Date of Award

11-1-1999

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS)

Department

Liberal Studies

First Advisor

Joanna Zangrando

Second Advisor

Charles Stainback

Abstract

This study is a portrait of Victorian culture in America as it is represented in the photographic album and an examination of the album as an artifact of material culture. The album is viewed as a material and visual reference and the photograph as an historical document. Parallels are drawn between the album's structure, pictorial content and presentation, and compare similarly to the infra-structure of the society. A series of four photographic collections establish a chronology from the 1860s to the early twentieth century, while each documents the changes in the process and presentation of the photographic medium respectively, the four collections provide evidence that signify changes in social attitudes and behaviors that were occurring from 1860s to early 1900s.

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