A Nationalizing Power 1830-1865

"Picture to yourself if you can a society which comprises all the nations of the world ... people differing from one another in language, in beliefs, in opinions; in a word a society possessing no roots, no memories, no prejudices, no routine, no common ideas, no national character ... What is the connecting link between these so different elements? How are they welded into one people?" (Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835)

1. Penny Press of James Gordon Bennett

• Benjamin Day 1833, Horace Greeley
• Richard Hoe's new presses

2. Telegraph of Samuel F. B. Morse

• "What hath God wrought!" sent from Washington DC to Baltimore in Morse code on May 24, 1844
• "medium is the message" from Marshall McLuhan: media are extensions of man; instantaneous ("make happen") not reflective ("make aware"); they integrate and involve
  
• medium also becomes monopoly: Hiram Sibley's Western Union 1856 vs. Cyrus Field's American Telegraph 1858
• Atlantic cable and the beginning of a Global Network
• Bennett's AP 1866; E. Cornell's monopoly contract 1867
  

3. Politics of Andrew Jackson

• Imbert, Akin created new symbols for new political parties
  
• political lithographs of the 2nd party System

4. Novels of James Fenimore Cooper

• rise of publishers, magazines, urban bookstores
• Godey's Ladies Book from Hope Greenberg, with sheet music

5. Schoolbooks of William McGuffey

• Ohio public schools pioneered mass, standardized education
• William McGuffey page from Univ. of Virginia

6. Songs of Stephen Foster

• Rise of the Popular Song 1755-1859

7. Art of Thomas Cole

• Hudson River School, National Academy of Design

8. Lithographs of Currier & Ives

• national myths mass-produced and mass-consumed

9. Photography of Mathew Brady

• Louis Daguerre in France August 19, 1839, spurred a Communication Revolution.
• a confirmation of reality; a means to overcome barriers; a symbol of self and national identity; a product to satisfy consumer expectations
  

Links:

• The Murder of Helen Jewett from Crime Library
• Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls from Stanford University
• National Postal Museum from SI
• Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy from Bill Burns
• Underwater Web exhibit from Smithsonian
• America's First Look into the Camera: Dageurreotype Portraits and Views 1839-1864 and Civil War Photographs from the American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress
• Secrets of the Dark Chamber, The Art of the American Daguerreotype and Mathew Brady's Portraits from the Smithsonian
• Digital Daguerreian Archive from Greg Walker
• The Daguerreian Society has pictures in its Gallery and essays in its Resources, including "A Thumnail History of the Daguerreotype" by Kenneth E. Nelson and "The Daguerreotype Process" from Scientifc American.
• Photography History and photojournalism indexes from Yahoo

Sources:

• "The Mystery of Helen Jewett: Romantic Fiction and the Eroticization of Violence" by Patricia Cline Cohen
• "The Transatlantic Telegraph Cable" by Gillian Cookson in History Today, March, 2000
• "Telegraph Diplomats: The United States' Relations with France in 1848 and 1870" by David Paull Nickles in Technology and Culture 40.1 (1999) 1-25
• "Whitman's Daguerreotypes: Objects of Democratic Union" by Timothy Stifel
• Social Construction of the American Daguerreotype Portrait a senior thesis from Ben Mattison

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revised 8/22/05 by Steven Schoenherr at the University of San Diego | pictures -->