the practical means to obtain a total perspective of what occurs in society (especially among politicians and the financially powerful) nor do we have sufficient skills to distinguish what the motivations of individuals' actions really entail. / Thesis (M.A.) Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2000.

This dissertation focuses on the interdependency between causality, context and history in selected novels by E.L. Doctorow: The Book of Daniel (1971), Ragtime (1974), Loon Lake (1980), World's Fair (1985) and The Waterworks (1995). Doctorow' s fiction is marked by an apparent paradox: while it underscores fictionalization and sometimes distorts late nineteenth and twentieth century American history, it simultaneously purports to be a valid representation of the past. The novelist's implementation of causality which is a significant component of "the power of freedom", constitutes fiction's ability to convey truth without relying on factuality or "the power of the regime". According to Doctorow, the documented fact is already an interpretation which induces the perception that all documentation is subjective. The author composes fictional contexts that disregard the pretence of reliability in non-fictional texts. Doctorow focuses on how contexts are formed: the contexts are usually defined through the experience of characters who have been exposed to an event or events that were generated by motivations, for example, emotions of fear, racism, conviction, desire and greed, i.e., the catalysts that form history. Each of the novels discussed focuses on various aspects of society and the fate of specific individuals. The Book of Daniel proposes that a human being can only survive physically and spiritually by remaining a social entity. Ragtime focuses on the persistent illusion in history that society is fragmented. The various "faces" of society encountered by the main character in Loon Lake, mirror one another and reflect spiritual poverty. Consequently, Loon Lake demonstrates that the search for personal fulfilment does not require a physical journey, but an inner or spiritual exploration. World's Fair postulates that reality is never exclusively defined by either fortune or misfortune alone. The Waterworks offers perhaps one of the most significant evaluations of history as it perceives that the world in which we live is essentially unknown to us. We have neither the practical means to obtain a total perspective of what occurs in society (especially among politicians and the financially powerful) nor do we have sufficient skills to distinguish what the motivations of individuals' actions really entail. / Thesis (M.A.) Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2000.

In December of 1915, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported on the death of the patriarch of four generations of Mexican wax figure artists whose artworks demonstrated a century of change in the city of New Orleans. The family's artworks included religious sculptures, representations of indigenous and peasant populations of Mexico, and the merchant populations of the French Quarter. Francisco's artworks represented Louisiana's agriculture at two World's Fairs in New Orleans and Buffalo. Francisco received a contract from Mississippi Commissioner R. H. Henry to produce the 30-foot King Cotton for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase International Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. Though the family's success continued after Francisco's death, an examination into the family's business, artworks, travels, and personal connections during Francisco's lifetime provides a new avenue for exploring the relationship between New Orleans and Mexico in the nineteenth century

This dissertation examines the powerful role that museums played in constructing national art-historical narratives during the 1930s. By concentrating on Three Centuries of American Art—the 1938 exhibition organized by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for viewing in Paris—I argue that the intertwining of art, political diplomacy, and canon formation uncovered by an analysis of the exhibition reveals American art’s unique role in supporting shared 1930s cultural ideologies. MoMA’s curators created the most comprehensive exhibition to date of the history of American art with works from 1590 through 1938, and with over five hundred architectural models, drawings, films, paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures, and vernacular artworks. With World War II on the horizon, these artworks took on new meaning as the embodiment of the United States. Adding complexity to notions of display, five chapters trace in chronological order how curators, politicians, journalists and art critics reimagined American art in the display, canonization, and reception of Three Centuries of American Art. Chapter 1 gives a synopsis of the exhibition, places it within the larger discourse of American art exhibitions in Paris, and documents how American and French relations developed during this pivotal time. Chapter 2 explores the different meanings ascribed to the artworks during loan negotiations and maps the works’ transportation to Paris. Chapter 3 elaborates on the notion of a unified American art in the 1930s by examining the histories of art created by each of MoMA’s departments. Chapter 4 offers the first substantive historiography of 1930s publications that examined American art across media to determine instances when MoMA curators echoed prior histories and when they deviated from them at a moment when scholars disputed the merit of such disciplinary histories. Chapter 5 grapples with the means by which audiences first learned about Three Centuries of American Art and unearths what American and international critics wrote about the exhibition. In sum, Three Centuries of American Art provides a model to understand how MoMA curators inserted their histories of American art into the emerging art historical discourse and how government agencies invested them with political meaning during the critical interwar period. / 2018-08-11T00:00:00Z

Please note: this work is permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for this item. To request private access, please click on the locked Download file link and fill out the appropriate web form. / Poems written by Sean Beckett, many inspired by walks with his father, William Stewart Beckett, in 2020-2021. / 2999-01-01T00:00:00Z

This body of work explores the World’s Columbian Exposition 1893 and looks at how African American challenge the built environment of the Fair. The African American community contested the white constructed spaces by reimaging and claiming them for the self. At the Fair, black subordination was achieved and was maintained by the unabashed use of white power structures. After Reconstruction Black people began to turn to racial solidarity as a means of survival. Prior to Emancipation Blacks had been segregated and denied equal participation in the larger society regardless of their individual achievements. The result has been that race pride had, to a large degree, been conspicuously absent. The Fair pushed African Americans towards greater solidarity through inadvertently promoting pride in their racial heritage. Through examining the Fair, this work illuminates that the World’s Columbian Exposition 1893 served as a nexus for pivotal African American movements. I argue that the fair served as a turning point for African Americans and sparked radical movements that focused on Black independence at home and abroad. The Fair became a pivotal site of protest that paved the way for the Black Nationalist Movement, Pan-African Movement, the creation of the National Association of Colored Women, and the New Negro Movement.

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