This thesis is an investigation of the relationship between the mass media and urban space, which takes as its object of analysis the concentration of newspaper buildings on Park Row in New York in the second half of the nineteenth century. By analysing five major New York newspapers and the architecture which housed them, commonalities in form, style and structure are revealed which are based on notions of display, spectacle, advertisement, order, and sensationalism. As daily newspapers achieved greater status in nineteenth century cities, their buildings increasingly took on Italian Renaissance, French Second Empire and Gothic forms, and became among the first skyscrapers in America. This thesis documents the designs and decisions of the construction process, as well as the interpretations and justifications of the chosen styles that were offered in the newspapers, in order to explain the form and meaning of this important phenomenon of American media history.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.37723 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Wallace, Aurora. |
| Contributors | Straw, Will (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Art History and Communication Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001811057, proquestno: NQ70172, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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